Tilmanstone comes from the Old English ‘tūn’ meaning an ‘enclosure, a farmstead’
combined with a warlord’s name; therefore, ‘Tilmann’s farm/settlement’. The Domesday
Book chronicles Tilmanstone as Tilemanestone.
Tilmanstone parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Andrew.
The Normans built the church in the 12th century with additions and extensions over
the next 300 years. In 1800, Edward Hasted describes the Tilmanstone church in his
topographical survey as ‘a small mean building, consisting of a body and chancel,
with a square tower at the west end, very low, but formerly higher, having been taken
down a few years ago; there is one bell in it’. The Victorians carried out some restoration
work in 1884, with Charles Kempe replacing many of the windows.
