Church of St Mary the Virgin, Reculver

The Church of St Mary the Virgin stands in the village of Hillborough, two kilometres south-west of the ruins of its first home inside the Roman fort at Reculver. The present building was constructed between 1876 and 1878 to designs by Joseph Clarke, replacing an 1813 church that had already begun to decay. Materials from the demolished 7th-century church and a medieval font from All Saints’, Shuart, were reused in the new structure. The church is notable for its Gothic Revival design, knapped flint exterior and limestone dressings. Its single bell in a west-end bellcote replaced one made in 1635, stolen in 1970. Inside, the nave and chancel are separated only by width, with a barrel-vaulted chancel ceiling of seven blue panels and white timber trim. A 1955 organ by F. H. Browne & Sons occupies a small north extension. Visitors enter through a south porch containing a 13th-century doorway from the old church. The font, octagonal and Perpendicular in style, is lined with lead and stands on a modern plinth. The graveyard at the northern edge holds a 1919 war memorial naming 27 parishioners lost in the two world wars.