-

The first church on this site was built about 1050 as a chapel of ease to St
Mary’s Minster. Priests from the mother church of Thanet walked to the more remote communities to say mass and St Laurence and St Peters in
Thanet churches were built at the same time. It is believed that St John’s became a parish with its own incumbent around 1200.
A small village of St John in Thanet developed around the church and a fishing village developed close to harbour and was known as Meregate.
There were a number of farming hamlets in the parish such as East
Northdown, West Northdown, Nash Court and Garlinge.
We believe that the original Norman church stood between the Nave Altar and the High Altar of the present building. The first extension was a north chapel dedicated to St James. As the church prospered, a south chapel was added and eventually the whole church was lengthened to site of the present west door.
A tower was eventually added in the north-west corner and this would have been visible to sailors as the passed by along the coast. The original Norman pillars are round and the later additions are marked by the use of hexagonal
Early English pillars. The main material used in the building is a local one, knapped flint.
The church would have been without seating except for a few ledges for the elderly or sick. A crucifix stood on the rood beam at the entrance to the chancel. There were altars dedicated to Our Lady of Pity, St George, St
James and St Thomas of Canterbury.
The church would have been dark with small windows and lit only by candles and rush lights. Glass was extremely expensive and the building
2

would have needed to be secure. Some mediaeval features survive in the
High Altar Sanctuary. These are the sedilia (a recessed wall seat) and the piscina, used to wash the chalices and other sacred vessels.
Bells were installed in the tower and it is believed that one was inscribed
“John de Daudelion with his dog, brought over this bell on a mill-cog”.
Dent de Lion was a fortified manor at Garlinge and the gateway still survives today.
A curious addition was built about 1450, a square room with battlements in the north east corner, adjoining the High Altar.
The material used was Kentish
Ragstone and the room was a treasury, suggesting that the church had become quite wealthy by then, with valuables that needed to be kept safe.
The Reformation, which began with Henry VIII’s break with Rome, saw the removal of the shrines and altars. Eventually as the reforms developed, they would have been replaced by a single communion table. Services were said in English and the Bible became available in English too. The church still possesses Coverdale’s translation of 1539, which would have been chained in a prominent place for public reading. St John’s also has copies of
Mathewe’s Bible of 1537 and the Geneva Bible of 1616.
The church was certainly poorer and in 1553 application was made to
Edward VI for extra income for the Vicar of St John’s. The King died that year and it was his successor, Mary I, who issued letter patent to allow the
Vicar the personal and Pascal tithes and the offering of the four main feast days.
The Archdeacon’s Visitations reveal a good deal about the way the building became neglected. It was recorded in 1561 that “our chancel is unripped”
3

(without tiles). Similarly in 1565, “that the nether part of the body of the church is unrepaired”.
The behaviour of the local population was somewhat wayward too. John
Allen and Richard Russell broke a bell with a hammer. Austen Carpenter and Gilbert Wimark were admonished for brawling in the churchyard.
Parishioners were also fined for not attending church and failing to pay the poor rates.
However, a school room was set up in about 1550 in the south-west corner of the church and Holy Trinity and St John’s Primary School is a direct descendant of that initiative. The former Treasury became the place where the churchwardens administered poor relief as well a secure store for weapons and gunpowder.
The Civil War and Commonwealth brought much upheaval and a Scottish minister, John Lawry, was Vicar from 1647 to 1655. There was apparently no incumbent at St John’s until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. The
Vicar appointed then had previously held the living at the neighbouring church of St Peter’s in Thanet. Thomas Stevens managed to render himself
“very obnoxious and unacceptable to the people of both parishes!”
After so much turmoil, St John’s began this period as a somewhat tumbledown village church serving a quiet fishing community and the nearby rural hamlets. The subsequent growth of Margate into a fashionable resort put considerable pressure on the parish to meet the needs of the prosperous visitors to the town. The new practice of bathing in the sea and the clean air on the coast attracted huge numbers to stay in Margate. The new prosperity was marked by the building of Cecil and Hawley Squares and the opening of the Theatre Royal, Assembly Rooms, Tivoli pleasure gardens and private libraries.
People were attracted to the seaside in the hope that it would provide a cure for their illnesses and some of the church monuments recall those who came but were sadly not cured. A few monuments refer to the fashionable London homes of those who came to seaside in ill health.
4

