(87) EAST GULDEFORD, St. Mary
On the Kent border; the church was constructed after the draining of the marsh and consecrated in 1505 under the patronage of Sir Richard Guldeford who died the following year while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; the Guldeford seat was at Hemsted, Kent (baronetcy extinct in 1740) and his are the arms mounted on a freestone block (61 x 95) towards the East end of the North wall; the pavements were described as in 'indifferent good order' in 1686 (Ford); the parish had 26 communicants in 1603, see Renshaw (Ecclesiastical Returns); Nairn & Pevsner (495-6) note that the interior was remodelled in c.1820 (see box pews) but is now aisleless, though formerly with timber posts.
87A Mural monument for Stephen IEWHURST, d. 1782
- Nave, South wall, above head height, embedded in plaster.
- 61(H); (W) inaccessible~Fine; local losses (edges).
- In marble, an unframed, M.I. (8 lines, engraved, black) on upper 80% of surface of an oval plaque.
- Stephen Iewhurst, of East Guldeford, d. 3 Nov 1782, aet 84; his issue, a son Stephen.
