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The Friends of St Mary's, Burham

supporting The Churches Conservation  Trust

Next event:   'Filaments IV ' Art Installation . . . . . at the Church . ..Jan 10 and 11 . . . 5-8pm . . . . .quite spectacular !

St Mary's Church, Burham, Rochester, Kent, England, is a 'redundant' church in the care of the national charity, the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT).   It is no longer used for regular Christian worship, but is looked after as an historic building.

The Friends is a group of local folk who help the CCT care for the church, regularly checking its condition, cleaning it, reporting any repairs needed, and holding fund-raising events to help meet maintenance and repair costs.

This website tells you about the history of the church, its architecture, how it's changed over the centuries, how the CCT and Friends look after it, and about events held at the church.   If you would like to help the Friends in this rewarding and necessary historical conservation work contact us as below.

The church is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for visitors and all are invited to sign the Visitors' Book.  The church is on the historic and ancient Pilgrims' Way between Winchester and the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. Each year it is visited by many dozens of pilgrims travelling along the Way, from many countries  including the US, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria and several more.  There is a stamp in the drawer of the table just inside the Church door and pilgrims can stamp their 'Pilgrims Way' passport.

The CCT encourages community use of its churches, such as for exhibitions, concerts, etc.  If you would like to hire the Church for such an occasion contact the Friends at [email protected] and your enquiry would be passed to the CCT office.

St Mary's is still a consecrated church and can still be used for baptisms, weddings, and funerals. If you are interested in such a use, contact the Friends as above.    The CCT partly owns the churchyard surrounding the church on the southern side, nearest the church and to the left of the northern gate furthest from the church.  This half of the churchyard is  'closed' to new burials. The Parish of Burham and Wouldham, at All Saints Church, Wouldham,  owns the section to the north,  to the right of the gate furthest from the church, and this is  still 'open' for burials - contact the church wardens with enquiries about new burials - see  links page. 

As part of the handover agreement between the Church of England and the CCT, any CCT church can still be used by the local priest to hold services up to six times a year.  The priest at All Saints Church, Wouldham, usually holds a Palm Sunday, an Ascension Day and an evening Taize music service at St Mary's and details would be found on this site under events.

See the news page above or here https://www.hugofox.com/community/friends-of-st-mary-s-church-burham-20579/news1/?preview=510e700066b841cbba4de99ad4705f6d for news of two possible exciting conservation projects for the Church.