Molash comes from the Old English ‘māl’ meaning a 'law-suit, bargaining speech' with
the Anglian word ‘æsc’ as an ‘ash-tree’; therefore ‘speech ash-tree’ – with reference
to the holding of assemblies.
Molash parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Peter, and
built in the 13th Century as a Chapel-of-Ease to Chilham. The 15th century saw the
addition of the tower and south porch. In 1552, there is a record of three bells
in the tower. Around 1770, the Georgians rebuilt the upper stage of the tower and
sold two of the bells. In 1798, Edward Hasted described St Peter’s church as a ‘small
mean building, consisting of one isle and one chancel, having a pointed turret, shingled,
at the west end, in which are three bells’. In 1887, Stahlschmidt notes only one
bell in the tower. In 1895, the architect Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield carried
out a restoration of the Molash church.
