Church of All Saints

All Saints Church stands in the village of Tudeley in Kent. A place of worship has existed there since the seventh century. The sandstone footings under the nave and tower may date from before the Norman Conquest. The church appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name Tivedale. It was given to Tonbridge Priory in 1293 and much of the present building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries it passed to Christ Church, Oxford, then to the Crown, and finally to private hands in 1548. Today it belongs to the Diocese of Rochester. The church is worth visiting because every window contains stained glass designed by Marc Chagall. The project began in 1963 after Sarah d’Avigdor-Goldsmid died in a sailing accident. Her parents commissioned Chagall to create a single window, but on seeing the church he agreed to make all the windows. Over ten years he designed twelve windows in watercolour, made by Charles Marq in Reims. The last windows were installed in 1985, just before Chagall’s death. Inside, the altar wall holds the Memorial Window. Five windows line the north wall and two the south. Four chancel windows were added last, replacing Victorian glass that was moved to the vestry. The red-brick tower dates from 1765 and the nave was rebuilt in Bath stone in the 1870s. The 1571 Fane monument stands in the chancel, restored in 1885. The church’s interior combines medieval stonework with later brickwork and slate roofs, all lit by Chagall’s glowing colours.