St James' Church, Cooling

St James’ Church stands on the Hoo peninsula in Kent, six kilometres north of Rochester. Marshland stretches between the church and the River Thames to the north. The building began in the 13th century and the tower was finished around 1400. A 19th-century restoration added a vestry and rebuilt the porch. The church became redundant in 1976 and is now looked after by the Friends of St James’ Church. Charles Dickens used the churchyard for the opening chapter of Great Expectations. The church mixes ragstone, flint, chalk and sandstone in its walls. Inside, the nave has early 14th-century windows and the chancel has 15th-century ones. The blocked north doorway still holds its 500-year-old timber door. A 13th-century font stands on five piers, and an 18th-century pulpit is set against the wall. Six 14th-century benches remain at the west end, while others were replaced in 1869. Four floor slabs include one dated 1611 and another to Feyth Brook, wife of Thomas Brook, Lord Cobham. The vestry’s walls are lined with cockle shells, the emblem of Saint James. The east window’s stained glass, made by Clayton and Bell in 1897, shows the Ascension. Three 17th-century bells hang in the tower, all unringable. In the churchyard a chest tomb and a row of thirteen small children’s gravestones—known as Pip’s Graves—add to the quiet scene.