The Highest Ground, The Lowest Steeple, The Poorest Parish, The Fewest People.
Although the present church seems to date from early Norman times, indications of an earlier structure were discovered during reparations carried out in 1870. It is not improbable that the original church owed its foundations to St. Ethelburga, the foundress and first abbess, of the neighbouring Nunnery of Lyminge, whose name seems to be still preserved in “Tata’s Lees” - the hill between Lyminge and Paddlesworth. Bede states that Ethelburga was “otherwise called Tate”.
The Church which is built of large flints, with dressings of Caen stone at the angles, windows, doors, etc., consists of a small nave measuring externally 40 feet by 23 feet, with a chancel measuring 16 feet by 15 feet.
Our Patron Saint was King Oswald of Northumbria. Older Brother of Ethelburgas son-in-law, Oswy. Oswald had continued the work of spreading Christianity to the Northumbrians which Ethelburga had started along with St. Paulinus when she became Queen of Northumbria on her marriage to King Edwin.
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