[3] In 1638 three London masons Edmund Kinsman, James Holman and John Young rebuilt the west tower in a truncated Classical/Gothic style.

[5] Inside there is simple arched piscina and a hollow chamfered ambry in the largely 19th-century chancel (built based on excavations made during the Victorian restoration) which has a fine 19th-century altar rail with iron-twist uprights to the Sanctuary.

[6][3] In 1747 a full-scale battle took place in the church and churchyard between the Goudhurst Militia under 'General' William Sturt (1718–1797),[7] a former army corporal, and the Hawkhurst Gang, a large and notorious 18th-century smuggling group led by Thomas Kingsmill, a native of the village.

These demands not being met, when the gang attacked on the appointed day they approached heavily armed with many stripped to the waist to display their scars and tattoos in an act of bravado and intimidation.

[8] However, the Militia were well enough trained to shoot dead Kingsmill's brother George in the first volley of a battle fought around St. Mary's church.

[5][9][10][11] The body of Thomas Kingsmill was delivered to the High Sheriff of Kent in order that it could be hung up in chains at Goudhurst.

William and Rachel are depicted kneeling facing each other with a prayer desk while figures of their five sons and four daughters are carved on the obelisk pedestals.

[5] In the south aisle located in its own bay window is the important monument to 'Old' Sir Alexander Culpepper (died 1537), which is in the form of a lozenge-panelled chest with recumbent wooden effigies set with coloured gesso detail and is one of only eighty or so of its kind in the country.

Also in the south chapel can be found a large plain white marble tablet with a half-bust turned to the left of a periwinkled William Campion (1640–1702).