Description of the Interior

The entrance to the Church is through the porch beneath the tower. This tower, which was added to the Church in the 14th century, is built chiefly of flint, blocks of Kentish ragstone and lined internally with large blocks of chalk.

Church tower - two views from the south

In the belfry hang three bells, the largest of which (7½ cwt.) dates from 1393. It bears the inscription "Sancta Caterina, ora pro nobis" - St. Katherine, pray for us. The second bell (5½ cwt.) was added in 1641, but it was recast in 1829, when the third bell (4 cwt.) was added. The bells are chimed from the steps in the porch below.

Bell ropes as seen from the floor of the tower looking upwards

On the left hand wall as one enters the porch is the cumbrous monument to Sir John Finch, the Speaker in the House of Commons in the reign of Charles 1, who was held down in his chair by Hobbes and others, in order that the protest against the infraction of the Petition of Right might be passed. He is buried in the Church on the right hand side of the Altar. This monument was removed from the Sanctuary to its present position about 1900.

On the wall opposite is a monumental stone about which there has been a good deal of discussion. It is probably part of a sepulchral slab of about the middle of the thirteenth century.

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