Religious Ruins in South-East England

by Robert Sissons

November 2024

There is something romantic about a ruined church or abbey. Shakespeare wrote about ‘bare, ruin’d choirs’ and Victorian artists loved to include them in their paintings. Today it is unlikely that English Heritage would permit any of our beautiful medieval churches to fall into ruin, but in the past many have succumbed to dereliction, decay and demolition.

There are three main reasons why churches have fallen into disuse. The first is when the congregation that worshipped there has died or moved away. Some villages were all but wiped out by the Black Death in 1349, and their churches were abandoned; other settlements fell victim to rural depopulation or moved to a new location. Romney Marsh in Kent is a good place to look for lost villages: Hope All Saints, Midley and Eastchurch are all marked by fragments of medieval churches; the shell of West Hythe Church stands near the Royal Military Canal in the north-east corner of the Marsh, and Orgarswick Church near Dymchurch has been reduced to a mere lump of rubble topped by a cross. Nearer our own time, the old church in Ore near Hastings fell into ruin following its replacement by a new building, when the village centre moved downhill after the railway was opened in 1851. The Saxon church at Reculver in Kent was also abandoned in the 19^th century, when it was threatening to fall into the sea. Fortunately its two Norman towers were saved from demolition as they were listed by Trinity House as a landmark for sailors.

The Reformation in the 1530s had a dramatic effect on religious buildings. All monasteries were dissolved and many disappeared without trace: Faversham Abbey in Kent is marked only by a street name. Substantial ruins remain of Battle and Bayham Abbeys in Sussex, St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury and Waverley Abbey near Farnham. St Radigund’s Abbey near Dover was converted to a farmhouse after the Dissolution. The choir of Boxgrove Abbey in West Sussex was retained for parochial use but the nave is now in ruins. The once mighty Lewes Priory has been reduced to shapeless lumps of masonry that saw no respect from the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway when they drove their line through its remains in 1846.

The Second World War caused great destruction to many towns and villages in South-East England. Some churches that were badly damaged, such as Lydd and Hawkhurst in Kent, were subsequently restored, but others were not so lucky. Little Chart Church and Eastwell near Ashford and St James’s in Dover are now picturesque ruins. The towers of St George’s in Canterbury and Christ Church in Folkestone were retained after the rest of the buildings were demolished following war damage. The fine Victorian church at Paddock Wood was almost completely destroyed by a high-explosive bomb aimed at the nearby railway junction: only part of the East wall survives, in the graveyard that is still in use.

Bayham Abbey is undoubtedly among the most impressive monastic ruins in South-East England, and perhaps the only one that can bear comparison with the great abbeys of Yorkshire. In the care of English Heritage, it is open to the public and enough of the church and cloister range survive to give the visitor a good idea of what it was like in its heyday. The ruins stood in for a bombed French church in the satirical film version of Oh What a Lovely War, when actors dressed as WW1 soldiers held a service in the ruins and sang irreverent words to the hymns! Other English Heritage properties open to the public are Battle Abbey, world-famous of course as the site of the Battle of Hastings; St Augustine’s in Canterbury and Waverley in Surrey.

Access to those monastic ruins in private hands is more difficult. Sadly the ruins of Grey Friars in Winchelsea are no longer accessible, but St Radigund’s Abbey near Dover can be seen from a public road and is a fascinating example of how a monastic church was adapted for domestic use. Relgious ruins can crop up in the most unexpected places. Along the A2 between Sittingbourne and Faversham there is a brown sign pointing to Stone Chapel, also known as Our Lady of Elverton. This is one of the oldest religious ruins in England, dating back partly to Roman times, although archaeologists believe it was not originally built as a church, but that Saxon builders adapted a pagan temple or mausoleum. It has been disused since the 16^th century. Even more surprising is the ruined medieval chapel that stands incongruously among an estate of 1930s semi-detached houses in Bexleigh Avenue, just off the A259 between St Leonards and Bexhill. This is the former St Mary’s Church, which served the village of Bulverhythe. The church appears to have been abandoned in the mid-15^th century, as no parish priests were recorded after 1452. Nearly three centuries later, its churchyard was pressed back into use to bury the victims of the shipwreck of the Amsterdam

Robert is an experienced Blue Badge Guide based in Kent who holds the London and SE England qualification.