"The present church of Doddington is the product of a long history, beginning with it's exterior, of stone dressings and field or chalk flints with their traditional, characteristic Kentish finish of a skim-coat of mortar-dashing that leaves only a quarter of the flints visible, aptly described as a "homely, but highly picturesque and very lasting surface". The principal architectural features of the church today are a chancel, nave, south chapel, south aisle, south porch and weather-boarded west tower.
A medieval church, Doddington is dedicated to the Decollation (beheading) of St John the Baptist. The dedication is one of the rarest in England, shared only with Trimmingham on the East Norfolk coast (
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A popular saint for medieval church dedications, St John the Baptist was usually commemorated at the Midsummer festival of St John's Eve and St John's Day on 24 June.
However, the Doddington dedication is 29th August, on the feast of his decollation. It may not be the original dedication however it certainly dates from at least 1467 when it is mentioned in the will of James Bourne, of Sharsted Court. "my body to be buried in the churchyard of the church of the decollation of St John the Baptist of Dodyngtone"
Kentish Legend Of St John The Baptist
The obscure choice of dedication suggests a specific reason, perhaps prompted by unusual circumstances. It was not uncommon for medieval churches to have their dedications changed when given a relic associated with a saint (there were numerous 'relics'). Particularly when provided by a benefactor who had been a crusader or pilgrim to the Holy Land. Such relics as objects of veneration in turn drew pilgrims and their gifts to the associated church.
It is recorded by Edward Hasted,(the antiquary of the 1780's) that a stone upon which Christians (possibly St John the Baptist himself) had been put to death, was brought to England during the reign of Richard II (1377-1400). It was kept in the church of St Peter and St Paul at Charing (approx 5 miles south of Doddington). A suggested explanation for the dedication (or re-dedication) of Doddington is that this stone was brought to Doddington and later removed to Charing. The stone disappeared at the Reformation.
History -
It is likely that a church stood at Doddington in Saxon times. There is a quoin built of tufa in the north wall of the chancel. This calcareous stone cut into blocks was characteristic of kentish building in Saxon and early Norman times.
The church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086. At the time of the Norman Conquest 1066 Doddington was granted to William the Conqueror's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux but by 1084 it had reverted to the Crown.
Some time after this Doddington Church and living were given to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It may then have become a chapel to the Church of Teynham, (also in the Archbishops patronage.) presumably served by clergy from Teynham.
An instrument of Archbishop Stephen Langdon dated 27th December 1227 recorded in the Black Book of the Archdeacon of Canterbury stated that:
"On account of the slender income of the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, and the affection he bore toward his brother Simon Langdon, then Archdeacon, united to it the churches of Hackington, alias St Stephen's and Tenham (Teynham) with the Chapelries of Doddington, Linsted, Stone, and Iwade, then belonging to it, which churches were then of the Archbishop's patronage...."
Doddington was served by curates most of whose names have been lost. We hear of a Doddington curate in 1229, when Archbishop Richard Wethershed (who had succeeded Archbishop Langdon) confirmed a gift of an endowment, (the first we know of for Doddington church) by one Master Girard. He, while rector of Teynham, had made the gift, and at the instance of Hugh, son of Herevic, had granted to the use of the chapel of "Dudintune" forever, the tythes of the assart (land cleared for cultivation) of Pidinge, that were to be expended by the disposition of the Doddington curate and two or three parishioners of credit, to the repairing of the books, vestments, and ornaments necessary to the said chapel.
In time Doddington became an independent parish with its own vicar. The first vicar listed in Dr Andrew Ducarel's (1713-1785) Index to the Archiepiscopal records of Canterbury Cathedral in the library was one Radhero de Kyngeston, inducted on 16th March 1325."
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