St Mary

The first record of the church comes from 1119, and the building has grown and been adapted over the years since then.

Broad for its height, and in a style that seems part Gothic, part classical, and part almost Georgian, St Mary’s is a handsome building in an outstanding location at the top of the Goudhurst hill. The tower is open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons between Easter and September and offers glorious views over the High Weald.

Inside the church, take time to look at the monuments to several generations of the Culpeper family of nearby Bedgebury, a fine and fascinating assortment that includes a 15th century brass, 16th century painted wooden effigies of Sir Alexander Culpeper and his wife, and a Jacobean wall memorial in marble and alabaster. There are also some later monuments to the Campion family.

There was reputedly a smugglers' tunnel from Goudhurst church to the adjacent Star & Eagle inn, and a violent episode in the church's history was the Battle of Goudhurst, on 20 April 1747. On one side were members of the brutal Hawkhurst Gang: smugglers notorious throughout the southeast of England for their ruthlessness. On the other was Goudhurst's band of militia, set up to control the increasing problem: smuggling became rife in the Weald after the demise of the iron industry left hundreds of men unemployed. Three of the smugglers were killed in the confrontation at Goudhurst church, and the following year many of the rest of the gang were arrested, tried and hanged.