St. John the Baptist’s Church is an Anglican Parish church in Harrietsham which falls under the Canterbury Diocese. The building was designated Grade I on 26th April 1968. Described as “a noble church” by John E Vigar in his book “Kent Churches” it has two towers which isn’t common
Construction was started in the late 11th century but phases of work continued into the 15th century. It is mostly constructed of local ragstone. The site is thought to have been used since Saxon times for sacred purposes
The church features an internal tomb for William Stede (1493-1574) and a memorial to Sir Edwin Stede (1639-1695).
Current records on Find A Grave suggest around 1290 burial plots although existing parish burial records suggest a figure closer to 6,200 but this includes many unrecorded people such as “travelling boy”, “travelling man” or “travelling woman”. Records seem to start from around 1538 so there may have been 500 years of burials prior to records starting.
The church is still in use and has strong community links having added a wood constructed building to house the local Pre-School. The local primary school also use the church in addition to community groups.
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