The budget tor the year was confirmed with £4840 to be raised by precept
and £7825 under concurrent powers. The City Council has been asked to release
money already allocated tor repairs to the Mill Centre and work should begin
shortly.
The Annual Parish Meeting will take place on Thursday, l7th April at
7.30pm and the speaker will be Jon Shelton of the Kentish Stour Countryside
Project. Light refreshments will be served after the meeting.
PATRIXBOURNE VISITORS BOOK I986 — I996
by John Williamson
There are over 2000 entries from 17 countries in the Visitors Book at Patrixbourne
irch and the signatures bear an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the fact that
the Church is always open, unlike the majority which are shut. In the comments
there is also an appreciation of the tew moments of ‘utter peace’ that can be
enjoyed by a visitor. There are also many references to relatives who have been
associated with St. Mary's Church: typical are David and Veronika Pilcher, whose
great grandfather lived at Bifrons Cottage and was estate manager to the Marquis
of Conyngham; Paul Bowtell, Vicar of Spitalfields, descendant of John Bowtell,
Rector of the Church and Vicar for 55 years, who died in I752; Monica Anderson
from Sheftield, grand-daughter of William Kemp, who was married in 1897, and
perhaps most intriguing of all a Mr Pain whose ancestors left the parish in 1701,
descendant of Elizabeth Champneys buried in 1518, widow ofRichard
Champneys, herald to Richard III.
The fonner vicarage next to the church is not forgotten by Peter Bursey
evacuated in 1939 a few days before war was declared and Bob Scragg from
Broadway Worcester of the Queen's West Surrey Regiment who stayed also at the
vicarage in the spring of l94l.
Some of the visitors have come across the church while walking the North
' wns Way or training for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, while others
are not without a sense of humour, especially the person who noticed the bees in
the roof in 1965 and laments that they were still there in 1989, or students from
the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture who are willing to help repair the
doorway.
We may question some of the epithets like ‘This is England at its best’ or
‘a superb testament to Christian civilization’ but there is undoubted thankfulness
not only for the glory of this Norman Church but her stained glass, which those
who live in its midst sometimes take for granted. Perhaps the last word should go
l9