There are 4 Historic Churches in Sandwich. Three of them, St. Clement's, St. Mary's, and St. Peter's also give their names to the old parishes of the town. The United Reformed Church is one of the earliest of the independent chapels - the present building dating back to 1706.
St. Clement's Church Sandwich
Adjoining the ramparts in the south-east of the town stands the Parish Church, as it has now become since the union of the three Sandwich parishes in 1948; this was formerly the election place of the Mayors of Sandwich.
There are many carved headstones in an ancient and extensive churchyard.
The central tower and east and west part of the nave belong to a twelfth-century aisleless church; in the thirteenth century the chancel was rebuilt with a north chapel and in the fourteenth century a south chapel was added.
Originally the Church was cruciform in plan, as was characteristic of Norman buildings, but the addition of chantries and chapels produced the present shape and dimensions.
The Norman tower is one of the finest in England and the pillars which support it have rounded arches and curiously carved capitals with various ornamentations of scrolls, frets, foliage and grotesque figures.
In the north-west angle of these columns is the doorway to the spiral tower-staircase over which is an interesting tympanum with late Saxon or early Norman carvings.
The octagonal heraldic font has on one of its faces the arms of ancient Sandwich, and on the south face the Arms of Archdeacon Robert Hallum, by whom it is believed the font was given about 1406.
Over the north door is the 'Priest's Room', and other interesting features are the oak stalls of the members of the Confraternity of St. Clement, one of which is a miserere seat; and many indents of brasses, one of which was of the Bishop of Ross, Vicar of this parish in 1444.
St. Margaret's Chapel has a complete medieval tiled floor, also a Gradas (gospel-step) built into the altar dais; two altar Stones each marked are now restored to their proper use after having been used as tombstones.
The Chapel of St. George contains a Statue of St. John which was taken from Lincoln Cathedral by the Puritans.
The Mayor's seat which faces this Chapel bears the date 1869. www.stclementschurchsandwich.org.uk
Open Sandwich gets several messages from people researching their family history, you will find many family names in the memorial inscriptions on the gravestones in St. Clement's Churchyard.
The memorial inscriptions date back to the early 1700's (up until around 1980) and will no doubt be useful for people researching their Sandwich ancestors - this alphabetical pdf list may help.
The development of this list has been made possible through the hard work of Sue Cummings who has transcribed the detailed records by Don Eastwood copyright © 2005 all rights reserved.
Another source: Monumental Inscriptions of St Clement’s Church - Kent Archaeological Society website
From this website website visitors can find other churches in the area.
View, Download or Print Town Trail leaflet »
It was written some time ago but the history & places are still relevant also it's in English, French, German and Dutch.
Church Street St Clements
Sandwich
Kent
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Information from the Sandwich History Society publications & archives - St. Clement's Church photos on this page from www.geograph.org.uk - copyright Pam Fray & Malcolm Spicer respectively under the Creative Commons License
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