History of Challock

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History of Challock

Challock comes from the Old English ‘calf’ meaning a ‘calf’ with ‘loca’ as an ‘enclosure’; therefore, an ‘enclosure for calves’.

Challock parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian. The Normans built the church as a Chapel-of-Ease to Godmersham in the late 11th or early 12th century. They added the north and south aisles and north-east chapel in the 13th century, with the tower following in the 15th century. In 1552, there is a record of four bells. In 1798, Edward Hasted described the Challock church as consisting of ‘three isles, a high and a north chancel, having at the west end a tower steeple embattled, with a beacon turret at the south-east corner, in which hang four bells’. The Victorians restored the chancel in 1873, and a more comprehensive restoration in 1895.

In 1958, the War Damage Commission paid for the church to be extensively rebuilt following the devastation caused during WWII. Following the loss of two bells as a result of the tower collapsing in 1946, Mears and Stainbank rehung the other two for stationary chiming in 1958….more