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The district of Sevenoaks, one of 13 local government districts in the English county of Kent, has nearly 120 current and former places of worship. The town of Sevenoaks, the administrative centre of the area, has many of these—from its ancient Anglican parish church to Victorian chapels and 20th-century meeting places for various Christian denominations. Smaller towns such as Edenbridge, Swanley and Westerham are also well provided with places of worship; and the mostly rural district's villages and hamlets have many of their own, covering a wide variety of ages, architectural styles and denominations. 89 places of worship are in use in the district and a further 28 former churches and chapels no longer hold religious services but survive in alternative uses.[citation needed]
Census results show that Christianity is followed by a majority of the district's residents. Nearly 50 Anglican churches currently serve the Church of England, the country's Established Church. Roman Catholics and worshippers affiliated with various Protestant Nonconformist, Pentecostal and other Christian denominations are accommodated in a variety of mostly 19th- and 20th-century chapels and meeting rooms: Baptists, Methodists and the United Reformed Church each maintain several congregations, there are seven Roman Catholic churches, and smaller groups such as the Open Brethren, Christian Scientists and Jehovah's Witnesses can also be found in the district.
English Heritage has awarded listed status to 48 places of worship in the district of Sevenoaks. A building is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.[1] The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, is responsible for this; English Heritage, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of the department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues.[2] There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest".[3] As of February 2001, there were 23 Grade I-listed buildings, 85 with Grade II* status and 1,481 Grade II-listed buildings in the district.[4]
Overview of the district and its places of worship
The district of Sevenoaks covers approximately 142 sq mi (370 km2) of mostly rural land in the far west of Kent.[5] Clockwise from the north, it shares borders with four other boroughs in Kent—Dartford, Gravesham, Tonbridge and Malling and Tunbridge Wells—then with the district of Wealden in East Sussex, the district of Tandridge in Surrey, and the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley.[6] The population at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001 was 109,305.[7] Sevenoaks itself, a commuter town with a population of about 18,500,[8] is the largest settlement and the seat of local government; Swanley and Edenbridge are also major centres of population,[5] with populations of 16,588[9] and 7,808[10] respectively as of 2001.
Sevenoaks town and its environs grew rapidly during the Victorian era. The ancient parish church of St Nicholas was supplemented by Decimus Burton's St Mary's Church (1831) at Riverhead,[11] St John's Church (1858–59) and St Mary's Church at Kippington (1878–80). The Roman Catholic church dates from 1896. For Nonconformists, a General Baptist chapel was erected in 1842, the original Wesleyan Methodist church opened in 1852, the large Congregational church at St John's Hill was finished in 1866 and Bible Christian and Baptist chapels were added in 1882 and 1886 respectively.[12]
Religious affiliation
According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, 109,305 people lived in the district of Sevenoaks. Of these, 77.02% identified themselves as Christian, 0.34% were Muslim, 0.2% were Hindu, 0.2% were Buddhist, 0.15% were Jewish, 0.09% were Sikh, 0.27% followed another religion, 14.43% claimed no religious affiliation and 7.3% did not state their religion. The proportion of Christians was much higher than the 71.74% in England as a whole. Adherents of Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism and Buddhism were much less prevalent in the district than in England overall: in 2001, 3.1% of people in England were Muslim, 1.11% were Hindu, 0.67% were Sikh, 0.52% were Jewish and 0.28% were Buddhist. The proportion of people who followed religions not mentioned in the Census was slightly lower than the national figure of 0.29%, as was the proportion of people with no religious affiliation (for which the national average was 14.59%).[13]
