Holy Trinity Church, Dartford, is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

affiliated with the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

dating from the 11th century.British Listed Buildings, Church of the Holy Trinity, Dartford, Kent
Historic England ID 1086029. Retrieved 14 April 2023.

History

Located on Dartford High Street next to the

River Darent The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford. 'Darenth' is frequently found as the spelling of the river's name in older books and ...

, the oldest part of the church was constructed in approximately 1080 by Gundulf,

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester, Kent, Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Rochester Cathedral, Cathedral Chur ...

, on the site of an earlier

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

building, and was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as containing three chapels.Kent Archaeological Society, Holy Trinity Church, Dartford: Canterbury Diocese - Historical and Archaeological Survey
Tim Tatton-Brown, 1995. Retrieved 14 April 2023.Canon Scott Robertson, "Dartford Church (Holy Trinity)", ''Archaeologia Cantiana''
vol. 18 (1889), pp. 383-398. Retrieved 14 April 2023. It was enlarged in the 13th century with the addition of a new chapel dedicated to Saint

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...

, for use by pilgrims. When that chapel's altar was removed during the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

and the flow of pilgrims dried up, the church ceased to provide a focus for the town's religious and ceremonial life, and many traders lost a valuable source of income.Holy Trinity Church, Dartford: History
Retrieved 14 April 2023. In about 1485, a

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

depicting

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

slaying the dragon was painted on one of the church's walls and can still be seen today.John Vigar, ''Churches of Kent'', "Dartford, Holy Trinity" (2022). The original

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

tower (currently containing eight bells) was added onto in the 14th century, and part of the church was removed during alterations by Robert Mylne in 1792 in order to widen the High Street. Further restoration work was completed in the 1860s and 1870s by

Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

(whose brother-in-law was a vicar of the church) and in 1910 by

W. D. Caröe William Douglas Caröe (1 September 1857 – 25 February 1938) was a British architect, particularly of churches. Early life Caröe was born on 1 September 1857 in Holmsdale, Blundellsands, near Liverpool, the youngest son of the List of diplo ...

. The church became a

in 1953. It contains a number of brass and stone monuments, including a tablet by the mason William Stanton in memory of John Twisleton and another in memory of the engineer and inventor

Richard Trevithick Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He ...

. Other memorials have been erected for the papermaker and jeweller Sir

John Spilman Sir John Spilman (also spelt Spielman) (died 1626) was a Lindau, Holy Roman Empire-born businessman who founded the first commercially successful paper-mill in England, establishing a factory on the River Darenth in Dartford, Kent in 1588.Dartford ...

and the topographer John Dunkin. The parents of the musician

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

were married at Holy Trinity Church in 1940. A small portion of the original churchyard survives east of the church, a parish hall having been constructed on the northern part in 1971. A new churchyard was created on the site of the chantry chapel of St Edmund the Martyr.

Present day

Rooted in the

liberal Anglo-Catholic The terms liberal Anglo-Catholicism, liberal Anglo-Catholic or simply liberal Catholic, refer to people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm liberal Christian perspectives while maintaining the traditions culturally associated wit ...

tradition of the Church of England, Holy Trinity offers weekly services sung by a choir. Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School is affiliated with the church.

Vicars of Dartford

The list of Vicars can be traced back to the 13th century. The following have served since the time of the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

:Holy Trinity Church, Dartford: List of Vicars of Dartford, photograph
Retrieved 14 April 2023.

References

{{coord, 51.44392, 0.22041, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Dartford Grade I listed buildings in Kent Church of England church buildings in Kent Anglo-Catholic church buildings in Kent