Birchington comes from the Old English words 'bircen' meaning ‘ where birch-trees
grow’ and 'tūn' as an ‘enclosure, a farmstead’; therefore, a ‘farm/settlement where
birch-trees grow’. In 1240, we find Birchington recorded as Birchenton.
Birchington parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to All Saints,
although dedicated to Saint Cathryn prior to 1475. The Saxons built the first church
as a Chapel-of Ease to St Mary Magdalen, Monkton, which continued until 1871. The
Normans rebuilt the church in the 12th century, adding the chancel and tower early
in the following century. In 1728, there is a record of five bells. In 1800, Edward
Hasted described the Birchington church as ‘a handsome building, situated on a rising
ground; it consists of a nave and two isles, reaching but half the length of it,
and what is remarkable, they are all spanned by a single roof; beyond these are three
chancels’. In 1863, the Victorian architect, C N Beazley, carried out a major restoration,
destroying much of the late medieval fabric in an attempt to make the style of the
church coherently 13th century. The Dean and Chapter made Birchington a parish in
1871. John Warner added a treble bell in 1887, and Mears and Stainbank completed
the ring of eight in 1901 with two trebles…. more
Birchington-on-Sea railway station
(originally known as Birchington) opened on the London Chatham and Dover Railway’s
Herne Bay to Ramsgate section of the Faversham to Ramsgate route, on 5 October 1863….
more
