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The History of Kent

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History of Murston

Murston comes from the Old English ‘mōr’ meaning a ‘marsh, barren upland’ with ‘tūn’ as an ‘enclosure, a farmstead, a village’; therefore, probably ‘marsh (or wasteland) farm/settlement’.  

Murston parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to All Saints. The Normans built it in the 12th century, with enlargements and extensions in the coming centuries. In 1767, there is a record of three bells. In 1798, Edward Hasted described the Murston church as a ‘large building, of three isles and three chancels, having a square tower, with a wooden turret, in which are three bells’. In 1873, in order to satisfy the growth in population the Victorians mostly demolished the church – except the chancel - and rebuilt it on a new site. In 1874, the architect and designer William Burges completed the new early Gothic style All Saints church, with a four bay nave north aisle lit by plate tracery windows, a lower tower at the north and 12th century north arcade with round piers – transferred from the old church. In 1962, the church contained three bells one of which William Oldfield cast in 1540 for the old church. In 1965, the News of the World donated five bells, complete with mechanism, originally cast - by Whitechapel – for the clock at their offices in Bouverie Street.

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