Horsmonden Church, Simon Willard and Jane Austen's Grandparents

As I am near St Margarets the main village church which is just off of Brick Kiln Road, and it has an American connection, and I was gratified and amazed to get 124 page views from America a few days ago, here goes: (As Mr Mc Argle say's in 'Twelve Angry Men' 'It's so important for an older man to be listened to even just once'.

                              Approaching the church with oast houses in the foreground.

This is the original medieval part of the village (a church and two or three houses is all that remains over a mile south of the main part of Horsmonden perhaps because in about 1665 the great plague of London spread to this area and everybody fled or perhaps because the iron industry was taking off a mile or so north of here.

I'll pop inside through the 15th Century porch.

This place dates back to the 1300's, it had a tower for defence of it's citizens in early lawless times.

(It really feels like I have stepped back a few Centuries in time and it is very peaceful). The above stained glass windows were commissioned by American relatives of Simon Willard who was born in Horsmonden and became an early American pioneer arriving in the USA about 1634, he helped to found Concord in Massachusetts .  He was probably a 'puritan' and felt jaded with this country due to the antics of King Charles I who had catholic sympathies and believed in the divine right of kings. (A few years later the King declared war on his own parliament and eventually lost but the conflict inspired some puritans to return to England to fight on behalf of Parliament). Certainly Simon Willard  was recorded as having had a reputation for fairness in the way he treated colonists and Indians alike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Willard_(first_generation)

The window on the right was commisioned for Willard's 6 x Great Granddaughter who was an early feminist, educator and suffragist. She was national president of the Womens Temporance movement in the USA for 19 years at a time no doubt when alchoholism was a very real problem. If you have ever seen 'The Cure' by Charlie Chaplin you may realise at least how bad the problem was reputed to be by the early twentieth Century.

                                                        Outside the church again.

These heads are not gargoyles, as gargoyles would have waterspouts in their mouths but might be 'chimera'  other mythical charactors (according to my sister).    

The above two images are the grave of Jane Austen's Grandparents who were wealthy wool merchants, and there are other early relatives buried in the churchyard.

To the south the land drops towards the Teise valley.

To the east about half a mile away would be the site of the Hawkhurst line.

A local hopfield. Once hopfields were as common as apple orchards in this part of Kent but advances in brewing techniques and cheap Belgium imports have largely killed off the trade. I grew up with these as a common sight and the smell in late August and early September was glorious.