Other visitors to Margate came for pleasure and, although no doubt some were devout worshipers, others would have come to St John’s as part of the resort’s social scene. The response of the church was to increase the amount of seating and galleries were constructed to accommodate the influx of visitors. There were high box pews in the nave and here the wealthy families would sit. It was reported that the church could on occasions hold 1600 worshippers. There would have been a three-decker pulpit used for readings and preaching. The atmosphere must have been very claustrophobic.
The Georgian period has left St John’s with an exceptionally fine collection of hatchments. These paintings of coats of arms hang from the roof of the
North and South Aisles. The hatchments would have been carried at the head of the funeral processions of the local gentry. The internal walls of the church display the stone memorial tablets to these families, along with those of the visitors to the resort.
The growing prosperity also led to the peal of bells being increased from six to eight. Curiously, the public house at the top of the High Street opposite the church was never renamed to reflect this change and remained the Six
Bells until it was closed.
The Church of England had no other place of worship in Margate but there were a number of Dissenting Chapels and the Roman Catholics opened a small chapel in Charlotte Place in 1797 (now the SS Austin & Gregory’s
Church).
The population of Margate in 1821 was 7843 and it was estimated that
20,000 visitors came to the town every year. A decision needed to be made on whether St John’s should be demolished to make way for a new, larger church or whether an additional church was needed.
After debate, the decision was to open an additional church with 2000 seats and the foundation stone of Trinity Chapel was laid on 28 September 1825.
The new church was consecrated by Archbishop Howley on 11 June 1829.
The chapel became known as Holy Trinity Church and later a separate parish was created in 1842.
5

The church had escaped demolition but remained in poor condition until the restoration work of 1872-75. The architect for this restoration was Ewan
Christian, a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. A gifted designer and restorer of churches, he was responsible for a number of projects in Kent including new churches at St John’s Hildenborough, St
Stephen’s Tonbridge and Holy Trinity, Folkestone. Christian had a national reputation for restoration projects and his major works included Southwell
Minster and the Collegiate Church of St Peter, Wolverhampton.
Christian’s work at St John’s was particularly sensitive and although the new double broach spire and new roof transformed the appearance of the building, much of the original edifice was retained. The ancient fabric was preserved but enhanced by features that befitted the parish church of a prosperous Victorian seaside resort.
The original short steeple would have been lost amongst the new buildings around the top of the High Street but the lofty shingled steeple made the presence of the church clear to visitors to Margate. The building contractors for the project were Paramor and Sons and the skeleton of the spire was constructed at their yard nearby, a site that later became part of Dreamland
Amusement Park, before being assembled on the tower at St John’s.
The old, decayed roof timbers were removed and a new trussed timber roof was constructed and covered with clay tiles. The stucco covering the walls of the tower was removed and the original flint work was revealed. A charming North Porch was built as part of Christian’s restoration work and this would served as an entrance for the local gentry, while other folk used the existing South Porch. The West Door remained the processional entrance to the church.
The interior was transformed too by the removal of the galleries and the lowering of the church floor. The crowded interior seating, which was so necessary when this was Margate’s only place of worship for the Established
Church, was removed. New pews of teak replaced the box pews and although the capacity for worshippers was reduced, the new arrangements were certainly more comfortable.
6

