St Catherine's Church Manston stands
on the eastern side of Preston Road, overlooking the northern
side of the junction with Manston Road, near Ramsgate. The church
was a Victorian construction, built in 1872 in yellow brick by the
Reverend George Wilson Sicklemore, vicar of the nearby St
Laurence-in-the-Isle-of-Thanet. He needed another chapel to tend
to the villagers in this distant part of his parish. It is unclear
whether the church now has its own parish.
Manston (Wesleyan) Methodist Church
stands approximately 180 metres along the High Street, to the
south of Manston Road and on the left-hand side. Methodists were
at work in a small chapel built in 1834 in Manston, although where
is uncertain. The present church was opened in 1856 and the old one
was sold. Following the Second World War all forms of worship
decline and the church was closed in 2006. Today it is home to the
Living Waters Church.
Acol Chapel stands inside the v-junction
formed by The Street and Plumston Road in Acol, near Westgate-on-Sea.
The chapel was founded as Acol Methodist Chapel, and it
existed by 1881, probably being built no more than thirty years
beforehand. It closed in 1966 and was immediately purchased by W S
Cole & Son Ltd Funeral Directors, Monkton Street, Monkton. The
business began with William J Cole in 1891, when he purchased a 200
year-old local operation.
St Mildred's Church Acol sits in a
sheltered plot on the north side of Plumston Road, just a few
hundred metres west of the junction with The Street. Acol
needed its own church by the 1860s rather than relying on All
Saints Birchington. It was built in 1876 as St Giles'
Church, after the now-lost church at Sarre. It gained its
present dedication in 1886. St Nicholas Chapel at
Woodchurch existed in 1563, but later declined and fell into
ruin, disappearing completely.
St Nicholas-at-Wade stands at the
north-east corner of The Street and Shuart Lane. The village
gained its name from being situated close to a wading place,
or ford, across the River Wantsum to the Isle of Thanet. The
church was constructed, seemingly complete with tower, as a
chapel of ease for St Mary's (Old) Church at Reculver. Its
first rector was appointed in 1294. The building consists of
three isles, three chancels, and a square west tower with five
bells.
The building is of flint, with windows, doors, and
quoins in ashlar stone. It gained its own parish, and this was joined
with the little-known and short-lived nearby parish of All Saints
Shuart in the medieval period, while in the mid-1500s it gained the
parish of St Giles, Sarre. All Saints was allowed to disintegrate. Nearby
St Nicholas Court has a fine example of a medieval underground chapel,
although little is known about its origins or past use.
