The foundations of this Church are Norman but was completely rebuilt in the 14th Century. In the 15th Century there was a fire in the Church which resulting in a substantial part of the structure having to be reconstructed again.

St. Mary the Virgin - North-East © P.E. Blanche 1998

I couldn't resist including this lovely information which I received from my friend, David Boulding, and reads as follows:

For anyone doing research in Kent, UK this is a document that I inherited and may be of interest to researchers. I have, alas, not had time to see if I can locate Ann West in the parish registers but if anyone else does have time I'd be most interested in hearing the results of their enquiries.

Written in a very early hand (possibly late 17th or 18th century hand) from some documents in my possession with spelling and capitalisation as written.

Epithey at Chart:

A Verse written on a Head stone, standing or did stand in the Highway,
oposite the Churchyard in the parish of Great Chart.

In Memmory of Ann West.

The Reverend Rector of this place,
A hard and rigid man;
Within the walls of his church-yard,
He would not let me stand.

Without A fee being paid to him,
Two shillings and two Pounds;
So to the memmory of A friend,
I now am here set Down.

If anyone does have any details of Ann West for David, he can be contacted at - Boulding@compuserve.com. Both David and I have paid visits to this Church but have not, as yet, been able to locate this head stone.

It seems that Great Chart was a hard place to live in. Adjacent to the churchyard is a pesthouse which is a long narrow building in which members of the village were confined if they were suffering from contagious diseases such as the plague. Although this would seem a strange place to care for the sick it certainly meant that the ones that didn't make it could be quickly buried. I have seen other books which claim that this could not have been used for the plague but was lived in by the local priest. Most recently, it was used by the Girl Guides for their meetings.

In addition to this unusual feature, Great Chart is also recorded as being one of the more important churches in Kent as regards it's collection of brasses. There are brasses to the local families of Goldwell, Twesden, Sharpe and Toke. Two of the representatives of these families, William Sharpe and Nicholas Toke, both had five wives during their lifetime. In fact, Nicholas Toke, at the age of 93, was off to London to find a sixth when he apparently found it all to much for him and died!