The former Waltham Wesleyan Chapel
sits on the western side of Kake Street, about a hundred-and-fifty
metres south of the Anvil Green road junction. In 1870-72, John
Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
described Waltham as part of a parish with Handwell Green in the
Bridge district. The manor once belonged to the Knights Templar.
The chapel is mentioned, but without a date of founding. Today
(2019) it is a private residence called 'The Old Chapel'.
Shalmsford Street Salvation Army hall
stands alongside a community hall on the north-east corner of
Shalmsford Street and Bolts Hill. Shalmsford Street is a small
hamlet on the western edge of Chartham, and is part of that parish.
It is not known when the hall was built, but the early 1900s seems
an appropriate period. It and the hall next to it appeared disused
in 2012, which is backed-up by a refused planning application in
2008 to demolish both in favour of building flats.
Shalmsford Street Primitive Methodist
Chapel lies in a small plot on the northern side of
Shalmsford Street, approximately forty metres east of the
junction with Thruxted Lane. The chapel is shown on the OS
25-inch map of 1892-1914, giving it a presumably fairly
typical date of opening for this type of chapel. It later
closed as a Methodist chapel and was derelict for a while
before being converted into two self-contained private
residences before 2012.
Chartham Cemetery Chapel is within the cemetery
grounds on the northern side of the Ashford Road, directly north of the
Shalmsford Street/Bolts Hill junction on the map. The cemetery was laid
out by the parish council in 1899 to replace the use of the churchyard at
St Mary the Virgin Chartham (see below). The chapel was erected at the
same time, between 1899-1901. The former cemetery lodge was being privately
leased for a time but has since been sold to a private buyer.
St Mary the Virgin's Church Chartham occupies
a large plot with a churchyard on the south-western corner of Station
Road and Church Lane in the heart of the village. The River Stour runs
through the middle of this late Saxon settlement, which gained its
flint-built church around 1294. Following an attack by Danes, the parish
was in the possession of Christ Church Canterbury until the Dissolution,
and it remained a possession of the see of Canterbury as recently as 1800.
The church has one aisle and a chancel, with a
small transept at the centre of the building. The church underwent
some Victorian renovation, but this has not visible harmed the
exterior. It contains the brass of Sir Robert de Septvans, a
crusader knight who died in 1306, which is considered to be one of
the finest in the country. The west tower, which was constructed
in the fifteenth century, is reputed to contain the oldest ring
of five bells in Kent.
Five photos on this page by P L Kessler, and
one by Connells.
