St Peters Church, Boughton Monchelsea

St Peters Church is situated in a lovely location on the outskirts of Boughton Monchelsea on a hillside overlooking Boughton Park and its verdant fields redolent with wild deer.

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All Saints Church in Loose

All Saints Church in Loose is a beautiful old church with a beautiful churchyard in a beautiful village. Beautiful! An ancient churchyard surrounds the church on all sides and features some really interesting old graves. The church is built on a significant slope so the grounds to the rear of the building are raised up to overlook the adjacent vicarage and its pretty gardens. The churchyard extends down the slope away from the church where it meets a raised wall overlooking the picturesque loose stream and path as the they meander towards the chequers pub nearby.

The church and churchyard are very old and the site dates back at least to the norman invasion of 1066 – a yew tree on the site is actually mentioned in the historical Domesday Book of 1086. The church is in active and busy use and is home to a large and enthusiastic congregation from the village and surrounding area.

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Aylesford Priory

An old religious site near Maidstone in Kent, a centre for prayer and contemplation since the Middle Ages, its also known as “The Frairs”. I visited Aylesford Priory in September 2012 with my friends Austin and Guiseppe. I am not a religious person but i am very interested in religious history and religious imagery and there is plenty of interest to see at Aylesford Priory. It’s well worth a visit, though unfortunately many of the original buildings were badly damaged by fire in the 1930’s.

Extensive rebuilding work was undertaken in the 1960’s to bring us the site as it is today. According to an employee at the priory a large posse of itinerant irish workers from a nearby building site were cajoled into helping with the restoration of the priory. They were  persuaded to work for free by the religious hierarchy who pointed out they were doing gods work and since the workmen were good irish catholics they couldn’t possibly be paid for their labours! I’m sure the boys were supplied with plenty of cups of tea though and got free use of the confessions box!

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More info can be found at the friars website .

East Farleigh Church in Kent

East Farleigh Church, other wise known as “The Ancient Parish Church of East Farleigh” is found at the top of farleigh hill opposite the Bull pub. It is about 3 miles outside of Maidstone in Kent. The churchyard sports lovely views of old farleigh bridge and the medway river winding through the valley below. The church has a steeple and appears to have been modernised in places, though is likely to have originally been built in the middle ages by the normans. A churchyard surrounds the church on all sides and is of a fairly large size. More info can be found at the east farleigh website .

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St Mary of Charity Church, Faversham, Kent

Faversham is situated in the north of Kent, near Canterbury, and Faversham Church is unsurprisingly situated in the aforementioned town. Its a really lovely church, I didn’t get a chance to look inside because it was closed but from the outside it is very striking and sports a beautiful spire as shown in the photos. It doesn’t appear to be very old – maybe 1700’s – but the brickwork uses an unconventional material – maybe flint stone, i’m not sure – but it looks damn fine.  Its probably stone from a local quarry but I could not find any confirmation of this. You may notice a mysterious bespectacled man in some of the pictures. This is my friend Austin and you may ignore him if you wish. 🙂 Begone Austin!

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More info about this church

Leeds Churchyard

Leeds Churchyard is located in Leeds village in Kent. The village is situated about 5 miles outside of Maidstone and is probably most famous for being the home to the historical site and tourist attraction that is Leeds Castle. This nice little churchyard is located by sheer blind luck I think, outside of Leeds Church, which is just down the road from Leeds Castle. I went there in  August of 2012 and took a few pictures…

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Loose Churchyard

Loose Churchyard is located around the church in the centre of Loose Village near Maidstone in Kent. The site itself is very old and has been used as a religious centre since at least the early middle ages around the time of Norman the Conqueror. A reference to the old yew tree in the graveyard can be found in the Domesday Book, written in 1086, which likely makes the tree at least 1000 years old. That’s pretty old even for a tree. And its still alive too of course – standing boldly and defiantly in the graveyard, its ancient limbs supported and crutches, its trunk protected by iron railings, surrounded by reminders of mortality maybe a tenth of its age. The churchyard has many old and interesting graves. As is often the case – due to age, erosion and poor quality stone – many of the oldest graves are unreadable. There is one grave that stands out as really mysterious and unique. Built very close to the church and as a post or pedestal about five feet high, there is a four-sided, round, stone head at its top with a face carved carefully into each side. The side facing the church is blank and cannot be easily viewed due to the grave’s proximity to the church. The three other faces show the face of a young man to the left, a middle aged man in the middle and finally a skull to the right. These faces appear to represent the individual’s life from early years through to middle age and finally death. Unfortunately the grave is not in the best conditions so its true meaning is now lost in the mists of time and space…

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East Farleigh Churchyard

East Farleigh Churchyard is found in the grounds of  at the top of Station Road opposite The Bull Pub. East Farleigh and its environs are essentially located in a valley created by the River Medway. The rear of the churchyard offers a beautiful view overlooking the rest of the village and the river winding its way into view from Teston in the distance. You can find out more about the church at the East Farleigh Church photo gallery. More info can be found about the surrounding area at the east farleigh website .

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Harrietsham Churchyard

Harrietsham Churchyard is located in the grounds of St John the Baptist Church just on the outskirts of the village, by the playing field.

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