Modern Britain

Early photos from 1756 show that there used to be a timber-framed porch by the south door (on the wall shown here), which has since been replaced by a low window. The former squat, square bell tower at the western end was replaced by the bell cote, probably during the nineteenth century. The bell cote contains three bells, visible here. They are sometimes rung before Sunday service, but small bells like these, cast around 1853, usually have a poor tonal quality.

Inside, the nave is a simple hall with a timber-framed roof, and a chancel which appears to have been built at a different period in time. Many of the furnishings, such as the pews and the organ, were added in Victorian times. Colourful tiles in the chancel are Victorian. They were white-washed in the 1950s and only uncovered around half a century later, in 2001. The altar used to be at St Albans in nearby Hersden, a daughter church which closed in 1970.

St Anne's Convent is on the approach to Westbere and is more formally known as the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions. Adèle Euphrasie Barbier was born at Caen, Normandy, France, on 4 January 1829. As Sister Maria and Mother Marie, she was austere and deeply spiritual, wearing a hair shirt and chains. She served in the Southern Pacific islands and New Zealand as a missionary, but she died at her order's house, here in Westbere, on 18 January 1893.

Broad Oak Chapel is in the village of the same name around 2.2 kilometres (a mile and-a-half) north-west of Westbere and houses this evangelical free church. The chapel was opened in 1867, and was licensed for marriage ceremonies in the 1940s as part of the Countess of Huntingdon Connexion. The chapel is not part of the Local Ecumenical Partnership, but there are close links between the different Christian churches in Sturry, Fordwich, Westbere, and Broad Oak.