Save St Mary’s Church Room

Gullands is delighted to be supporting a local campaign to save and breathe new life into St Mary’s Church Room in the village of Sole Street nr Cobham, Gravesend.  The ‘Tin  Tabernacle’ church room was opened in 1889 and provided a church and meeting place for the villagers of Sole Street when they were unable to travel to their mother church in Cobham.

The land for the building was given by the internationally renowned architect Sir Herbert Baker from the garden of his neighbouring 15th century Wealden House.  The building is an early ‘flat pack’ design made of corrugated iron, which has stood the test of time, but is now in need of some repairs to enable it to be used again.

A local funding group has been formed to save the building and to turn it into a hub providing a range of services to the local community.  The vision for this beating heart of the local community will provide a space to support mental health, care, advice, education, friendship and other activities for all ages and abilities.

The group have raised over £33,000 and are also applying for grants. The group have a long way to go with their fund raising, but this is a very worthwhile community project.

Andrew Clarke at Gullands Solicitors comments: “Sole Street is a historic village which has clearly changed over the years but retains much of its character and historic buildings of which St Mary’s Church Room is one. This is a great community project and we wish the group well on saving this well-known local landmark.”