Monday 24 July 2017

Faversham, Medieval Market town, Open Homes.

Looking along the verandah of the Almshouses.

The Faversham Society was celebrating it's 48th year when it was holding this event opening some of the historical buildings in the area this weekend. The current owners of some of these historical homes open their houses to raise funds for the Society. 

Almshouse Chapel looking towards the altar.

The almshouses, are one of the largest and finest groups of their kind in the United Kingdom. They were completed in 1863 after a generous bequest from a local solicitor. Linking the north and south wings is the Chapel which is built of Bath stone unlike the brick almshouses.
The stained glass windows were installed in 1895 representing New Testament scenes. The centre one depicting the Last Supper.

St Mary of Charity Church

Dedicated to St Mary of Charity it is believed to be the only church in England with such a dedication.  The Parish boundaries were established as far back as 636AD and we are assuming there has been a church on these grounds since then. Very hard to photograph now as the town has been built around it. The church as it stands now dates back to the 14th Century. Much older than New Zealand itself. The central tower fell   victim to the local Gunpowder works back in 1755. The crown spire is supposedly inspired by the tower of Christopher Wren's St Dunstan in the city of London.

The exterior of the church was resurfaced in flint and stone towards the end of the 19th century. At this time the five windows behind the altar were made to look gothic from the outside.
At least twice in its history the church has seen violence and damage and the town was ordered to restore the damage.

St Peter's Church, Oare

This is a 13th Century Church a little way out of town close to the banks of the Swale. Although this is a river it has just been known for centuries by the locals as "The Swale."

Allan Beckett Memorial window.

The interior has a beautiful stained window that was only installed in 2011 depicting a Mulberry Tree it commemorates Allan Beckett who designed and oversaw the installation of  the floating roadways at the Normandy invasion. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 

As you can see I have a real soft spot for churches. We also visited several other beautiful properties that I hadn't photographed. 

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Lovely - such a lot of history in these beautiful buildings.

Derek and Dot said...

Thanks Jenny find this real hard work sometimes, don't know how you do it 😊