History

The first documented evidence of a Church in Faversham goes back to 1070, in a Charter of William the Conqueror, giving the Church to the Abbey of St. Augustine at Canterbury – just four years after William’s invasion.

Our site is poorly in places - please bear with us while it is repaired!

However, Faversham’s Parish boundaries were established circa 636, which strongly suggest a Parish Church prior to William’s Charter. By the 9th Century, Faversham had become an important town and would certainly have been a place of Christian worship. The church is one of the few dedicated to St. Mary of Charity, one of the town's surviving links with Faversham Abbey, whose mother church in France was similarly dedicated. The size of the church is an indication of the town's importance in the Middle Ages. The famous 'crown spire' was built in 1794-7 'as the medieval central tower, and most of the Norman nave, were demolished in 1753 after being found unsafe.'   Inside the church is a treasure of history. One of the greatest being the painted column featuring ten events in the life of our Lord. Dating from circa 1306, the column is one of only a few to survive in Britain. Of gruesome fascination are the 16 medieval stalls with finely carved misericords, the work of a gifted 15th century woodcarver. They were probably removed from the Abbey before it was destroyed. Not be missed the brightly emblazoned tomb of Edward Fagg and the unusual aisled transepts.

Speaking about the size of the church, Arthur Percival, director of Faversham's Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, said:

"The parish church's transepts were, and are, longer than those at Rochester, and wider than those even at Canterbury, Rochester and Faversham Abbey. I don't think the church's large size was any accident; I think it was making a statement about the stature of Faversham - important if you were quarrelling with the Abbey, as the Council so often was."