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It is seldom that any record of the erection
of a rural church is met with; and in this respect that of Barfreston is
no exception to the general rule. History, however, supplies some
information relating to another building, which may possibly have been
connected with it. In 1185 Baldwin succeeded to the See of Canterbury, and
subsequently began the foundation of a monastic establishment at
Hackington next Canterbury. This alarmed the monks of Christ’s Church,
in Canterbury, who, believing the Archbishop was intent on rearing a new
monastery that should supersede their own, strenuously opposed his
proceedings, and besought the support of the Crown and of the Pope, by
both of whom he was enjoined to desist, but without avail; for the church
(or chapel), which was first constructed of deal boards, became
transformed to a building of masonry.
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Eventually, the Archbishop joined in a Crusade, and
died in the Holy Land in November 1190. As soon as the intelligence of his
death arrived, the new erections at Hackington were destroyed. Here then
is evidence that, within reach of Barfreston, a building was raised and
soon afterwards destroyed which, in the date of its architecture, and
therefore in the features of its decorative masonry, as well as in the
bulk of rough materials it must have furnished, would supply all the
peculiarities found in the church at this place; as there is no record of
any connection between the two localities, they can be linked together by
no stronger tie than conjecture; and all that can be said on the subject
is, that Archbishop Baldwin’s church at Hackington may perhaps
have supplied the materials for that at Barfreston.
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