Administration
Anglican churches
All but one of Sevenoaks district's Anglican churches are administered by the Diocese of Rochester, the seat of which is Rochester Cathedral.[14][15] The single exception is St Mary Magdalene's Church at Cowden, which is part of the Diocese of Chichester. Within that area, it is part of the Archdeaconry of Horsham and the Deanery of East Grinstead.[16]
The Diocese of Rochester has three archdeaconries—Bexley & Bromley, Rochester and Tonbridge—each of which are further subdivided into deaneries.[15] The church at Well Hill is in the Orpington Deanery of Bexley & Bromley Archdeaconry.[17] The Rochester archdeaconry administers the churches at Ash, Fawkham, Hartley (two churches) and Ridley, which are in the Cobham deanery,[18] and those at Crockenhill, Hextable, Horton Kirby and Swanley (two churches) within the Dartford deanery.[19] All others are in the Tonbridge archdeaconry, in one of three deaneries. The Sevenoaks deanery covers the churches at Brasted, Chevening, Chipstead, Halstead, Ide Hill, Kippington, Knockholt, Riverhead, Seal, Seal Chart, Sevenoaks Weald, Sundridge, Underriver, Westerham and the three in Sevenoaks town.[20] Eynsford, Farningham, Kemsing, Lullingstone, Otford, Shoreham, West Kingsdown and Woodlands are covered by the Shoreham deanery.[21] The Tonbridge deanery administers the churches at Chiddingstone, Chiddingstone Causeway, Edenbridge, Fordcombe, Four Elms, Hever, Leigh, Markbeech, Penshurst, Poundsbridge and Toys Hill.[22]
Roman Catholic churches
The seven Roman Catholic churches in the borough—at Edenbridge, Hartley, Otford, Sevenoaks, Swanley, Westerham and West Kingsdown—are in the Archdiocese of Southwark, the seat of which is St George's Cathedral in Southwark, southeast London.[23] The archdiocese has 20 deaneries, of which seven are in Kent. The churches at Hartley and Swanley are in the Gravesend deanery.[24] Those at Edenbridge, Sevenoaks and Westerham are in the Tunbridge Wells deanery,[24] as are the Otford[25] and West Kingsdown[26] churches because they are within the four-church Roman Catholic parish of Sevenoaks.
Other denominations
About 150 Baptist churches in southeast England are part of the South Eastern Baptist Association, which arranges its member congregations into geographical networks.[27] West Kingsdown Baptist Church is part of the North Kent Network, while the Baptist churches in Bessels Green, Edenbridge, Eynsford and Sevenoaks are in the Tonbridge Network. The Westerham Evangelical Congregational Church, while not formally a Baptist place of worship, also maintains links with this network.[28]
As of 2010, The Drive Methodist Church in Sevenoaks, Otford Methodist Church and Sevenoaks Weald Methodist Church were part of the Sevenoaks Methodist Circuit within that denomination's South East District.[29]
Crockenhill Baptist Church[30] and Otford Evangelical Free Church[31] are members of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), a pastoral and administrative network of about 500 churches with an evangelical outlook,[32] and of Affinity (formerly the British Evangelical Council)—a network of conservative Evangelical congregations throughout Great Britain.[33][34] Westerham Evangelical Congregational Church is also affiliated with this group[33] and with the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, a fellowship of independent Congregational churches.[35] Churches belonging to various denominations are affiliated with the Evangelical Alliance. These are the Vine Baptist Church, Vine Evangelical Church and Sevenoaks Town Church in Sevenoaks, the Bessels Green Baptist Church, the Baptist church and Kings Church in West Kingsdown, the Revelation Church at Ash Chapel in New Ash Green, Swanley Full Gospel Church, and St Peter's Anglican church at Hextable.[36]
