St Mary's Church, Denton Next Gravesend, Kent

St Mary's Church, Denton Next Gravesend Church

Image Source: Rob Baker

The origins of this medieval chantry chapel are obscure; but the most plausible theory is that it was a private chapel connected to a former residence. It has never had any connection to Shorne's Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (now Anglican but obviously Roman Catholic in pre-Reformation times) which is situated barely a quarter of a mile up the road. The eastern half of the chapel has been dated from c1300-c1350 with the western half being added around 1450. Historical sources have stated it was in ruins in 1516, but it was properly destroyed in 1545 during the Reformation as King Edward VI continued the work begun by his father King Henry VIII. In later centuries the building was used as a stable, a cowshed and later as a malthouse. In 1890 George M. Arnold, eight times mayor of Gravesend and a convert to Roman Catholicism bought the house next to the chapel and began to restore the chapel back into ecclesiastical use. The architect assisting him in this restoration was Frederick Walters. During the same period Arnold and Walters restored the derelict Norman church at Dode to the Church of Our Lady of the Meadows. (It is now in secular use as an events venue). The ruined St. Mary's chapel at Denton, near Gravesend, was also restored and brought back into ecclesiastical use, in which it remains today. The stained-glass window at the east end of the chapel, as at St. Mary's at Denton, contains a prayer for the Restorers. The middle panel is dedicated to the chapel's patron saint, Katherine, while the left and right are dedicated to St. Elizabeth and St. George. (a tribute to George Arnold and his wife Elizabeth). In 1893, the chapel celebrated its first Mass since the Reformation. The altar contains a carving featuring a Catherine (Katherine) wheel, the symbol of the chapel's patron saint, while the Stations of the Cross are believed to date from the 1930s. In the 1950s the house adjoining the chapel, which had passed to George Arnold's daughter, was sold. For a while it was used as a convent in the possession of the Corpus Christi Carmelite Sisters; and was later owned by the Sons of Divine Providence before becoming a private residential home called St. Joseph's House. Today the chapel is used occasionally for Masses and is now administered by the Roman Catholic church of St. John the Evangelist in Gravesend. Text by Rob Baker

1851 Census Details

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Architecture Details

Original Build Date/Architect: Medieval

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Notes

Now RC

Website

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