The Deanery Trail

The Deanery Trail was devised to encourage parishioners and visitors alike to visit and appreciate the various churches in the Deanery, as well as enjoying the beautiful landscapes of the Weald on their journey.   From the Plan below, it can be seen how easy it is to complete a circuit of the Deanery or, alternatively, to break it up into small individual routes.

Our Deanery, situated in the middle of the Weald in Kent, comprises seven benefices and nine churches.  Seven of these are very old medieval buildings and two are Victorian, one of which is very unusual and so very interesting.

The Weald is an old forest long since cut down to fuel the iron industry which flourished in Sussex, and to build the wooden ships of the Navy.  Now the land grows fruit, apples and cherries, and a few hops.  At one time, Kent was full of hop gardens and there are many oast kilns, most of which are now converted into houses, which are very attractive.

Here we are only about 50 miles from London but the area is still lovely and rural and still attracts 'settlers' from the city. Now people commute daily to work, but it was only a day's journey for the Tudor courtiers and many of them had country estates here, often benefiting from the dissolution of the monasteries.  Before that, King Edward III, deciding to weave our wool here instead of sending it to Flanders, brought over Flemish weavers who settled in the Weald, and the towns and villages have many timbered houses from this period.  The wool trade flourished and the beautiful churches benefited.

Our churches are still essential parts of the community as they have been for hundreds of years and are a living link with our heritage.  You are sure to find visiting them interesting and enjoyable, and information on each of the churches is set out below the Route Plan.

1.  St. Dunstan's Church, Cranbrook

     St. Dunstan's stands in the centre of the town, set back from the main streets.  Built of local sandstone, the exterior blends well with its background and with the prevailing light.  The early fifteenth century tower holds a celebrated clock with the figure of Father Time, and a tour round the outside reveals many other interesting carved figures.

     Cranbrook owes its fine parish church to the prosperity and generosity of successive generations of clothiers between 1330 and 1550.  There is evidence of a church here from Norman times but the present building is the result of major enlargements between 1350 and 1420 and, again, from 1480 to 1550.  The nave, arcades and windows are good examples of the Perpendicular style.  After the Reformation, the rood screen, the side altars, the wall paintings and the stained glass (except for one window) were removed, leaving the light spacious interior we see today.  From the 18th century come the unique total immersion font, the fine chandelier and several other interesting features.  There are some good examples of Victorian stained glass, alongside the many clear windows which provide the remarkable light and ensure that, when in church, one never feels that nature has been excluded.  With its Father Willis organ, its open space and its fine acoustics, St. Dunstan's is popular with music-lovers.

The church is open in daylight hours every day, though usually closed on Sunday afternoons.

  2.  St. Mary's Church, Frittenden

     Long before you reach St. Mary's, you can see its slender spire soaring heavenwards, and, maybe, hear its 8 bells pealing across the meadows.  The tower and spire together reach an unusual 101 feet.  The lychgate was erected as a memorial to Rev. Rupert Inglis, Rector and Chaplain to the Forces, killed in the Battle of the Somme.  A tablet to his memory can be seen in the chancel.  The churchyard, maintained both by mower and by grazing sheep, exudes a timeless sense of peace and tranquillity. 

     Before entering the church, you will see a large memorial to Rev. Edward Moore, Rector of St. Mary's, 1848-1869.  When he arrived as a curate, the church was in a state of decay and he and his wife were responsible for its rebuilding.  An earlier Rector, Rev. Hargreaves (1591-1619) was also much loved by his parishioners, as the quaint inscription on a brass in the chancel testifies.  Buried in the south pillar of the chancel arch is the amputated hand of a stonemason.

     St. Mary's, however, is not just of historical interest.  Here, one is very aware of past and present worshippers witnessing to a living faith.

The church is open daily from 8-00am to 5-00pm or dusk if earlier. 

  3.  St. Mary's Church, Goudhurst

     There has probably been a church standing on top of the hill in the village of Goudhurst since Saxon times.  The present building dates from the beginning of the 13th century, although the squat tower is a later replacement for the earlier even taller structure which was destroyed by lightning in 1637.  Visitors who climb the tower, open on summer weekends, are rewarded by outstanding views over the surrounding countryside.