Dunton Green Free Church[37] is part of the 34-church South-East Area[38] of the Congregational Federation, an association of 294 independent Congregational churches in Great Britain. The federation came into existence in 1972 when the Congregational Church in England and Wales merged with several other denominations to form the United Reformed Church. Certain congregations wanted to remain independent of this and joined the Congregational Federation instead.[39]
Current places of worship
| Name | Image | Location | Denomination/ Affiliation |
Grade | Notes | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Peter and St Paul's Church | ,_Kent_-_geograph.org.uk_-_324727.jpg)
|
Ash 51°21′27″N 0°17′59″E / 51.3574°N 0.2996°E |
Anglican | I | Thomas Graham Jackson's "sympathetic" alterations of 1901–03 did little to change the appearance of the flint and sandstone 14th/15th-century church, whose dressings are mostly of a colourful red brick. There is much Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic detail throughout. | [40][41] [42] |
| Bessels Green Baptist Church | 
|
Bessels Green 51°16′42″N 0°09′32″E / 51.2783°N 0.1588°E |
Baptist | II | The chapel is near the village's most prominent house, the Victorian-era Bessels House, but is a century older. The manse adjoins; it has square-headed rather than arched windows and a dormer in the tiled roof, but otherwise blends in with the painted brick chapel. Additions in the 19th century include two porches with bargeboards. | [40][43] [44][45] |
| Unitarian Meeting House | 
|
Bessels Green 51°16′46″N 0°09′44″E / 51.2795°N 0.1622°E |
Unitarian | II | Like the Baptist chapel, this is 18th-century and has a house attached. It originated in 1716 but was rebuilt in 1740, retaining some of the older fabric. The chapel is single-storey and has a three-casement window façade. Mixed red and blue brickwork and some stonework make up the walls. The two-bay single-storey house was extended in the 19th century. The tiled roof is hipped and steeply sloping. | [40][44] [46][47] |
| St Martin's Church | 
|
Brasted 51°16′47″N 0°06′15″E / 51.2796°N 0.1043°E |
Anglican | II* | The 13th-century church (which contained some older fabric) was rebuilt by Alfred Waterhouse in 1864–65 and restored again after World War II (when the windows were bombed out) and in 1989 following fire damage. The walls are of sandstone, and there is a heavily buttressed west tower. Inside are some 17th-century alabaster monuments. Some of the windows have "outstanding and innovative" tracery designed by Waterhouse. | [40][48] [49][50] |
| St Botolph's Church | .jpg)
|
Chevening 51°17′56″N 0°08′05″E / 51.2989°N 0.1347°E |
Anglican | I | The church has Saxon origins, but the present building is mostly 13th-century and the Perpendicular Gothic tower dates from after 1518. W. D. Caroe's restoration of 1901–02 added to some changes made in 1869. Inside, an "outstanding" collection of monuments spanning several centuries are associated with nearby Chevening House. Flint, rubble and local ragstone are the main materials. | [40][51] [52][53] |
| St Mary's Church | .jpg)
|
Chiddingstone 51°11′11″N 0°08′46″E / 51.1863°N 0.1462°E |
Anglican | II* | A fire in 1624 prompted rebuilding of this 14th-century church over the next five years. Evidence of 13th-century lancet windows survives, and there was a church here in Saxon times. The ornately decorated tower is Perp. Internal fittings by George Edmund Street and Thomas Earp and stained glass by Charles Eamer Kempe are also of interest. | [40][54] [55] |
| St Luke's Church | 
|
Chiddingstone Causeway 51°11′51″N 0°10′33″E / 51.1975°N 0.1758°E |
Anglican | II* | John Francis Bentley's only Anglican church is loosely Decorated Gothic Revival in style, dates from 1897 to 1898 and replaced a tin tabernacle. The tower is wide and short, the Bath Stone blocks "meticulously laid" and the windows "placed with fastidious whimsy". The east window (1906) is German Expressionist in style. | [40][56] [57][58] |
