There are several unusual things about this church and the most obvious is the belfry. The church is on a very sharp turn on the Rye road* and it's very hard to miss, plus the fact it's next to the local "pub", the Royal Oak if my failing memory serves me correctly. Funny how most churches and village pubs are right next door to each other?!
Anyway, there are two or three reasons given for the fact that the belfry is built beside the church. As I understand it, the belfry never actually sat on the church so I don't think that the structure was moved to where it stands now. The most logical explanation is that when the bells originally arrived for the church in about the 14th century, the builders actually worked out that the foundations which sat on the marshy ground would not support the extra weight. Therefore, they were hung by the side of the church and the structure which looks like a steeple, was then built around the bells.

Whatever the real reason is, I like the following story myself. It is said that the church, back in the middle ages did in fact have a steeple. Apparently, one day a "maid" (or virgin) turned up to get married and the steeple was so shocked by such an unusual occurrence for those parts that it it toppled and fell to the spot where it remains today. It is far too sensitive a subject these days for me to add any further comment!

(*Since I originally wrote this page, the main road to Rye now bypasses Brookland and anyone looking for the Church will have to detour from the main road to find it. I have been in this Church which was normally open twenty years ago but when I took the above picture this year [2000] it was, like so many other Churches these days, locked)