Kemsing, Kent
History
Kemsing was the birthplace of Saint Edith of Wilton, a daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Edgar I between 961 and 964. The well at the centre of the village is dedicated to her, a plaque on the wall recording the local legend that her saintly presence has given the water healing properties. The parish church, Saxon in origin, is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, despite St Edith having a strong connection here. Another local legend states that the knights who murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket rode through Kemsing on their way to seek him out at Canterbury. Following his canonisation Kemsing became a stop-off place on the Pilgrims' Way, along which pilgrims travelled to visit the saint's shrine at Canterbury Cathedral.
The lordship of Kemsing had a long royal and noble association: it was held by King Henry II who passed it to Baldwin of Béthune, the Earl of Albemarle. It was acquired by the Earl of Pembroke by his marriage to Lady Alice, Baldwin's daughter. The manor passed later to the de Grandison and Fynes families, becoming part of the estates of Baron Say and Sele. In the reign of Edward IV, Kemsing was sold to Sir Geoffry Boleyn, father of the future queen Anne Boleyn, and later reverted to the crown. Briefly in possession of Anne of Cleves, it was then granted by Elizabeth I to Sir Henry Carey and eventually acquired by the Duke of Dorset.
The historic village centre area around the well includes the war memorial of 1921 (Grade II listed by the architect Godfrey Pinkerton), a cluster of picturesque cottages and St. Edith's Hall of 1911 (Grade II listed by the architect Godfrey Pinkerton), the front of which is adorned with a statue of the saint and a clock which chimes the hours and bears the inscription:
'Tis mine
Each passing hour to tell.
'Tis thine
To use it ill or well.
The Women's Institute organisation opened its first institute in Kent in Kemsing in December 1915. During the first world war St Edith Hall was used as a hospital and staffed by the Kent Voluntary Aid Detachment. Wounded soldiers from the western front were returned to England and the hall at Kemsing was one of many facilities in the south east of England used during the war.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin likely dates back to Saxon times. The first time that Kemsing is mentioned is in a Canterbury diocese document of 822. The south wall of the nave was dated by an archaeological survey to late Saxon. A tall lancet window in the South Wall may be the earliest in the church. It contains the Madonna roundel (1220), an early piece of glasswork.
The altar frontals change with the church seasons. The oldest are by the Sisters of Bethany (1888). Two were by Comper. The reredos was designed by Comper and portrays the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection.
