Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
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History of Kingsnorth
Kingsnorth comes from the Old English ‘cyning’ meaning a ‘king’ with ‘snād’ as ‘something cut off, a detached piece of land or woodland'; therefore, ‘the king’s piece of woodland’.
Kingsnorth parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Michael
and All Angels. Originally constructed around 1259 and largely rebuilt in the 15th
century. In 1552, there is a record of three bells in the tower. Samuel Knight recast
the bells into a ring of five in 1728. In 1798, Edward Hasted described the Kingsnorth
church as ‘small, consisting only of one isle and one chancel, having a square tower
steeple at the west end, in which are five bells’. In 1976, Whitechapel incorporated
three bells from St Nicholas, Rochester – a tenor cast by Joseph Hatch in 1654, a
Treble by James Bartlett in 1695 and another in 1914 by Mears and Stainbank – with
the old treble and the other four recast into two, forming a ring of six.