A Short History of All Saints, Langton Green
(adapted from ‘All Saints Church, Langton Green – A Short History and Guide’ Peter Batts 1994.)

We are extremely fortunate to have a beautiful and cherished church building in an excellent state of repair and built (by Chambers of Penshurst) in 1863 in a version of the Early English Style, considered at the time of the Gothic Revival to be the only truly Christian style. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott, the celebrated Victorian architect.

There has been a church in the adjacent village of Speldhurst since medieval times and in the mid 19th century its Rector was the Revd. J.J.Saint who had inherited, and lived, in Groombridge Place. For the most part the services at Speldhurst were taken by his Curate mainly because of the long journey from Groombridge for the Rector.In the early 1860s a fairly large corner of the Green was given by Mr Charles Powell of Speldhurst and a public appeal was launched to build a ‘Chapel of Ease at Lankton’ (only later to become Langton Green).

The original building has seen several alterations the latest being in 1997when the open sided Chapel and the area between the Choir and the Nave were reorganised to facilitate the use of a Nave Altar. The existing vestry and sacristy on the north side was converted to form a schoolroom and meeting room to accommodate the growing Sunday School. The open side chapel on the south side was converted to a choir vestry and crèche area. The cost, £26,000 was raised from the village and congregation in three months.

The fund raising campaign has met its target and work has started to build the meeting room, office, toilet and kitchen facilities. It is hoped the work will be completed by early summer.

In the church are windows by Morris and Co (all very early), Clayton and Bell, Powells, C E Kempe and Gerald Moira. Illustrated here are:  top right, a predella in a chancel window by Powells showing the Angel of the Crucifixion, 1904: lower left, St Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, one of many saints in the East window by C E Kempe, 1904: and lower right St Stephen, the first English martyr, early Morris & Co, by Burne Jones,1865. The most obvious Pre-Raphaelite Morris window depicts Mary Magdalene (not illustrated) by William Morris himself, 1862.