The church of St. Leonard in Badlesmere, located in the north Kent corridor, is a beautiful ancient building that reflects the area’s rich agriculture history. The Badlesmere family, after whom the parish is named, reached the peak of their power in the early 14th century, but their fall was just as quick. The family likely knew St. Leonard’s church, which is now an unusual mix of medieval woodwork, box pews from the time of Jane Austen, and present-day stained glass. The church’s furnishings include several medieval bench ends in the chancel, the most important of which portrays the Trinity. The two west windows, created by Frederick W. Cole, depict St. Francis of Assisi and The Sower. The church has a simple design, with just a nave and chancel, but is meticulously maintained and is a symbol of the area’s ties to its ancestors.
Badlesmere is a parish situated about six miles from Faversham and lies on the opposite side of the high road from Faversham to Ashford. It is not very frequented and has hardly any thoroughfare, with much of the eastern side of the parish covered in woodland and flint. Badlesmere Court Lodge is located near the high road, and St. Leonard’s church is almost adjoining to it northward. The foundations of the ancient seat of the Badlesmeres, a large and noble mansion, can be easily traced out in the next field southeast of the church, with a large pond called the Cellar pond likely serving as the place where the cellars of this seat once stood. At the south-west extremity of the parish is Basmere-lees, which has several houses around it, with one parsonage in this parish and the rest in those of Leveland and Sheldwich.
Sir Thomas Randolph, an eminent statesman in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, was born in Badlesmere in 1523 and was much favored and distinguished by the queen, being employed in no less than eighteen different embassies. Bartholomew de Badlesmere was by writ summoned to parliament in the 3rd year of King Edward II. Among the barons of this realm, by the title of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, of Badlesmere, chevalier. The barony of Badlesmere descended to the three sisters of Earl John last mentioned, who became incapable of it otherwise than by gift from the crown. Although the crown seemingly dispensed with this, after the death of Henry, Earl of Oxford, and Baron of Badlesmere in 1625, there arose a dispute concerning these titles which was determined by parliamentary adjudication in 1626. It was decided that the earldom belonged to the heir male of the Vere’s, and that the barony of Badlesmere was wholly vested in the king to dispose of at his pleasure, which judgment the king approved of.
This place was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, the king’s half-brother during the reign of William the Conqueror. The manor of Badlesmere was granted by the king to Hamo de Crevequer and together with other lands made up the barony of Crevequer, being held of the king in capite by barony, as of his castle of Dover, for the defense of which he was bound by his tenure. Of his heirs, this manor was held by the Badlesmere family, who took their surname from their possessing it. Guncelin de Badlesmere, with his brother Ralph, accompanied King Richard I to the siege of Acon in Palestine. Guncelin de Badlesmere held this manor in the reign of King John and was a justice itinerant, as was his brother Giles de Badlesmere, who was slain in a conflict with the…