St Nicholas' Church, Sturry

St Nicholas' Church, Sturry, is a joint Anglican and Methodist church standing on a bank beside the River Stour, in the village of Sturry, near Canterbury, in East Kent. The Local Ecumenical Partnership enables the congregation to be of mixed denomination - either Methodist or Anglican.The large parish of St Nicholas incorporates the villages of Sturry with Fordwich and Westbere with Hersden.In 1965 the church was Grade I listed by English Heritage.HistoryEarly historyThe first records of a church are from around 690AD. King Wihtred gave Sturry (then called Stour-gau) to the Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet. It is likely that the church then was built on the present site. In 1011AD the Danes invaded and destroyed Minister. Sturry was given to St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury by the Danish King Cnut.The actual stone church buildings were first built in the Norman times. (It is not clear whether the Saxon church was stone or timber). The Normans constructed a long rectangular nave with a smaller rectangle at the east end for a chancel with an altar and a square tower at the west end. As typical of Norman churches, Sturry church had a north door and a south door opposite each other and high windows; three each side in the nave and two each side in the chancel. The tower was built in three stages, rather like a castle keep. It was recorded in the 1086AD Domesday Book as such, and remained so until about the year 1200, when it was decided that the church was too dark and narrow. Two aisles, north and south were built either side of the nave, and arches were knocked into the nave walls. The Norman windows were blocked up - although their traces remain in the stonework above the arches, and the entrance to the tower was enlargened to match the style of the arches.