The Kent churches project

It was on July 21st, 2009 that we found ourselves outside Postling church.

I had photographed churches in Kent before then, but this was the first time I had gone out to photograph A church.

And this is pretty much the first shot for the project, a volunteer using a scythe to clear the churchyard of vegetation. I don't think there was a more or better image taken by me to show the change in the way churches and and are not cared for. This was very much old school.

I had been invited to add shots to a group on Flickr which had the aim, ambitious aim, of photographing every Grade 1 and 2* listed building in England. I was asked it I would like to take over the administration of buildings in Kent for the site.

Seemed easy enough, so I said yes.

There was a list by district of the Grade 1 and English Heritage and National Trust buildings, I guess about 80% of them were churches or other non-residential buildings.

Initially, I went to photograph the church. An exterior and some interior. I had a 50mm lens, and an ultra-wide zoom, 10-20mm, which I over used. It would take some time for me to realise that.

Anyway, armed with a list and a map, each weekend we would go out to visit a church or two, and where there is a village church there is usually a village pub. I mean this wasn’t a chore, not at first. And still is enjoyable for me, not so for Jools who just seems my projects as different obsessions.

Anyway.

It was something to do on weekends when we had nothing else planned. Maybe one or two a month, and once the orchid mania started in 2013, then spring and summer would go by without stepping inside a church.

Why do it?

This was a question asked just before Christmas in King Charles the Martyr in Tunbridge Wells. Well, I enjoy it, and many churches are not well recorded, certainly not many of the tombs and monuments, it also gives me something to do. We all need focus either in work or in our free time, and then there is the ticking off of lists that seems to thrill the male of the species.

How many yet to do?

Another good question. That depends on how you define the county of Kent. The ancient county goes into Bromley, St Mary Cray and so on, and I don’t know how far into the urban sprawl of London I want to go. Which means that I will only visit churches in the modern county. There are 326 civil parishes in Kent, currently. There are more ancient parish churches than that, and many what were chapels of ease are now parish churches. And some parishes no longer have a church, like Poulton near Dover, or some parishes have built a new church to meet the needs of the area, so you get an old church and a new church.

On top of the 326 civil parishes, many other districts are unparished: Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Margate, Sittingbourne, Rochester, Northfleet, Gravesend, Canterbury and so on, many of which have more than one parish church. Canterbury has many, clearly.

How many have I visited?

Well, last count up it was approx. 360. So, I can see the end of the project. Maybe next year or the year after. I have to concentrate on West Kent and the urban areas of Thanet and the Medway towns. I can just see it petering out, if I’m honest.

So, when did it get serious?

Hard to say. I guess about 2012. It was Good Friday and we were in the Medway Valley, and all churches were either locked or had services. One was Mereworth, which I really wanted to see inside, and another was Barming: a church I would return to again and again, but never found open. I finally arranged a visit early last spring, nearly a decade after that first visit. Other churches that took some time to see inside include: Preston, Throwley, Betteshanger, St Mildred in Canterbury, Thannington Without, Hinxhill, among others.

So, why carry on, if not to complete the, or a, list?

I enjoy it, I meet interesting people, see fabulous things and learn so much history. Is that enough? Also, interiors of Kent churches are poorly recorded, so this is a chance to remedy that, and for people to use as a database. I know one company doing church tours uses my images to plan where to go. I have also learned much of churches, details and fittings, so have had to revisit some of those I snapped early on to see what I missed. Many are now on a third visit as I go to take detailed shots of the stained glass and monuments. There is the list from the listed buildings, and in time I wil have completed all of those, so maybe that is the end point?

Jools looked shocked when I suggested there could just be only two years left in the project, in that what could the next obsession be? Maybe nothing, or it be like painting the Forth Bridge, you just go back to the start and begin again. I don’t know.

We have visited many wonderful places, villages and towns we otherwise would not have done. Jools is Kent born and bred, and we have viisted villages even in and around Dover that are infrequently visited, and in Swingfield Street, a village less than five miles from where she lived, she never knew was there.

So, what for this year?

West Kent. Along the M25 and M26 into Sussex, Hever and so on. I think a day in early spring there could be perfect. And back in east Kent for Heritage Weekend for Broadstairs, Margate, West Langdon and a couple of others.

As of today, the Kent Churches album on Flickr has some 18,099 shots and each church has its own individual album to, for easier searching.