| Chapel of the Good Shepherd | 
|
Chipstead 51°16′59″N 0°09′00″E / 51.2831°N 0.1499°E |
Anglican | – | This is a chapel of ease in the parish of St Botolph's Church, Chevening. Services are held at 8.00am on Sundays. | [40][59] [60] |
| St Mary Magdalene's Church | 
|
Cowden 51°08′41″N 0°05′41″E / 51.1448°N 0.0948°E |
Anglican | I | The church is principally Decorated Gothic in style, with some Perpendicular Gothic elements. The nave was built first in the 13th century, followed by the chancel (late 13th- or early 14th-century) and the tower and its crooked spire (15th-century). Many of the internal fittings are of the same era. John Whichcord added an aisle and a gallery in 1838; a further restoration (1884 by W.O. Milne) took out the iron columns he added. World War II bomb damage to the spire has been repaired. | [61][62] |
| All Souls Church | 
|
Crockenhill 51°22′59″N 0°09′45″E / 51.3831°N 0.1626°E |
Anglican | II | Edwin Nash designed this church in the Early English Gothic Revival style in 1851 using local ragstone and Caen stone. The nave and chancel are of different heights. There is no tower or steeple, but a clock face has been inserted in the gable end of the west elevation. The internal fittings are "virtually complete" and include stained glass of 1853 and a Henry Willis organ of 1856. | [40][63] [64][65] |
| Crockenhill Baptist Church | 
|
Crockenhill 51°23′01″N 0°09′50″E / 51.3835°N 0.1640°E |
Baptist | – | Under the name Crockenhill Baptist Chapel, this building was legally registered for marriages in July 1879. An earlier chapel had served the village since 1801. | [40][66] [67][68] |
| Holy Trinity Church | 
|
Crockham Hill 51°14′15″N 0°04′03″E / 51.2374°N 0.0674°E |
Anglican | II | Only the builders of this 1842 church—locally based Mr Horseman and son—and its sponsor, Charles Warde of Westerham, are known: the architect responsible for the "archaeologically faithful, though rather severe" Perpendicular Gothic Revival design has not been recorded. The nave and chancel are unequal in height, and a tower rises at the west end. Local stone was used throughout. Inside, Octavia Hill is commemorated by a carving dated 1912. | [40][65] [69][70] |
| Dunton Green Free Church | 
|
Dunton Green 51°17′33″N 0°10′06″E / 51.2925°N 0.1682°E |
Congregational Federation | – | Congregationalists built a church on London Road in the village in 1873, but it passed to another denomination when this new building on Station Road was finished in 1937. The first service was held on 30 September 1937. The church was linked to Sevenoaks Congregational Church until the 1960s. | [40][71] [72][73] |
| St Peter and St Paul's Church | 
|
Edenbridge 51°11′46″N 0°04′00″E / 51.1961°N 0.0666°E |
Anglican | I | There is much 13th- and 14th-century fabric in this long, low sandstone-built church, and the south chapel (a memorial to Richard Martyn) can be precisely dated to 1499. An Early English Gothic tower with a pyramidal spire dominates the west end. The elaborate pulpit is of the 1630s. | [40][74] [75][76] |
| The Eden Church | ,_Edenbridge.JPG)
|
Edenbridge 51°11′41″N 0°03′57″E / 51.1948°N 0.0659°E |
Baptist | – | [40][77] [78][79] [80][81] | |
| St Lawrence's Church | 
|
Edenbridge 51°11′53″N 0°03′50″E / 51.1980°N 0.0639°E |
Roman Catholic | – | The town's Roman Catholic church stands on the High Street and is dedicated to Lawrence the Martyr. Its marriage registration dates from February 1933. Before the church opened in that year, Edenbridge's Roman Catholics travelled across the county boundary to All Saints Church in Oxted, Surrey. | [40][82] [83][84] [85] |
| St Martin of Tours' Church | .jpg)
|
Eynsford 51°22′03″N 0°12′42″E / 51.3674°N 0.2116°E |
Anglican | I | Some 12th-century work survives in this flint and stone church (such as two windows in the chancel), but there are parts from each of the next four centuries and the building was restored in the Victorian era. An original apse and side chapel have been lost, but a cross-gabled aisle was added in the 16th century. | [40][86] [87] |
| Eynsford Baptist Church | 
|
