Rainham nr. Chatham / Renham

No entry for this Rainham found in the Domesday survey. Hasted (1798) writes: "The church, which is dedicated to St. Margaret, is a handsome building, consisting of two very broad isles, and two chancels, with a high beacon tower at the west end of it, in which are six bells and a clock [...] On October 20, 1791, the steeple was greatly damaged by a storm of thunder, the lightning of which split the wall of it for several feet in length." Halsted (ibid.) does not give the date of the foundation of the church here, but notes: "Robert de Crevequer, the founder of Leeds-abbey, about the year 1137, gave to the canons there, in free and perpetual alms, all the churches of his estates, with the advowsons of them, and among them that of Renham, with eighteen acres of land in that parish, which gift was made in the presence of William, archbishop of Canterbury, and John, bishop of Rochester." Glynne (1877) notes: "The font has an octagonal bowl with Decorated tracery, but seems to be new." The present font consists of an octagonal basin with tracery motifs inscribed in circles; ball flowers on the underbowl chamfer; cusped quatrefoil panels on the stem of the base, and a moulded lower base, all octagonal. The font is probably 19th-century. [NB: we have no information on the font of the 12th-century church here].