Deciding on a whim to walk from Upper Halling to the
Amazon and Tiger
in Harvel, I chose to take a route that led me past
Dode Church
in darkest Luddesdown, which I had not seen since before it had been restored in the
1990s.
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| From Mays Wood to Harvel... |
Nestling in
Wrangling
Lane, which runs along the bottom of the silent
and secluded valley beneath Holly Hill, the little church at Dode was built over
900 years ago during the reign of William II of
England (William Rufus, the son of
the Conqueror) at some time between 1087 and 1100. Archaeological evidence shows that the area
was inhabited during the time of the
Roman Empire,
and probably before long that. The
church itself is built on a man-made mound that certainly predates it.
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| Dode (sometimes called "Dowde") Church... |
Like many villages in the area at the time, the
village
of Dode was badly hit by
the Black Death in 1349, with every single inhabitant either killed or fled. Other than the church, no trace of what is sometimes referred to as “The
Lost Village of Dode” remains visible anywhere today.
The church was last used as a place of worship in 1387 and
then deconsecrated on the orders of Thomas Trilleck, the Bishop of Rochester, but
unlike its structurally-similar twin in Paddlesworth on the outskirts of
Snodland (
TQ6862 : St Benedict's
Church), it was never reconsecrated.
With the village abandoned, the church remained unused for
centuries. In 1901, it was purchased by
an antiquarian, George M. Arnold, Mayor of Gravesend. He restored the walls and roof of the church
and in 1954, the
Arnold
family returned the building to the Catholic Church. It was rededicated as the
Church of Our Lady
of the Meadows and for a while, mass was celebrated there at least once a year.
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| Faux standing stones (pretty certain they weren't there 40 years ago...) |
The building fell into disuse again however, and was
vandalised. In 1990, Doug Chapman, a
chartered surveyor who had worked at Canterbury Cathedral, purchased the church
and
began
restoring the building, originally with the intention of turning it into a
weekend home. After a change of heart, it was restored as a church and licensed
as a civil wedding venue. Weddings are
still regularly held there.
There are many
stories
linking
Dode Church to ancient ley lines and ghostly goings-on,
all of which are (in my opinion) just so much credulous mumbo-jumbo. That said, the place is undoubtedly "atmospheric", though whether this is down to the preternatural quiet of its surroundings or an awareness of its long and somewhat sombre
history is difficult to say.
I do not regard myself as particularly superstitious or
spiritual, but I do find the place to have a powerful ambience, one that I can only describe as an air of wistful melancholia. I get the feeling that the building itself is sad and lonely and craves human company, that it is desperately seeking joy and happiness, the laughter of children and the communion of the elderly that other less tragic churches get to experience in their weekly existences. There is a sense that it longs to shake it off its neglected and plague-blighted past. Perhaps its current role as a wedding venue is just right for it in that respect.
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| Dode Church interior, still lit up just after a wedding... |
One acquaintance of mine (now a very senior member of Her
Majesty’s Constabulary and the most level-headed chap you could possibly meet)
tells me that, as a junior police officer, he used to find that night patrols
of the Dode area were often particularly eerie, with radio contact never working
in the claustrophobic and stifling shadow of Holly Hill. None of his peers liked going near the place at night.
The
wedding business
seems to be doing well though, and the venue is seldom unused over the weekend.
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| Harvel C.C. v Leeds & Broomfield C.C... |
On a different note, I was pleased to find that
Harvel Cricket Club is still going
strong, and was able to watch their game against Leeds & Broomfield from
the pub garden for a couple of hours before setting off for home again.
