The Church In The Fields

Today I thought I would return to try and get a landscape shot of St. Margaret's Of Antioch in Barming (or "The Church In The Fields" as its colloquially known) that I failed to capture on my previous visit a few days ago (see blip 27/11/2023).
I set off expecting the journey by car to take no more than 10 minutes but since my last outing there they had decided to dig up the main road and it must have taken nearly 45 minutes on this occasion but eventually I was able to take up the same position on the isolated grass verge as last time and get this image. I was still a little disappointed as the dramatic sky I was hoping for again failed to materialise but it still manages to show off its glorious setting.
In 1798 Edmund Hasted. a Kent historian, wrote that this church "standing by itself among a grove of elms, the slight, delicate spire rising above the foliage of the grove, affords a pleasing prospect" - and so it does to this day, but St. Margaret's has never just been an ornament. Barming people have worshipped and marked the most important events in their lives here for almost 900 years.
The original church was built around 1120, more than likely on the orders of the powerful De Clare family who had been Lords of The Manor of East Barming since the Norman Conquest and would have been constructed next to the manor house before the village itself actually came into existence. It would subsequently fall into disrepair, be upgraded with a  tower and porch in the 1400's, be stripped during the Reformation and finally drastically restored by the Victorians.
The dedication of their church to a saint was important to local inhabitants in the Middle Ages. St. Margaret of Antioch was a very popular saint: more than 250 churches are dedicated to her in England alone.
Antioch was an ancient city in Syria, and an early centre of Christianity. St. Margaret was originally a crusader saint, but became the patron saint of women, nurses and peasants.
St. Margaret's colourful legend helps explain her popularity. She was born in the late 3rd century, the daughter of a pagan priest, but her mother died soon after her birth and she was nursed, raised and later adopted by a pious peasant woman.
As a young woman the local Roman governor saw her tending sheep and was infatuated with her beauty. When she rejected his advances he tortured and then imprisoned her for her Christianity. Whilst in prison the devil appeared in the form of a dragon and swallowed her but the crucifix she held tore the dragon's throat, forcing it to cough her up. She is generally pictured standing modestly but triumphantly over the dragon. What a legend!