History of the Churches

Boxley

Boxley, Detling and Thurnham churches are in a straight line. It is thought that they are standing on the old Roman road which came from Rochester. The pathway that leads to the churchyard may indicate where the Roman road was sited.
There is no evidence of a church existing at Boxley in Saxon times or before 1100 A.D. During restoration work on the church in 1857, an urn was found, thought to be Romano-British, which was considered to be thirteenth century, same date as parts of the main building.

Boxley Abbey

Boxley is most widely known for its Abbey, founded in 1146, but the remains of which have now all but disappeared.  It came to have, in the Abbey Church, the ‘miraculous’ Holy Rood of Grace’.  This was a figure of Christ upon the Cross, which tradition says was so cleverly made by an English carpenter, whilst a prisoner in France, that it could nod and wink and move its limbs and frown and smile.  The monks encouraged the many pilgrims, who called at the Abbey, to lay down gifts and see, in these movements, signs that they, the pilgrims, might be leading good enough lives to lead them to Heaven.  Sadly, it was the monks hiding ‘behind the scenes’ who were pulling strings to achieve the appropriate nods and winks from the figure of Christ and the most favourable signs were given to those pilgrims who had donated the largest gifts.

          There was a similar ‘miracle’ in the form of a stone figure of a saint, which only the pure of heart could lift.  But, of course, for the right gift a hidden monk would press a lever to assist the figure to rise.

          As a result of all this trickery, the gifts from thousands of pilgrims made the Abbey extremely rich.  The Cistercian monks, who were supposed to lead simple and holy lives, became wealthy and corrupt.  When Henry VIII dissolved all the English Abbeys and Monasteries in the 1530’s the trickery at Boxley was exposed and helped to justify Henry’s actions.

Detling

The church at Dytling is first mentioned in Saxon times as one of seventeen churches in the diocese subordinate to Maegdstane to whom they paid their dues.
It is next mentioned in 1252 when a woman accused of complicity in a murder, escaped from the Archbishop’s prison in Maidstone and sought sanctuary in the church at Detlinen.
There are no remains of a Saxon church.  The south wall of the nave is said to be early Norman. The jamb of an old window can be seen.
The two arches to the north aisle are Early English and the arch between the organ chapel and the chancel are 14th century as is the West Tower. There were originally three bells but two were cracked and were sold in 1861 and the money used to pay for the box pews. The church was enlarged to its present size in1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. The stained glass windows are all modern. Our prize possession is an ancient carved lectern which is one of the oldest of its kind. It is decorated in the style of Edward III and is dated about 1340.
We recently celebrated the opening of new facilities.  After many years of planning and fund raising a kitchen and toilet were constructed in the church and a new path laid alongside the existing cobbled path to make access to the church easier.

The Organ

Music

The Church has a fine pipe organ which was moved from the Congregational Church in Maidstone into the former Private Chapel at Detling in 1973. Much of the organ dates from the 1850’s although it has been rebuilt several times over the years and was last refurbished and revoiced in 1995. The instrument is regularly maintained by F H Brownes of Canterbury.