St Peter and St Paul

St Peter and St Paul is the small and ancient church of the tiny downland parish of Luddesdowne in north west Kent. The church, with a late Norman house and attendant farm, clustered among old trees at the head of two, long, raking valleys, is still a focal point of a scattered community of some two hundreds souls, little larger than it was when the Doomsday surveyors of 1086 recorded ‘a church here’ The history of Luddesdowne Church, post-Conquest, is poorly documented and has to be read against the fate of the Norman knights and their successors who acquired the manor.

Following the church reforms of Henry III, many noblemen rebuilt their own small, cramped manorial churches. and this probably happened in Luddesdowne, where the earliest verifiable fabric, seen in the north and west walls, dates from the thirteenth century.

Opening Times: The church is regularly used for worship and more details are on the website, shown below.

Photo Credits: © Copyright St Peter and St Paul

For further information please visit: http://www.cobham-luddesdowne.org