Tag Archives: capel

Mediaeval paintings on a wall in a church in Kent

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ON OUR WAY to visiting friends, who live in Tonbridge (Kent), we stopped to look at the Church of St Thomas à Becket in the village of Capel. The saint lived from c1120 until his murder in 1170. An old tree in the churchyard at Capel is fenced off and alongside it, there is a label that informs the reader that the saint was:

“… supposed to have preached beneath this lovely old yew tree.”

Given that it is now the year 2025, the very latest that he could have preached beneath this tree would have been 855 years ago. As some yew trees can remain alive for several thousand years (https://fortingall-graveyard.org.uk/yew-tree), it is quite possible that the venerable yew at Capel was around when St Thomas à Becket was active.

The interior of the church offers visitors a wonderful surprise. The north wall of the church has many sizeable fragments of wall paintings that were uncovered in 1927. They had been covered with whitewash (paint) during the Reformation (sixteenth century) during which church decorations were largely removed, destroyed, or hidden. Experts believe that these paintings were executed in two periods: in about 1200 and then about 50 years later. The subject matter of these wall paintings was religious, designed to convey bible stories to those parishioners who could not read, and who did not understand Latin, then the language used during church services.

Amongst many other fascinating things in this small church, the communion rail caught my attention. Carved in the seventeenth century, it bears the date 1682 and the name “Michael Davis”. According to an informative leaflet in the church, in the 1630s Archbishop Laud (1573-1645) recommended installing such rails to prevent dogs from entering and defiling the sanctuary that contains the high altar. The simple stone altar was made in 1979 to replace a seventeenth century communion table that had been stolen. Like mediaeval stone altars, the modern one at Capel is inscribed with five crosses, which symbolise the five wounds made in the crucified Christ.

Although still consecrated, the church is not used often. It is now cared for by The Churches Conservation Trust and left open during the day for visitors to enter. For those interested in seeing mediaeval wall paintings in Kent, apart from at Capel there are fine examples at: Chiddingstone, Newington-next-Sittingbourne, Stone, and Barfreston.

Green hops and beer at a pub near Tonbridge in Kent

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THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY of Kent, you will spot the conical roofs of oast houses in which the hops used to flavour beer are dried. Many of these curious looking buildings are no longer used for their original purpose. Many of them have been converted into picturesque residences. In late October 2025, we booked a table to eat lunch at the Dovecote Inn, a pub near Capel, which is not far from Tonbridge in Kent. We were advised that it might be noisy because there would be a beer festival going on when we were there.

The event was “The Dovecote Green Hop Festival”. Green hops, sometimes called ‘wet hops’, are hops harvested from the vines (the ‘bines’), and used to make beer within 24 hours of having been picked. The beers produced with these fresh, rather than dried, hops, have their own distinctive flavours, which are fresher and more vibrant than other beers. This is because the green hops contain ingredients that are lost when hops are dried out. However, to produce beer with the freshly picked hops, a far greater quantity of hops is required than when using the dried ones. I tried one of the green hop bitters, and it tasted wonderful.

The Dovecote Inn turned out to be a delightful, small late eighteenth century establishment. Its landlord was extremely friendly, as were his team of staff. Although we had to wait a long time for our food, it was well-worth waiting for. As for the noisy festival about which we had been warned, it did not seemed to have taken off by the time we ate there early on a Friday afternoon. We looked around at the customers and amongst about twenty people, only four of them were drinking beer. I suspect that had we stayed until the evening, the beer consumption level would have increased by then.

On the way out, I paid a visit to the men’s toilet. This was a sight to be seen. The walls of this part of the pub are covered with an eye-catching wallpaper whose design is a dazzling collage of American comic covers (“Bat Man”, “Wonderwoman”, Superman”, etc.).

Only a few miles from Tonbridge, The Dovecote Inn is well worth a visit, but if you plan on eating there, leave plenty of time.