No way to treat an ancient monument
The condition of the dilapidated medieval church at Ruxley, in North-West Kent, on the outskirts of Sidcup, is a sad example of how legislation designed to protect such buildings can fail in its purpose. Built in the late thirteenth century, it was officially relegated to secular use in the reign of Mary Tudor and was for four centuries used as a barn. Now it stands disused, with much of its roof gone and parts of its rubble walls disintegrating. It is almost unbelievable in these circumstances that it enjoys the status of a Scheduled Ancient Monument — a fact well known to English Heritage, as well as the owners and the Local Authority. Despite representations by the K.A.S., the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, and other similar bodies, it has been allowed to deteriorate to a state where the cost of repair is almost prohibitive. The longer this continues, the less likelihood there will be of ever repairing the structure and adapting it for some modern purpose. There has been the proposal to convert it into a restaurant for visitors to the well-known and much-patronised Garden Centre in the grounds of which it stands, but the owner has declared that the cost is beyond his resources.
To step inside through a gap in the walls is to be presented with a scene of desolation shocking to anyone of sensitivity. Disintegration and decay present themselves on all sides, although the medieval sedilia and piscina remain and signs of traceried windows can be detected. Pigeons fly in and out through holes in the tiled roof, depositing droppings over the earth floor, and there is a sickening atmosphere of desecration.
A plan of the church and a sketch of the sedilia and piscina accompanied by an article by F. C. Elliston-Erwood in Arch. Cant. LX (1947) and the results of an excavation carried out in the 1960’s were described by Mr. G. Davies and Mr. M. Leonard in The Kent Archaeological Review, Nos. 17 & 20 (1969 & 1970). These investigations revealed traces of an earlier church on the same site, with numerous burials, some of which were of even earlier than the older church and were most likely of Anglo-Saxon age.
Ruxley gave its name to an illustrious family, one of whom, Gregory de Rokesley, was Mayor of London eight times, as recorded on a stoneware plaque on the front of a building in Lombard Street in the City of London on the site of his former residence. He died in 1291, and he may have been the patron who built the church whose pathetic remains still stand adjoining the Garden Centre at Ruxley.
If this can be the fate of a Scheduled Ancient Monument, what hope is there in the present financial climate for threatened buildings of lesser status, though of outstanding historical and architectural interest?