Sandwich Kent England UK: Nearby Villages: Woodnesborough

The Village of Woodnesborough near Sandwich

Woodnesborough is situated about one and a half miles west of Sandwich.

Woodnesborough's centre is the Woden-hill, whence its name is derived (from the Anglo-Saxons god, Woden). Once it was covered with fir trees and called Firtree Hill, now these trees have gone and its name has become 'The Furiel'.

The roads that surround it are Roman so it could possibly have been a Roman guard tower. Donald Maxwell says in 'A Detective in Kent', from its summit the Woden-priests saw St. Augustine's ship ground at Ebbsfleet (Anglo-Saxon relics have been excavated from it). Edward Hasted, the 18th century Kentish topographer suggests, it is the burial place of those who fell in battle in A.D. 715.

Near the hill is the Parish Church of St. Mary with its unique wooden tower in place of a spire that was removed in 1745. It is topped by a cupola, a feature rarely found in England, this may be due to Dutch influence (many had settled in the Sandwich area, escaping religious persecution).

The treasure of the church is the perfectly preserved fourteenth-century Sedilia and adjoining Piscina. Note, in the east wall, the unusual Aumbry divided into four compartments and, supporting the roof, the six massive king-posts.

The church's silver Chalice, still in constant use, is hallmarked 1586, two years before the Spanish Armada sailed from Lisbon.

From the church and 'Furiel' can be seen the sea from the Goodwin Sands off Deal to the white, cliffs of Ramsgate; inland the view stretches beyond Canterbury.