St. Mary's Church, Goudhurst
The earliest record of St Mary's Church, Goudhurst, is dated 1119 in the reign of Henry 1.There was
probably a church on the hill above
the village long before then, perhaps
even in Saxon times. From the
present tower it is said that you
can see (on a clear day, and presumably
with a telescope!) as many as fifty-one
other churches, from Lympne by the
marshes to Ide Hill on the North Downs.
Formerly this prospect would have
been ever more remarkable, for when
the tower was built in the early part of
the 14th century it was one storey
higher and crowned with a spire.
The spire stood until 1637 when,
during a summer storm it was
struck by lightning and burned
to destruction. To the North-West,
Canary Wharf Tower in London
can now be seen, a distance of forty miles. Read more>A dedicated website is under construction: goudhurst.deaneryintheweald.org.uk
Christ Church, KilndownThe church was built and endowed mainly by Field Marshal Viscount Beresford, one of Wellington's generals in the Napoleonic Wars, who purchased the nearby Bedgebury Park estate in 1836. Built as a chapel of ease to Goudhurst, the church was consecrated in 1841, and Kilndown became a separate parish in 1843.
Originally designed by the architect Anthony Salvin as a plain sandstone box, the church was transformed over the following years into an early and outstanding example of 'Gothic Revival' under the guidance of Alexander Beresford-Hope, Viscount Beresford's stepson, an ardent member of the Cambridge Camden Society, whose members believed that all churches should be built and furnished in the Gothic style. Read more>
A dedicated website is under construction:
kilndown.deaneryintheweald.org.uk
Fr Vic McClean 01580 211268