The Victorian restorers were also responsible for the installation of central heating pipes, the stained glass windows and the new organ. A stone pulpit and a brass lectern were provided in front of the chancel arch. The influence of the Oxford Movement in the 19 th century had done much to restore dignity to the worship of the Church of England and the transformation of the church fabric at St John’s reflected these changes.
The town was increasing in population rapidly and new churches and parishes were created: St Paul’s (1872-73), St James (1872-73), St
Saviour’s, Westgate on Sea (1873-74) and All Saints (1894). St John’s also had a small mission church of St Barnabas to serve the poor district around
Church Street and Poets Corner. The Friend family built a daughter church,
St Mary (1893) to serve their estate of Northdown Park (this building was incorporated into the present Holy Trinity Church). An additional daughter church of St Augustine (1901) was founded by public subscription to serve the new housing around College Road and the Salmestone area.
A major influence in the early 20 th century was the ministry of Rev David
Railton. He had been an army padre in the First World War and served as vicar from 1920 to1924. Railton wrote to Dean Ryles of Westminster
Abbey suggesting that the body of an unidentified soldier should be accorded a hero’s burial in the Abbey. The idea was accepted and in 1921 the Unknown Warrior was given a state funeral and the idea was adopted by other countries. Railton’s own Union Flag, which he had used at military funerals on the Western Front, was hung in Westminster Abbey close to the
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
In 1926 the south chapel was rededicated to St George and in 1936-38 the interior of the church was transformed by the installation of remarkable wooden carving work. A carved rood screen was placed between the nave and chancel, together with pulpit and a reredos behind the High Altar. The pulpit incorporates the carved figures of St Chrystom, St Francis of Assisi,
St John the Baptist, St Athanasis and St Richard of Chichester. The colourful figures on the reredos are St Augustine, St Laurentius, St Thomas of
Canterbury, St Alphege and St Anselm. All of these saints were Archbishop
7

of Canterbury and it was appropriate that they were dedicated by Archbishop
Cosmo Gordon Lang on 22 June 1936. The crucifixion scene was added to the top of the screen in 1938.
After the Second World War, the population of the town centre declined and the daughter churches closed. St Augustine’s became Church House and was eventually sold for demolition and houses were built on the site. Its function was taken over by St John’s Community Centre built next to the church in
1971. Holy Trinity had been bombed and a new Church was built near
Northdown Park which incorporated St Mary’s, Northdown. The old Trinity parish in the old town was transferred to St John’s parish, in exchange for
Northdown and Dane Valley.
In this church, the altar and sanctuary in front of the Rood Screen was created in the 1980s for general worship and the chancel was reordered to provide a more intimate space for quieter, reflective services. More recently in 2005, the west end of the church was reordered. The Architect was Mr
Mike Duncan of the Duncan and Graham Partnership, who was a member of the Church and had previously been a Church Warden. The pews at the west end were removed to enable the building of a kitchen and toilet facilities and a more flexible area in front which can be used for group meetings or provision of light refreshments. A spiral staircase leads up to two gallery
‘rooms’ and there is a stunning view down the length of the Church from the
‘upper’ room. The new glass doors at the West end and the South Porch allow those passing through the churchyard to see the church community at worship once the wooden doors behind them are open. In 2011, the Chapel was reordered to allow access to the rear of the sanctuary and state of the art sound and lighting systems were installed in the church. There is a Royal
British Legion memorial window on the north side of the Church and also a dedicated childrens’ corner nearby.
St John’s Church building has seen many changes through almost a thousand years of history but throughout this time has been a focus of Christian witness in this part of Thanet. The interior of the building has gradually evolved to keep up with the requirements of the 21 st century. The Church is open for several hours during four mornings a week during which time people can come in for quiet time and prayer, company or to soak in the history of this beautiful building. It can be used for a variety of social activities, from concerts and coffee mornings to art exhibitions and fairs.
We pray that future generations of worshippers will be inspired with the
8

visionary gifts of those who have gone before and will maintain the worship life of our beautiful and ancient Parish Church and use its full potential to bring others to a knowledge and love of God.
Robin Colyer 19.6.2012
Thanks to Jill M for the pen and ink drawings
9