Eynsford 51°22′12″N 0°12′52″E / 51.3699°N 0.2145°E |
Baptist | – | There was an older Baptist church in this village, which was closed and replaced by the present building in around December 1907. The original chapel had been registered for marriages in August 1837. | [40][88] [89][90] |
| St Peter and St Paul's Church | 
|
Farningham 51°22′48″N 0°13′18″E / 51.3801°N 0.2218°E |
Anglican | I | A "well-proportioned tower of the Kentish type", with stepped corner buttresses and rising in three stages to a castellated top with an octagonal corner turret, is the principal original feature here. John Shaw, Sr. and Ewan Christian carried out extensive restorations in 1830 and 1868–71 respectively. In the churchyard, Thomas Nash—uncle of architect John Nash—is buried in an elaborate cube-shaped mausoleum possibly designed by his nephew. | [40][91] [92] |
| St Mary's Church | 
|
Fawkham 51°23′20″N 0°17′38″E / 51.3890°N 0.2939°E |
Anglican | I | This tiny chapel, in a wooded setting, has rendered walls and painted stonework around the windows, a large wooden porch and a tall weatherboarded bellcote on the tiled roof. This dates from the 16th century and is topped with a spike-like spire. There is 13th- and 14th-century work inside, including a mural of Christ in Majesty. | [40][93] [94] |
| St Peter's Church | 
|
Fordcombe 51°08′32″N 0°10′45″E / 51.1421°N 0.1791°E |
Anglican | II | Built 1847-1848 by Henry Isaac Stevens, the east end is modelled after Skelton Church in North Yorkshire. A deep, gabled north east vestry was added in 1883 by E. J. Tarver, and stained glass windows designed by H. W. Lonsdale were added in the north and south of the nave between 1883 and 1895, as well as in the east side of the chancel in 1906, designed by Percy Bacon and Bros. The latter was supervised by Fellowes Prynne, who also completed work on the screen in 1906. | [40][95] [96][97] |
| St Paul's Church | 
|
Four Elms 51°12′52″N 0°06′12″E / 51.2144°N 0.1034°E |
Anglican | II | Built 1880-1881 by E. T. Hall, the nave and chancel are combined. Fittings include a white marble reredos from 1917, as well as choir stalls and a chancel screen designed in 1915, all designed by Lethaby with the former executed by Stirling Lee and Henry Pegram. The organ case by F. C. Eden dates to 1923, and a set of Clayton and Bell stained glass windows reside in the east side of the chancel, built between 1881 and 1887. | [40][98] [99][100] |
| St Margaret's Church | 
|
Halstead 51°20′07″N 0°07′43″E / 51.3352°N 0.1285°E |
Anglican | II | The chancel dates to 1855, designed by R. C. Hussey and built as a burial chapel. The nave was built 1880-1881 by W. M. Teulon, and the north aisle and vestry were added by St Aubyn and Wadling in 1897, with the outer north aisle dating to 1992. Monuments inside the church date to the 15th century, remnants of the previous medieval church demolished circa 1881. | [40][101] [102][103] [104] |
| All Saints Church | 
|
Hartley 51°22′34″N 0°18′59″E / 51.3761°N 0.3165°E |
Anglican | I | The nave is 12th-century and the lower, diagonally buttressed chancel dates from one or two centuries later, and most other external features are 19th-century. "The only memorable feature" inside or out, according to architectural historian John Newman, is the Norman hingework on the door. Many old and elaborate gravestones can be seen in the churchyard. | [40][105] [106][107] |
| All Saints Church Centre | 
|
Hartley 51°22′57″N 0°18′23″E / 51.3825°N 0.3063°E |
Anglican | – | This modern building is used as a church and hall, and is one of three churches in the parish of Fawkham and Hartley. | [108] |
| St Francis De Sales' Church | 
|
Hartley 51°23′08″N 0°18′32″E / 51.3856°N 0.3089°E |
Roman Catholic | II | Hartley's Roman Catholic church, which was opened in 1913 registered for marriages in July 1938, occupies a Grade II-listed 17th-century barn with internal timber framing and a queen post roof. The interior has aisles and is divided into three bays, and the thatched roof has a pentice. The barn was originally part of Middle Farm. | [40][107] [109][110] [111] |
| St Peter's Church | 
|
