Similar to all the Mediaeval towns I have seen, there are several churches and a former monastery in Sandwich.
St Clements Church
The Church of St Clements is a Grade I listed building, situated on one side of the town, close to the walls.
The ceiling is a deep blue, and reminded me of the churches in Brittany, the Enclos Parroissiaux, particularly the church in Sizun.
The church was quiet and peaceful, and it is obviously much cherished.
Playing quietly 
Behind the altar 
A corner 
Cross view 
Beautiful applique work
Churchyard of St Clement’s Church
The churchyard might have been in the depths of the countryside and was still filled with spring bulbs and flowers. Over thea years the churchyard had been neglected, and had become a 3-acres site of nettles, ground elder and ivy. Then a group of locals took the site in hand and decided to create a wildflower ‘look,’ with a mix of bulbs and wildflowers. Today, their garden is beautiful.
St Peter’s Church
Sadly, the church was closed for work. There was once a Norman church here, but today’s building dates from the 13th-14th centuries. Apparently Thomas Paine, one of the American Founding Fathers, married his first wife in this church, in 1759! The church is Grade I listed.
The churchyard is simple and well-kept, with gravestones against the surrounding walls, and a memorial to Lt Col Augustus Newman, who was awarded a VC for his part in the St Nazaire raid of 1942.
The object of the raid – codenamed “Operation Chariot” – was to render the large dry dock at St Nazaire unusable by Germany’s last remaining battleship, the Tirpitz. 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
St Mary’s Church is a Grade I listed building which is now used as an Arts Centre. It was established as a convent in the 7th century and had a mixed history thereafter. Again, it was closed.
Whitefriars
Whitefriars was established in the 13th century as a Carmelite Friary. The order was apparently established in the 21th century in the Holy Land, so to find a site in England only a century later is quite remarkable. The first Friary of this order was founded in Aylesford and still exists.
“The site lies between the back of the seventeenth centuryhouse known as ” The Whitefriars ” in New Street, and the ramparts on the S.W. side of the town, and is bounded on three sides by dikes.”
Again, this is just a little ‘taste’ of the churches and a monastery in Sandwich. A lot more research is needed for deeper insights, but it perhaps gives a flavour of this aspect of the town.
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