History of Buckland

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History of Buckland

Buckland (near Dover) comes from the Old English ‘bōc-land’ meaning ‘land granted by charter’; therefore, ‘charter land’. The Domesday Book records Buckland as Alius Bocheland and Bocheland and Tercius Bocheland.

Buckland church is dedicated to Saint Andrew, and first constructed by the Saxons, although rebuilt by the Normans in the 12th century. A 14th century addition came with the Chapel of St Thomas and the sanctuary. Around 1450, William Chamberlain cast and hung a bell, with a tenor added by John Hodson in 1683. In 1784, Robert Catlin completed the ring of three. In 1800, Edward Hasted described the Buckland church as a ‘small building of two isles and a chancel, having a small chapel on the south side of it. It has a low pointed tower at the west end’. In the 19th century, the Victorians extended the south aisle, doubled the length of the nave and added a new belfry to the west end. In 1966, the Rev G A Parlett retrieved a bell, originally cast in 1854 for the frigate ‘Earl of Eglington’, from the local school - then closed – and had it mounted on a wrought iron frame, to sound the start of divine worship. Whitechapel recast two of the bells and added three more to complete a chime of six, in 1971.