page_title: Dode, Kent
section_title: Rebuilding of the church
hierarchical_section_title: Dode, Kent / Rebuilding of the church
caption_attribution_description: English: Dowde (or Dode) Church This norman church was originally twinned with the church in Paddlesworth (TQ6862) and served the village of Dode. Today, the church is left virtually isolated down a no-through road, with only a few local farms to keep it company. The village of Dowde no longer exists as it was wiped out by the Black Death in the 14th century. It was deconsecrated in 1387 but unlike its sister in Paddlesworth (19933), was never reconsecrated. Today, the building is privately owned and is used for various functions and is often used for pagan gatherings such as solstices.
context_page_description: Dode was a village in England that was wiped out by the Black Death in 1349. All that remains is the deconsecrated church, which was rebuilt in the 1990s.
context_section_description: Following the Black Death, the village was abandoned, and the church stood empty for centuries. In 1901 it was purchased by an antiquarian, George Matthews Arnold, Mayor of Gravesend. He restored the walls and roof of the church and in 1954 the Arnold family returned the building to the Catholic Church. It was rededicated as the Church of Our Lady of the Meadows and mass was celebrated there at least once a year.
  Eventually the building deteriorated again and was vandalised. In 1990 Doug Chapman, a chartered surveyor who had worked at Canterbury Cathedral, purchased the church and began restoring the building, originally with the intention of turning it into a weekend home. Since 1999 it has been licensed as a civil wedding venue.
  The wedding venue hit the British press in December 2009 because of the snowfall which occurred across the country. A bride-to-be called BBC Radio Kent for assistance when she realised that the transport arranged for her wedding would not be able to travel down the narrow lane to Dode. A number of volunteers stepped forward, providing enough four-wheel drive cars to transport the wedding party and their guests both to the venue at Dode, and then afterwards to the Leather Bottle pub in Cobham.
caption: The rebuilt Church at Dode.
exif: {}