Kingsdown nr. Sittingbourne / Kingsdown next Sittingborne

No entry found for this Kingsdown in the Domesday survey. Hasted (1798) writes: "The church, which is dedicated to St. Catherine, is a very small mean building, consisting of one isle and one chancel [...] At the west end there is a small turret, with one bell. This church has always been an appendage to the manor, and continued as such, till after the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Umfrey, when her two heirs at law, and devisees under her will, of the name of Brook, sold it in 1782 to Thomas Pennington, D. D. late rector of this church, who is the present possessor of it." There is no date of the foundation of the old church here but some of the burials recorded in Hasted are of 16th-century individuals. An old font here is noted in Hussey (1852): "The font is a cylinder, with a basin hollowed out in the top; possibly E[arly] E[nglish], altered at a later period. The web page of the Lynsted Society [www.lynsted-society.co.uk/html/kingsdown_church.html] mentions only a font "to Pugin's design" with reference to Edward Welby Pugin (1834-1875) who built the present church here in 1866. The present font is indeed a modern one, an octagonal basin with deeply carved panels with the symbols of the Four Evangelists, cross, etc., raised on a set of columns made of the reddish marble so loved by some Victorian architects; probably by Pugin.