Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
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Sandhurst comes from the Old English ‘hyrst’ meaning a ‘wooded hill’ with ‘sand’
as ‘sand’; therefore, a ‘sandy wooded-
Sandhurst parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Nicholas. The Normans built it in the 13th century as a nave and chancel church with the aisles and tower added in the following century. In 1460, John Kebyll cast and hung a bell. Joseph Hatch added a treble and second in 1607, and a tenor in 1619. In 1678, William Hill completed the five. In 1799, Edward Hasted described the St Nicholas church as consisting of ‘two isles and two chancels, with a square tower, in which are five bells’. In 1875, the Gothic revival ecclesiastical architect Richard Herbert Carpenter heavily restored the Sandhurst church by largely rebuilding the chancel. Mears and Stainbank augmented the bells to six with a treble in 1931.
History of Sandhurst