English Heritage sites near Lympne Parish
DYMCHURCH MARTELLO TOWER
4 miles from Lympne Parish
This is one of a chain of ingeniously designed artillery towers built around the south and east coasts of England from 1805 to protect against the threat of invasion by Napoleon.
ST JOHN'S COMMANDERY
9 miles from Lympne Parish
The flint-walled 13th-century chapel and hall of a 'Commandery' of Knights Hospitallers, later converted into a farmhouse.
HORNE'S PLACE CHAPEL
10 miles from Lympne Parish
A rare survival of a fine domestic chapel, built for William Horne in 1366 and attached to his timber-framed manor house, which was attacked during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
WESTERN HEIGHTS, DOVER
13 miles from Lympne Parish
A huge fortification begun during the Napoleonic Wars and completed in the 1860s, designed to protect Dover from French invasion. Only the moat can be visited.
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR CHURCH, DOVER
13 miles from Lympne Parish
The foundations of a small medieval church, traditionally said to have been the site of King John's submission to the Papal Legate in 1213.
DOVER CASTLE
14 miles from Lympne Parish
High atop the iconic White Cliffs of Dover sits the most iconic of all English fortresses. From the mighty medieval keep to the labyrinth of secret wartime tunnels below, a family day out at Dover towers above all others.
Churches in Lympne Parish
St Stephen, Lympne
Castle Close
Lympne
Canterbury
01303 883243
http://www.lympne-st-stephens.org.uk
The site and church date from the early Norman times AD1100. The remains of the original tower can be seen in fragments on the south side of the present church. The original Norman church consisted of a west tower, a nave (now the present chancel) and a short chancel.
The roll of vicars of Lympne dates back to AD1291.
The Bells of St Stephen's Lympne
There have been bells in St Stephen's Lympne since at least the 1500s. It was around this time that the first augmentation took place when 2 bells were transferred from the neighbouring parish of St Mary's West Hythe (now derelict) and the famous Kentish bellfounder, Joseph Hatch, did some casting work to form a ring of 4. This was possibly done in the churchyard, as was often the case in this period, as it was easier to carry the basic kit required for casting to site rather than cast the bells in a foundry and have to transport the heavy bells. Robert Catlin came along in 1742 and recast the entire ring into 5 bells. He also modified the frame to take 5 bells and this frame lasted until 1969. These 5 were then augmented again in 1951 by the addition of a treble bell donated by the Champneys family. By 1969, the original 1700's frame was in rather poor condition, to the extent that in some places, there were more metal repair plates than timber. The decision was made to restore the whole installation which involved forming a new upstairs ringing chamber as to this time, the bells had been rung in the chancel crossing. The bells were rehung in a new Iroko oak frame and provided with all new fittings. The bells were also tuned. This process is today done on a vertical lathe such that metal is skimmed from inside the bell to bring it to the correct note. The 5 old bells show tuning from Catlin's period when metal was chipped from inside the bell with a hammer and chisel. Not the job to be doing after a night out! The 1969 work made provision to increase the bells to 8, thus completing the octave. In February 2014, two suitable bells that were to go to America were purchased with a view to completing this work. The bells had been cast in 2004 to make an 8 for the University of Washington in Seattle, using an existing ring of 6 that were redundant. However, the problem came when the bells were found to be too heavy for the tower in America and they required a lighter ring. The 6 bells went to a tower in England and the 2 new trebles were not required. These are now installed in Lympne and we have completed the octave, all be it some considerable time after the initial work.
(Click: Visit Our Web Site) http://www.lympne-st-stephens.org.uk/