Deanery of Thanet (formerly the Deanery of Westbere) can genuinely claim to be the birthplace of Christianity in England.
In 597 Pope Gregory the Great sent a party of 40 monks, led by Augustine, to convert the Angles to Christianity.
Augustine and his monks landed in Thanet, part of the Kingdom of Kent, ruled over by King Ethelbert, whose French wife, Bertha, was already a Christian.
At Ebbsfleet in the parish of Minster in Thanet a cross was erected in 1884 to commemorate Augustine's arrival. It is thought that it may mark the place where he held his first Mass in England. He was well received by Ethelbert and granted land in Canterbury to set up a monastery.
C670 the first nunnery to be founded in England was set up in what is now the parish of Minster. It was re-sited three times in its history and the present beautiful church of St Mary the Virgin, the Mother Church of Thanet, is believed to be on one of those sites. The nunnery was sacked on more than one occasion by the Danes and by the 11th century was deserted.
Minster church was built in the 11th century. It has a fine Norman nave and transitional Early English chancel and is well worth a visit.
The 12th century parish system resulted in the division of the Isle of Thanet into the medieval parishes of Minster, Monkton with Birchington, St Lawrence, St Peter, St John the Baptist and St Nicholas. They served the agricultural and fishing communities on the island until the 19th century. Each has a medieval church of great interest.
The 19th century saw an explosion of church building in certain areas of expanding populations - notably the industrial cities and the suburbs of London. Thanet also saw such an explosion, but for a totally different reason.
The original churches of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs lie well back from the sea, which was regarded as a place of work not pleasure and which was to be feared in its worst moods.
In the late 18th century the fashion for taking the waters for the benefit of one's health moved from the inland spas to the seaside. Several seaside places vie with each to be the first "watering place" by the sea - Scarborough, Weymouth and Margate amongst them. There was a spate of building in Margate in the late 18th century - note the date on the corner of Cecil Square - which became an elegant and fashionable resort. Ramsgate and Broadstairs followed close behind.
By the 19th century there was a huge demand for church accommodation for the visitors - those taking their vacations by the sea expected to be able to attend Divine Service. A range of traditions were required for a really successful resort. More than half of the Deanery's churches were built during that century and the huge parishes carved up to create new ones.
St Lawrence, Ramsgate
St George, the Martyr, Ramsgate Town Centre 1827
Holy Trinity, East Cliff 1844-5
Christ Church, Vale Church 1846-7
St Luke, Hollicondane Road 1875-6
St John the Baptist, Margate
Holy Trinity, Cliftonville 1825-8
(Destroyed by enemy action 1943)
St Paul's, Cliftonville 1872-3
St James', Westgate 1872-3
St Saviour's Westgate on Sea 1883-4
(Also included land from Minster and Birchington)
All Saints' Westbrook 1894
St Peter's, Broadstairs
Holy Trinity, Nelson Place 1829
All these churches were originally built to accommodate the summer visitor or an expanding community. They all suffered to a certain extent, therefore, that they were much too big for the permanent community - a cause of many financial problems in the future.
In the rural areas ST Catherine Manston was built as a chapel of ease to St Lawrence 1873-74 and St Mildred, Acol was built in 1876 to be part of the parish of Birchington, which had become a parish in its own right in 1871.
In 20th century Holy Trinity, Margate demolished by bombs in 1943, was not rebuilt in the same location. Instead the chapel of St Mary, Northdown Park, built in 1893, was greatly extended in 1959 to become Holy Trinity, Northdown.
Later the church of St Philip at Palm Bay was built to serve the Palm Bay Estate.
In Ramsgate the church of St Mark was built to serve the rapidly developing area around.
|
|
