Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
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Selling probably comes from the Old English ‘setl’ meaning a ‘seat, an abode, a dwelling’
with ‘ing’ is a ‘place-
Selling parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin. The Normans built it around 1190 with additions and rebuilds in the 13th and 15th centuries. In 1760, Fausett records four bells in the tower. Six years later in 1766, Lester and Pack recast them into a ring of six. In 1798, Edward Hasted described St Mary’s church as consisting ‘of three isles, at the upper end of the outer ones are two chancels, of which the southern is the largest, and with the rest of the church seemingly forms a cross; in the middle between these stands the steeple, which is a tower, in which are six bells. Above this is the high chancel, with another on each side of it, and one more small one on the north side, the entrance of which is entirely stopped up’. In 1846, the British architect R C Hussey carried out a restoration. In 1899 Mears and Stainbank augmented the bells to eight with the addition of two trebles. Whitechapel recast the bells into a lighter octave in 1980.
Selling railway station opened on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway’s Faversham to Canterbury section, of the London Victoria to Dover main line, on 9 July 1860.
History of Selling