     Inside, visitors remark on the lightness of the building; in truth, enemy bombs from the Battle of Britain favoured the church with the destruction of much of the Victorian and earlier stained glass.  Chief among the church's treasures are its memorials.  The earliest is a brass of John Bedgebury who died in 1424.  The ancient manor of Bedgebury passed to the Culpeper family and there are splendid marble memorials to Sir Alexander Culpeper and a very unusual wooden effigy of his son Thomas and his wife lying side by side dating from 1537.

     The variety of the columns in the nave arcading remind us that the building has been much altered and improved over the centuries.  The door that gave access to a rood screen can still be seen as can evidence of a west end musicians' gallery.  The church was much restored by the Victorians, and well maintained since by generations of devoted parishioners.

Open daily. 

4.  St. Laurence's Church, Hawkhurst

     St. Laurence's Church is the only Grade 1 listed building in Hawkhurst with many Grade 2 monuments in the churchyard.  The church was built in the 14th and mid 15th century and restored and extended in 1849, and was rebuilt again in 1955-57 following extensive damage during the second world war.  Built from locally quarried sandstone under plain tiled roofs with a 75 foot (23 metre) tower and clock face on the north side.

     Inside there is a very fine east chancel window built about 1350 and described as one of the finest pieces of architecture in the county with all of the glass replaced in 1956.   The porches and upper rooms were built about 1450 and the room above the north porch was used in medieval times by the Custos of Battle Abbey to receive rents.  The font was also built about 1450 although the huge exquisitely carved font cover was given by a parishioner in 1962.

     There is a fine peal of eight bells plus a sanctus bell known locally as the clink.

     The Kent and Sussex border path leads from Hawkhurst church to Sandhurst church at Sandhurst Cross a distance of 3 miles.

The church is open from 9-00am to 5-00pm every day.

  5.  St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Headcorn

       The churchyard is entered via the lychgate marking the year 2000.  The path to the south porch passes horse-chestnut trees planted for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.  Opposite the porch a plaque marks the remains of a famous Headcorn Oak, which grew here for 500 years.

    A church mostly of Bethersden marble has stood here since the 11th century.  The north and east walls of the chancel remain from that church and mark the site of its nave.  The present nave, south aisle, tower and porch were constructed in succession from the 13th to the 15th centuries.  Outstanding is the nave roof with massive oak rafters, probably from Bedgebury, attributed to Culpeper with arms over the west door and the tomb in the south wall.

     Extensive restoration, culminating in the stained glass of the chancel and north aisle windows, took place in the second half of the 19th century.  Fragments of ancient glass, including a depiction of St. Laurence and his gridiron, survives in the tracery of the north aisle windows.  Last to be restored, in 1905, was the Lady Chapel which covers the area of the 12th century south aisle.  A chantry was established here in 1466 under King Edward IV.

     A footpath goes from the south of the Church, across the railway line and fields, to the road about half a mile north of Frittenden Church.

In the winter the church is open to midday and in summer to 4-00pm.

6.  Christ Church, Kilndown

     In 1836, Field Marshal Viscount Beresford purchased Bedgebury Park and set about providing a church for the family and the estate workers who were a long way from their parish church at Goudhurst.  His step-son was caught up in the Cambridge Camden Society, and under their influence he transformed the new building into a Victorian Gothic gem, adding the spire and the parapet to the outside and inside adding the richly painted chancel screen, the stonealtar, a copy of William of Wykeham's tomb in Winchester Cathedral.  The unusual and highly decorated pulpit is modelled on the reading pulpit at Beaulieu Abbey and the stained glass from Munich was put in the windows.  The fine eagle lectern was to a design by thw well known architect William Butterfield.

     Originally, the walls and ceiling were also richly decorated, but the porous nature of the local sandstone led to the loss of most the paintwork.

     Today, the church is rather simpler and plainer, but in recent years the marquetry panels, made for Trinity College, Cambridge, were returned to the parish to join the doors, chancel stalls and pews, all products of local craftsmanship from the Bedgebury Estate.  There is a particularly attractive statue of St. George, complete with moustache, over the font.  Outside the very grand and ornate marble memorials to the Beresford family testify to their importance as the family who built the church and the neighbouring school and endowed the parish.

