Friends of St Mary's Lenham

02/04/2026

Lots of Cuckooflower/Lady's Smock in the church yard behind St Mary's. So pretty!

18/03/2026

We wanted to explain about the scaffolding that is currently in place around the church tower. The tower roof requires a full refurbishment due to deterioration and a leak into a corner of the belfry.

Unfortunately, lifting the boards has exposed rotting wood in some major beams; just what we didn’t want to find! A lot of the wood will have to be replaced, making this an even larger job than anticipated. This will now become the largest, most costly project that the Friends have undertaken since our inception in 2013. The cost will be in excess of £51,000.

In addition to the roof, we want to take advantage of having the scaffolding in place in order to restore the clock face.

I’m pleased to say that The Friends can commit to over half of the cost. With other substantial donations from the Hatch Charity, the Friends of Kent Churches, the Benefact Trust and the Parish Council, we can hopefully complete the project. However, we will be depleting our resources very significantly.

Please contact us if you would like to contribute towards the costs, any help would be much appreciated. Completing the tower roof restoration will be a major achievement in our quest to maintain our ancient building for years to come; we hope that you can help.

23/09/2025

We held the annual village barn dance on September 20th and the checked shirts and cowboy hats of Lenham were out in force as usual. The beautiful Tithe Barn Lenham was the perfect venue as always. The band were wonderful and their expert caller helped us whirl to the right, spin to the left and do-si-do our partners! We held our splendid raffle during the interval

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported and attended the dance and made it such a memorable event. Thank you to those who donated such generous prizes for our raffle, including Westwell Wines Phase Hair and Beauty The Fig Tree Spa, Chequers Fish Bar, Lenham Film Club and Lenham Social Club. A particular thanks to The Lenham Focus for their very generous donation and Kent Loves for support and selling the tickets for us once again.

The barn dance is a key element of our annual fundraising activity, as we work to maintain and preserve our Grade I listed church building. The proceeds of the dance were over £1,000, which will go towards our future renovation projects, in particular work to repair the tower roof. We're very grateful for all of the support we've received which has yet again made the barn dance such a successful and enjoyable event.

19/09/2025

04/09/2025

Grab your partners! Tickets are on sale now for the 2025 Annual Village Barn Dance which takes place in the beautiful Tithe Barn Lenham on Saturday 20th September.
Get your tickets from Kent Loves 11 High St, £15 for adults and £5 for under 16s, cash only. Tickets always sell quickly so round up family and friends and get yours before they are gone; checked shirts and cowboy hats are optional!

02/09/2025

Grab your partners! Tickets are on sale now for the 2025 Annual Village Barn Dance which takes place in the beautiful Tithe Barn Lenham on Saturday 20th September.

Get your tickets from Kent Loves 11 High St, £15 for adults and £5 for under 16s, cash only. Tickets always sell quickly so round up family and friends and get yours before they are gone; checked shirts and cowboy hats are optional!

18/08/2025

BARN DANCE 2025

We’ll be holding our fabulous raffle as usual during the break in dancing at the Barn Dance and we have some great prizes on offer. Westwell Wines have kindly donated a wonderful prize - a tour and tasting at Westwell. If you’ve not yet visited, Westwell is located just a few minutes drive from Lenham and they produce some great English still and sparkling wines. The prize is a lovely opportunity to explore this vineyard on our doorstep!

The Annual Village Barn Dance takes place on Saturday 20th September in the beautiful Tithe Barn Lenham, Lenham. Tickets are £15 for adults, £5 for under 16s. They are on sale now, cash only from Kent Loves, 11 High St. Get them quick before they sell out!