Private chaplain to King Charles I during his captivity and noted theologian Dr Henry Hammond was the young rector of Penshurst when England’s Civil War broke out in the 1640s. He tried to rally support for the Royalist cause but had to flee from the village toward Oxford where he produced one of his most famous ...
Sir William Coventry, one of the leading public figures of the Restoration Period (1660-1688) was buried in Penshurst church. His memorial, now in the south aisle of the church, includes sculpture by Grinling Gibbons. Sir William features frequently in Samuel Pepys’s diaries. At the launch of the church’s new interpretation scheme in the spring of ...