There are three churches and a vanished monastery in Sandwich.
St Clements Church
It was a joy to find this church – a real country church, set in a beautiful garden – in the middle of the town. St Clements is now the parish church, and it is clearly cherished.
Inside St Clements Church
The ceiling is a beautiful blue, and kind of ceiling which you find in the enclos parroisseaux in Brittany. And the angels are something often found in Suffolk and Norfolk churches. The organist was twiddling away in a corner, and everywhere showed signs of caring.
St Peter’s Church
St Peter’s Church was sadly closed for ‘works’. It is c.800 years old and clearly has been ‘played with’ over the centuries.
Lt Col Newman, and several of his men, were awareded the VC for action during WWII, and he was fortunate to be able to retire to Sandwich after the war. He, and his No.2 Commando of the SSB, were sent to St Nazaire to disable the Rirpitz. “On 13th March 1942, Newman was told by Mountbatten that he was “not expecting anyone to return from the operation. If we lose you all, you will be the equivalent of the loss of one merchant ship, but your success will save many merchant ships. We have to look at the thing in those terms.”1
St Mary’s Church
We didn’t visit St Mary’s Church, alrhough we passed or glimpsed it several times. The church stands on the site of a convent built in the 7th century. After a long history, the church was declared redundant in 1948 and it is now an Arts Centre.
Whitefriars Monastery
We noted that a monstery once stood here but there was nothing to see and the best information was on boards at the formet site.
The joy was to find two beautiful and colourful churchyards in the middle of the town, and the peace and calm of St Clements, in particular, will stay in my mind .
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