Paul Cobb

In Sandwich at the weekend for the Mediaeval Baebes concert. What a great ensemble they are – fantastic vocals and a wide range of early or early inspired music from many lands and cultures. Great range of period instruments too, some played by them and some by their small but highly skilled backing group. 

Director Katharine Blake is known for her unique choral writing style, sourcing lyrics from mediaeval and romantic texts which she sets to original scores, as well as reinventing traditional and folk songs. Hearing her sing in Arabic was moving and evocative; I could imagine her singing in Ladino like Samra in my novels.

Sandwich is the perfect setting for this kind of music. Its history is long and deep, and its quayside, old ramparts and winding streets are so evocative of when Sandwich was a major port and one of the largest towns in England. 

St Clement’s church adjoins the ramparts and was formerly the election place of the Mayors of Sandwich. In 1457 mayor John Drury was killed in a French attack on the town, and in his memory the mayor wears a black robe today. 1066 was not the last French invasion! 

There is evidence of an 11th century Anglo-Saxon church on the site and King Edward took mass here in about 1050, at the site of the altar you can see today. This would have been before his showdown with the Godwins and the visit of William of Normandy in 1051 as depicted in Thegn of Berewic. 

After the conquest the Normans built the central tower, one of the finest in England, and the pillars that support it have rounded arches and curiously carved capitals with various ornaments of scrolls, frets, foliage and grotesque figures. 

There is also evidence that the alignments of the Anglo-Saxon building affected the later Norman work. In the nave east wall and the chancel west wall above the arches can be seen the pitches of previous nave and chancel roofs. Two lines forming an inverted V above the Norman arches probably mark where the Anglo-Saxon nave and chancel roofs were rejoined to the newly inserted Norman tower in the mid 12th century. 

In the north-west angle of the tower columns above a doorway is a ‘tympanum’ with late Anglo-Saxon or early Norman Romanesque-style carvings. This brilliant and lively feature has intersecting arches, interlaced patterns and in the top right hand corner what looks like a stag being followed by a little bird. A spiral staircase behind the door leads to the church ringing chamber, then to the bell chamber and finally to the tower roof. There are great views of the town and countryside from here! 

St Margaret’s Chapel in the church has a complete mediaeval tiled floor. Sandwich Guildhall Museum has some fine mediaeval floor tiles, with an explanation of their patterns. They look as fresh as the day they were made. Kent had some notable centres of tile making in the middle ages, such as Tyler Hill near Canterbury. 

Interestingly in the museum is an explanation of the origin of the Cinque Ports and a map of their locations around the coast of Kent and Sussex. The Cinque Ports were established by a Royal Charter around the middle of the 11th century, when they were first granted important legal and fiscal privileges, as well as valuable commercial benefits and social status, in return for providing ships and men to meet the naval and transportation requirements of the English Crown. Sandwich was one of the original five (old French ‘cinque’) ports together with Dover, Hythe, New Romney, and Hastings.

The map of the ports in the museum shows how much the coastlines of Kent and Sussex have changed since the 11th century. Thanet was an island separated from Kent by the Wantsum channel, much of Romney Marsh had still to be reclaimed from the sea, and Tenterden which now lies far inland had a port at Small Hythe which became an important shipbuilding centre. Go to Small Hythe now and try to imagine a naval craft being launched there! 

I’ll come back to changing coastlines in a future blog.