The church at 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.
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
Futher information and many fascinating photos can be seen
on this page
There is ample parking opposite the church.
The given coordinates take you to a bench with a view:
"Donated by the family and friends of Mrs Win Foster ABCD -
EFGH"
The cache is located nearby at N 51 17.CHH E 000
46.FC(A+E)
Please ensure that you hide the cache back correctly, so that it
is completely out of sight of muggles.
The cache is a 35mm film canister containing a log book, please
take your own writing implement.
If anybody
would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that
you let sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the
Church numbers and names to avoid duplication