IOTAS and the Places of Worship Survey

By Gordon Taylor

In April, May and June (returns had to be in by 24th) of 2002 the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society (IOTAS) was involved in a project organised by the Kent Archaeological Society (KAS) – possibly at the request of the KCC – under David Carder, to record all the existing (whether in use or redundant) and all the disappeared places of worship in Kent. Our responsibility was, of course, Thanet. Places of worship were not necessarily churches but could be little more than huts, an example being the Friends (or Quakers) meeting place behind Morrisons garage in Broadstairs (Fig 1).

The Guidance Notes issued by KAS listed by David Carder, an incredible 80 possible denominations of which Baptist, Methodist etc. are familiar to all but not so familiar I suspect are ‘Friars of the Sack’, ‘Peculiar People’, ‘Jezrelite’ and the more familiar ‘Plymouth Brethren’ of which we hear little now. Strangely, I know another denomination not included, that of ‘Christadelphian’, of which my parents were followers in their youth in the London area and of which faith churches still exist. At the time, the survey didn’t go as far as dividing the Islamic faith into into Sunni and Shia denominations.

Thanet was duly divided up into areas by the then lady chair José Gibbs, and I had Ramsgate (east of the High Street) and covering Dumpton. I could think straight away of three or four, but with due diligence, found a few more, then discovered a book in Broadstairs Library, Victorian Churches of Kent.

Eventually, I listed eighteen, five of which are no more, one empty and in danger of collapse, another couple in secular use, and so on.

Incredibly, Margate had forty- nine places recorded by Carole Davenport and Paul Harrison, who wrote an article about them for the IOTAS magazine Earthworm (Vol. 6, No. 7, Summer 2002). Twenty-five have been demolished, and seven are not in religious use. Jenny Price covered Cliftonville where she found twenty two, half of which are no longer standing. Sue Holton included Minster and Monkton logging six, one of which has gone and two no longer in religious use (Fig 2).

Sue also covered Ramsgate West, recording eighteen, of which seven are gone and four no longer in religious use. One could be accessed, and can still be seen, from Thompson’s Passage at the rear of 15 Elms Avenue – it was a Quakers’ Meeting Hall from 1916. These numbers seem incredible, but there are two chapels at the entrance to Ramsgate Cemetery, for instance, and other chapels were tucked away all over (Fig 3).

Some are remembered by flats built on the site, such as Zion House Camden Road which was Clover Hill in the past. Others changed denomination such as one in a street that has gone (Bethesda Street) that was Baptist then Primitive Methodist, demolished in the 1950s like so many others (Fig 3).

Carole noted that Benjamin Beale (buried at Drapers Homes almshouses in Margate) was a Quaker as was Elizabeth Fry (honoured on Bank of England notes), the latter visiting Thanet to preach shortly before her death in 1845.

Birchington and Westgate are not in the file. What about Broadstairs? The late Rosemary Bazell would have covered the town surely, but unfortunately again the

records are not in the file although I noted eleven existing in this lovely town. I noted that Mormons used to meet in the driving test building at Pierremont House (Fig 4).

Gale Sharman covered Northwood area, but again the records are not in the file. I remember her pointing out the first bungalow on the right in Northwood Road (going towards

Northwood) being a Quaker meeting house – note the panel high up in the gable. I know of two on the Newington Estate and a synagogue on the Margate Road, so some are without a record.

There was a religious house of the Church of England at Acol built 1876 on the ruins of an ancient chapel.

Going by the above, there were (not necessarily at one time) one hundred and thirty two places of worship in Thanet without the return from Westgate and Birchington. If nothing else the survey demonstrates how society has changed in the last 120 years, as places of worship close or are redeveloped.

I had contacted the KAS for the results of the survey in 2013 (to write an article for the Earthworm) but met a blank, so I am very grateful to José for lending me her file which has enabled me to finally do so with the addition of my various brief notes. Hopefully, one day, the county-wide results will come to light, and the decline of places of religious worship will be researched fully.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2016 edition of Earthworm Vol.10 No.4 – the Newsletter/Magazine of the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society (www.iotas.org.uk) edited by archaeologist Lauren Figg. GT.

Clockwise, from top left

Fig 1: Quakers Meeting House in Broadstairs

Fig 2: Former Chapel, now three cottages in Turner Street, Ramsgate.

Fig 3: Star of the East, Edge End Road, Broadstairs, formerly Good Templars Hall Fig 4: Former chapel in the appropriately named Chapel Place, St Lawrence

– now a playschool across from St Lawrence church from 1062