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  Newchurch
(The Church Tower with a kink)


General Details
Newchurch lies in one of the oldest parts of the Romney Marsh . The Romans created the Dymchurch Wall and the Rhee Wall which protected the harbour at Lympne . The land between originally used to provide salt to the legions became slowly filled with alluvial deposits and turned into rich farmland.

The church was started in the 1200's with the tower being started about 1410 however because the land around is reclaimed silt, the tower started leaning when the second stage had been completed. Buttresses were added to stabilise this and the top of the tower was added in 1480 this was built perpendicular to the ground. Because of this the church tower has a major bend in the middle with the lower two sections leaning to the west.

The village is in quite an isolated position, and was a centre for the sheep and wool trade . Because of this owlers would frequent the area to obtain the wool for its illegal export. It is likely as with most of the other Marsh churches, that smuggled goods would have been stored in the church, the most likely gang to do this would have been the Aldington Gang who were based at Aldington just inland from Newchurch .

St Peter and St Paul at Newchurch is one of those churches supported by the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust .


Services

Newchurch has very few village services, and to get anywhere requires a car.

Hamstreet about 4 miles north has the nearest shops and facilities, and also the nearest train station.

Ashford about 8 miles north has the full range of shops, supermarkets and also the Eurostar train service to Brussels and Paris .


Views

The church is unusual with the bend in the tower, it is also very old and is nice just to visit. The buildings around the church give an ancient feel to the area.

All around lie the flat lands of the Romney Marsh , with their dykes, and rich farmland, a pleasant place to ride around on a summers day.


Location
51°02'N
0°55'E

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