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Tithes and Tithe Barns: How St Mary’s Was Supported

St Mary of Charity in Faversham was not simply a place where medieval families attended services. It was the centre of a living parish, responsible for worship, charity, education, burial and the upkeep of a building that became one of the town’s most remarkable landmarks. Its survival depended upon the agricultural community surrounding it, particularly in an age when parish churches received much of their support through tithes.

Those payments reveal a close relationship between the church, the land and ordinary working lives. Wheat, barley, wool, livestock and other produce entered the parish’s resources, linking the rhythm of harvest to the rhythm of worship. The remains of that system can still be read in Faversham’s buildings, monuments and local landscape, even though the practices themselves have long since changed.

A Parish Church Rooted in Everyday Life

Before hospitals, local government offices and formal welfare agencies, the parish church performed many functions now associated with public institutions. St Mary’s provided a venue for baptisms, weddings and funerals, taught children, cared for the sick and poor, and preserved the community’s memory. Its prominence reflected both spiritual belief and the practical organisation of medieval life.

The parish also sat within an agricultural economy. Faversham was a market town surrounded by productive land, and its traders, craftsmen and farmers depended upon secure food supplies and established institutions. The church gathered money, goods and labour from that community, then used them to sustain ministry and maintain the church itself.

The English word “tithe” is related to “tenth”, although the burden did not always amount to a simple tenth of everything a person owned. Local customs, the character of the land and the terms of an endowment could all affect what was owed. Some people paid in produce, others made arrangements in money or services. The incumbent or rector might receive tithes personally, while other income supported the fabric of the church or charitable purposes.

The Resources Behind the Tithe

A typical medieval tithe might include grain, hay, wool, lambs, pigs, poultry, eggs, milk or beans. Different rules applied to land held by tenants, smallholders and landowners, and agricultural risks could make an exact payment difficult. Commutation, where payment in kind was converted into money or another agreed form, was therefore possible long before the modern system.

Parish income helped pay for the priest or curate, candles, bells, roof coverings, stonework and the employment of servants. It could also contribute to relief for people unable to support themselves. The scale of need varied, so local arrangements determined how much was retained for worship and how much was distributed to the poor.

The system also required administration. Someone had to collect payments, record entitlements, measure produce and decide when grain or other goods should be sold. A barn offered a practical meeting point between those duties. It protected valuable stores from weather, allowed owners to wait for favourable prices and helped connect the parish’s agricultural income with the wider market.

Why a Tithe Barn Belonged Here

Faversham’s position made it especially suitable for this purpose. Kentish farms supplied grain, fruit, hops and other produce, while the town provided markets, roads and trading connections. A large tithe barn near the commercial heart of Faversham could hold surplus dues until they were needed for the church, sold locally or transported elsewhere.

The surviving Abbey Street tithe barn is generally associated with the parish’s late-medieval tithe arrangements. Its substantial form and useful internal spaces illustrate the importance once placed upon agricultural storage. Later alterations reflect centuries of changing use, yet the building retains the scale required for communal and commercial purposes.

Its role was more than keeping food dry. Barns like this acted as measuring and collection points, places where ownership could be checked and market value assessed. The medieval parish needed access to both physical storage and financial information. In that sense, a tithe barn was a piece of economic infrastructure as well as a practical landmark within the town.

From Harvest Tithe to Tithe Rent

By the nineteenth century, the old system of delivering tithes in agricultural produce no longer suited a more commercial economy. The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 allowed many tithes to be converted into a fixed annual payment known as a tithe rent-charge. Landowners then made a monetary payment based on the former value of the tithe rather than delivering crops or livestock.

The change affected both parish finances and rural households. Some landowners regarded the new charge as an unfair burden, particularly during the agricultural downturn of the late nineteenth century. For churches, however, a predictable money payment could be easier to manage than uncertain deliveries of produce. The practical basis of support gradually shifted from barns and harvests to banks, payments and formal accounts.

St Mary’s medieval tithes therefore belong to a transition rather than a single fixed arrangement. Later benefactions, endowments and voluntary giving continued to sustain the church as older dues faded away. Even when the barn became a reminder of the past, the principle of local support remained familiar: people contributing what they could towards a building valued by the whole community.

The Church as a Visible Record

The fabric of St Mary of Charity contains evidence of many generations of support. Stone walls, vaulted spaces, timber roofs, carved bosses and the substantial medieval tower could not have been maintained by prayer alone. They required money, materials and skilled labour, some supplied directly through the parish’s agricultural resources and some donated by families with a close connection to the church.

Woodwork offers another line of evidence. The project’s detailed account of the misericord condition shows why close inspection matters: wear, repairs and changes in use can reveal how generations handled and cared for the choir stalls.

Commemorative brasses and memorials tell a more personal story. They record clergy, merchants, local officials and family groups who chose to be remembered within the church. Such monuments were often gifts, yet they also expressed a wider sense of belonging. Giving to St Mary’s could support worship, demonstrate affection for relatives and place a person securely within the memory of the parish.

Lessons from Barns, Parishes and Community

Small Australian towns may recognise the story through familiar institutions. In places such as Katanning in Western Australia or Berridale in New South Wales, community halls host raffles, bingo nights and sausage sizzles. A familiar church fete often includes cake stalls, crafts and local produce, while agricultural centres such as Casino and Dubbo hold produce and wool markets where goods are measured, sold and converted into money.

At the barn, several historical parallels are especially clear:

These comparisons do not make a modern fete identical to a medieval tithe system. Australian churches usually operate as separate institutions from local councils, and fundraising today is commonly handled through cash donations, direct debits, transfers and planned-giving programmes. Greater financial transparency and different forms of taxation have changed the relationship between giver and church.

At St Mary’s, the continuing importance of the heritage site provides another set of lessons:

For current directions, opening times and further material on the church’s monuments, painted column and other historical features, the Built To Inspire visitor pages gather the practical information. They also place St Mary of Charity within the wider story of Faversham, where agriculture, trade and parish life helped create a church enduring far beyond the age that first supported it.