FEATURE
ARE OUR CHURCHES IN CRISIS?
St Peter and
St Paul church Tonbridge
St Mary the Virgin’s church Hadlow
he ecclesiastical treasures of the region are many and varied. The magnifi cent Tonbridge parish church of St Peter and St Paul leads the pack, with its well-known Saxon wall and original tower base dating from the 14th century. Other visual delights adorning this architectural gem in the heart of the ancient town include an 18th century stained glass window and a vaulted Victorian roof. The church also features a monument by the celebrated 18th century French sculptor Louis-Francois Roubiliac. In the same era, it enjoyed various links with the family of the novelist Jane Austen, who moved to Tonbridge from Horsmonden in the early 1700s. Just a few miles north-east up the road, the parish church of Hadlow, St Mary’s, has stood proudly in the middle of this charming village for more than 1,000 years. The oldest building in the parish, like St Peter and St Paul, St Mary’s features stonework from pre-Norman times and an imposing tower that dominates the pastoral skyline. In Shipbourne, directly to the north of
T Decline in church attendance
• The average number of regular church attendees in Britain is 800,000 per week. This fi gure represents half the number who regularly attended church in the 1960s. • According to the 2011 national census, the number of Christians fell by 4.1 million over 10 years to 33.2 million – of whom only a third go to church except for weddings, baptisms or funerals. • The census found a 45% rise over the same 10 years in numbers who say they have no religion, to 14.1 million. • The decline of religion is at its fastest among young people. Nearly a third of under 25-year-olds have no religious belief.
20
Tonbridge, the parish church of St Giles nestles on the west side of the common beside the quaintly named Stumble Hill. Although not nearly as old as the parish churches in Tonbridge and Hadlow – St Giles has stood for 125 years – the building exudes the same gravitas as its local peers and, like them, continues to serve as a vital hub at the heart of village life. At Birling near West Malling, further east in the diocese of Rochester, All Saints church stands on the site of an Anglo-Saxon edifi ce that once formed part of the possessions of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who became Earl of Kent in 1067. The engaging history of this parish church spans the centuries and is dominated by generations of the
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