Open daily from 9-00am to 4-00pm.

7.  St. Michael and All Angels Church, Marden

     The Domesday Monachorumof 1085 lists a church on this site, probably of wooden construction in common with other Saxon churches and was later replaced with a more solid stone structure.  Today's building is made up of Kent ragstone, sandstone and a little crowstone.  The oldest section is the Chancel dating from around 1200 and here you can still see holes where the rood screen would have rested before the Reformation.

     The Tower dates back to the 13th century and houses 8 bells.  The Chancel and Chapel roofs were destroyed in a fire in 1554 and were left in a state of disrepair for fifty years when the present Jacobean roofs were built.  The font is dated 1662 and was put in place towards the end of the Commonwealth period.

     The Lady Chapel houses the remains of the 13th century tomb of Richard De Luci, The Lord Chief Justiciar at the time of Henry II - a position that brought him considerable wealth and power.  He was a friend of Thomas Becket but took the King's side in the subsequent argument over the struggle for supremacy between Church and State.  After Becket's murder he was filled with such remorse he relinquished his Justiciarship and became a monk.  After his death, his remains were dug up and were brought to Marden secretly to be interred half in and half out of the church beneath the tombstone. 

     Outside the church stand the old parish stocks and many gravestones, the oldest that is legible is that of Thomas Turner who died in 1663.

The church is open daily from approximately 8-30am until 3-30pm.

8.  Trinity Church, Sissinghurst

     From 1401 to 1548 there was a Chapel of Ease Milkhouse Street, as Sissinghurst was then known.  This was closed under the Chantries Act during the reformation, and the villagers had to go to Cranbrook to worship.  In 1838, a new Church was built due to the generosity of three wealthy local residents.

     The land was given by Earl Cornwallis and the Hon. James King, his sister Lady Eleanor Spaens and her daughter paid for the construction of the present church, which cost about £2000.  The building was plain and the interior rather severe.  However, in 1893 there were alterations which improved the Church and today it presents a typical, well cared for, simple place of worship.

     Internally, there are several rather good stained glass windows and also plaques remembering the Church's benefactors.  On the right side of the steps leading to the chancel is an interesting octagonal stone bowl which is said to the font or possibly a Holy Water stoup from the original pre-Reformation chapel.  The turret clock was made by the same firm who made Big Ben at about the same time.

     In 1973, the two parishes of Frittenden and Sissinghurst were amalgamated but each parish retains its own separate organisations.

     The simple, unadorned and dignified interior reflects the form of worship and the faith of those who make up the living church in this place.

The Church is open daily from 9-00am to 3-00pm.

9.  All Saints' Church, Staplehurst

     The church stands on a hill that rises above the flat Weald, once a dense forest, and is on the Roman road from Maidstone to Hastings.  the name Staplehurst (derived from Post Wood) is first recorded in 1226.

     Around 1100 the church was built to serve the farms and is older than the village.  Staplehurst is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.  The south door has been dated to 1050, but could also be from 1100, reputed to be the oldest working church door in the country.  The church had a chancel, a nave and probably a low south tower when the door was fitted.  The old font, still in use, probably dates from this time.  From 1200 to 1250 the original building was enlarged, a longer nave and a south aisle added; a chancel was built and the north wall buttressed.

     The first recorded Rector of Staplehurst dates from 1245.  The church is in the benefice of St. John's College, Cambridge.  From 1300 to 1360 the Chancel was enlarged and new windows added; imported Caen stone was used for delicate tracery, but hoods and surrounds were fashioned from Tunbridge Wells sandstone.  The anchorite's cell, for a religious recluse, was built against the north wall; the cell no longer exists but a window to it can be seen by the Chancel.

     The Registers are complete, dating back to 1538.  Queen Elizabeth I proclaimed, in 1597, that all registers should be copied on to parchment and the paper ones returned to the Crown upon pain of general beheading.  The Staplehurst Registers are one of seven Kentish Registers still extant on paper.

The church is open every day.