St Martin of Tours , Ashurst

This delightful church offers lots of scenic opportunities. I spotted the unusual wooden tower with typical Kent weather boarding as we drove by and insisted we stop to take a closer look. This view is not the best shot but shows off the tower. Icing on the cake was the existence of a geocaching puzzle we had to solve by searching the graveyard to collect numbers off graves to work out the coordinates. What a fruitful afternoon

The history for those interested in that sort of thing :- first built between 921 and 927 AD and was used as a monk house. Since then it has had three major restorations. It was partially rebuilt in 1229/30, and then again after being greatly damaged by fire in 1240. The last major changes came in 1860 when the Rector at that time, Rev H Polhill, undertook a complete restoration because of the church’s poor state of repair. These renovations took place over a period of 22 years and included rebuilding one corner of the Chancel, removing a gallery, replacing the old pews, adding the vestry on the north side and lowering the floor by two feet. When the floor was lowered the old stone altar was found in the Chancel and was returned to its rightful place, where it is still in use today.