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Churches of the British Isles

Gallery: Churches of Kent

by Peter Kessler, 1 January 2020

Swale Part 1: Churches of Selling, Boughton-under-Blean & Oversland

Perry Wood Mission Room, Sheldwich, Kent

The former Perry Wood Mission Room, near Selling, stands on the east side of the Shepherds Hill Road, about ninety metres north of the Baddlesmere road junction and on the western flank of Perry Wood. With space for eighty, the building is shown as a mission room on the OS 25-inch map of 1892-1914. It would also seem to be the Sheldwich Mission Room mentioned in census takings of the early 1900s. It is now the private (and secluded) Mission Cottage.

St Mary the Virgin Church, Selling, Kent

St Mary the Virgin, Selling, lies at the top of Church Lane just after it crosses Vicarage Lane. It is the grandest church in the Faversham area other than St Mary's Church in Faversham. The earliest mention of a church on this site is in 1054 when it was granted to the abbey of St Augustine's Canterbury. Domesday indicates a building here on the same alignment as the present one, with a chancel, nave, and tower. By 1190 a larger structure had replaced the original.

St Mary the Virgin Church, Selling, Kent

Of this building, the west wall, tower, and chancel survive. The nave was rebuilt around 1300 and decorative battlements and windows added around 1450. The monks of St Augustine's were responsible for almost every architectural feature seen today. In the late 1400s the tower was raised one storey higher and was given additional support with arches in the perpendicular style. Improvements were carried out in the 1840s and 1850s and the south porch was added.

Church of St Peter & St Paul, Boughton-under-Blean, Kent

The Church of St Peter & St Paul, Boughton-under-Blean is also referred to as Boughton Church Farm. It stands on the west side of South Street, a short way north-west of the Kit Hill junction on the way to South Street, and some distance to the south-west of Boughton-under-Blean itself. Largely built in the thirteenth century - with traces suggesting the incorporation of an earlier building on the site - it overlooks secluded farmland around the older village of South Street.

Church of St Peter & St Paul, Boughton-under-Blean, Kent

Built in flint and rubble with plain tiled roofs, the south chapel was added to the church in the fourteenth century, perhaps as an enlargement of a thirteenth century original, with aisles and the three stage tower following in the 1500s. The rood screen was added in the same century. The building was restored in 1871 by St Aubyn, but the church's distance from the main village meant that St Barnabas was built there to provide local services against Methodist competition.

Oversland Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, South Street, Kent

Oversland Wesleyan Methodist Chapel stands on the northern side of the junction between South Street and Dunkirk Road, opposite the entrance to a lane that leads to Selling Road. This is a short way south-east of St Peter & St Paul (see above). The chapel was opened around 1875 as a satellite for the main Wesleyan Methodist church in Boughton Street (see links). The chapel building was converted for residential use around 1990 and is now a private dwelling.

Five photos on this page kindly contributed by Arthur Percival. Additional information by Arthur Percival.

 

 

     
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