Hever 51°10′48″N 0°06′24″E / 51.1800°N 0.1066°E |
Anglican | I | Built out of sandstone, the earliest identifiable section is the arcade to the north aisle, dated to around the early 13th century. The southern nave wall, as stated by John Newman, dates to the 13th century or earlier due to the lack of a plinth. The church was restored in 1894 by R. P. Day, which includes perpendicular two-light windows inserted in the nave, north aisle and southern porch. A chantry was permitted to Sir Geoffrey Bullen in the north chapel in 1465, although the basket-arched east windows as well as the west and south arches firmly date the chapel to the early 16th century. | [40][112] [113] |
| St Peter's Church | 
|
Hextable 51°24′39″N 0°10′53″E / 51.4108°N 0.1815°E |
Anglican | – | Hextable's Anglican church is in the parish of St Paul's Church, Swanley Village. The brick-walled, slate-roofed building consists of the original Hextable Mission Church, founded by St Paul's in 1905, and an octagonal extension built in 1980. | [40][114] [115] |
| Hextable Methodist Church | 
|
Hextable 51°24′32″N 0°10′56″E / 51.4088°N 0.1822°E |
Methodist | – | This brick chapel was built for Wesleyan Methodists in 1896 at a cost of £434. Under the name Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, it was registered for marriages in May 1913. | [40][116] [117][118] |
| St Mary's Church | .jpg)
|
Horton Kirby 51°23′41″N 0°14′38″E / 51.3946°N 0.2439°E |
Anglican | II* | [40][119] [120][121] [122] | |
| St Mary's Church | 
|
Ide Hill 51°14′42″N 0°07′40″E / 51.2451°N 0.1279°E |
Anglican | II* | [40][123] [124][125] | |
| St Mary's Church | 
|
Kemsing 51°18′25″N 0°13′52″E / 51.3069°N 0.2310°E |
Anglican | II* | [40][126] [127] | |
| St Mary's Church | 
|
Kippington, Sevenoaks 51°16′13″N 0°10′47″E / 51.2702°N 0.1797°E |
Anglican | II | [40][128] [129][130] | |
| St Katherine's Church | .jpg)
|
Knockholt 51°18′38″N 0°06′17″E / 51.3106°N 0.1046°E |
Anglican | II* | [40][131] [132] | |
| London Road Evangelical Church | 
|
Knockholt Pound 51°19′01″N 0°07′36″E / 51.3170°N 0.1266°E |
Evangelical | – | John Wills, a Derby-based Nonconformist church architect, designed this simple yellow-brick building on the old London Road in Knockholt in 1887. William Wiltshire was the builder, and the cost was £981. Provided for Wesleyan Methodists, it replaced a timber chapel of 1825 and was named the Townend Memorial Chapel. It was sold to an Evangelical congregation in 1968. | [40][133] [134][135] [136] |
| St Mary's Church | 
|
Leigh 51°11′52″N 0°12′55″E / 51.1977°N 0.2152°E |
Anglican | II* | [40][137] [138] | |
| St Botolph's Church | .jpg)
|
Lullingstone 51°21′30″N 0°11′45″E / 51.3584°N 0.1959°E |
Anglican | I | [40][139] [140] | |
| Holy Trinity Church | 
|
Markbeech 51°09′55″N 0°06′28″E / 51.1652°N 0.1079°E |
Anglican | II | [40][141] [142][143] | |
| Kingdom Hall | 
|
Marsh Green 51°10′51″N 0°03′27″E / 51.1808°N 0.0576°E |
Jehovah's Witnesses | – | This Kingdom Hall was registered for marriages in February 1999. It is used by the Oxted Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses; the town of Oxted is in the neighbouring county of Surrey. | [144][145] |
| St John's United Reformed Church | 
|
Marsh Green 51°10′49″N 0°03′26″E / 51.1804°N 0.0572°E |
United Reformed Church | – | Greybury Presbyterian Church and its adjoining school, which also survives, were opened by J.T. Morton on 21 June 1882. Architecturally the complex is Early English Gothic Revival and features bands of red and white brick with some stonework, a slate roof and a corner tower with a spire. The windows have tracery. The church is now part of the United Reformed Church. | [40][79] [146][147] |
| Ash Chapel | 
|
New Ash Green 51°21′51″N 0°17′48″E / 51.3641°N 0.2968°E |
Evangelical | – | [40][148] [149][150] | |
| St Bartholomew's Church | 
|
Otford 51°18′45″N 0°11′30″E / 51.3124°N 0.1917°E |
Anglican | I | [40][151] [152] | |
| Otford Evangelical Free Church | 
|
Otford 51°18′42″N 0°10′27″E / 51.3118°N 0.1742°E |
Evangelical | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=List_of_places_of_worship_in_Sevenoaks_District