[ TQ 5466 7399 ] CHAPEL [ GT ] (Site of) (1) St. Edmund's Chapel and Cemetery, Dartford. "After the canonization of King Edmund, murdered in 870, a new chapel was erected, and with the surrounding cemetery now known as "the upper churchyard", enclosed and dedicated to that saint." This burial ground was the site of one of the three chapels enumerated in Domesday. [Included are refs. to ancient charters, wills, etc.] "A will dated 31 May 1546 directed that the body of Thomas Worship, chaplain, of Dertford, .... be buried at the door of the chapel newly built in the cemetery of St. Edmund above the charnel, at the western entrance of the same. (a) At some time after this the chapel was stripped and deserted, following the Act of 1547, temp. 1, Edw. VI. The chapel, built of flints with stone facings round doors and windows, is said to have stood nearly in the centre of the burial ground. Thorpe, writing in 1788, says ".... nothing now appears above ground ..... However the foundations may be traced by the .... rising of the ground, and fineness of the turf; which I measured May 24, 1784, and found to be in breadth from north to south thirty-nine feet from outside to outside; in length ... fifty-two feet .... " (2) No visible traces of the chapel. A groundsman mentioned that the ground sounded hollow in parts when he was using a motor mower. Also, nettles were wont to grow on the site. (3) Chapel of St. Edmund the King and Martyr: Dartford. "John de Bikenore of the parish of Dartford is supposed to have been the founder, and he nominated a chaplain who was licensed to it in 1326. His widow Joan and a Robert Bikenore were the patrons until 1371 when the Prioress and Nuns of Dartford had the right. .... This chantry was presented as ruinous in 1496, and in 1516 six of the parishioners were cited to answer a charge of not repairing this chapel. Dissolved in the reign of Edward VI but the churchyard continued to be used for burials. ..." (4)

Additional bibliography (5-8)

<1> O.S. 6" 1938-39 (OS Card Reference). SKE47827.

<2> Lowe's Regist. f. 214. (OS Card Reference). SKE32570.

<3> Hist. & Ants. of Dartford, 1844, pp. 96-107. (J. Dunkin) (OS Card Reference). SKE44058.

<4> F1 ASP 23-OCT-59 (OS Card Reference). SKE42248.

<5> Arch. Cant. vol. 15, p. 304. (OS Card Reference). SKE37077.

<6> Kentish Travellers Companion 1799, pp. 54-5. (OS Card Reference). SKE45976.

<7> Arch. Cant. 29, 1911 'Chapels in Kent' pp. 231-2 (A. Hussey) (OS Card Reference). SKE36995.

<8> Field report for monument TQ 57 SW 14 - October, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3121.