St Gregory and St Martin's Church, Wye
Our last stop on our multi weathered trip was in Wye and it was the blue plaque on the churchyard wall which drew our attention to this little spot.
The rain had eased and the sun was just coming out, perfect for a little stroll among the graves (respectfully of course! and the dog went nowhere near any grave markers as we are very strict on this). We love looking at memorials in graveyards as there can be anything from curses, witty remarks, recipes, and even interesting diagrams. In fact it was in this very graveyard that we learnt the meaning of IHS upon a memorial stone, as we'd never seen it before.
IHS is a Christogram (Jesus related monogram) that spells out the first three letters of Jesus's name in Greek. It was used as a secret symbol for Christians to identify one another and later the symbols changed depending on the spelling or the church where you were laid to rest. The meaning also shifted along time, but devout Christians don't accept any other meaning as valid. The letters are sometimes JHS, IHC, or JHC depending on what alphabet era you were using. Romans spelt it different, the Latin alphabet replaced I with J, and it was all a bit of a mis-mash but regardless, the symbolism never changed.
The church itself had been remodelled under Queen Anne's reign and this came about as lightening struck the tower in 1572. The tower remained unstable for 100 years before it fell in 1686 taking the chancel and east end of the church out with it. It was rebuilt in 1706 with new tower on the side of the new style chancel.
Aside from that, there had been a church here dedicated to St Gregory since the Saxons, we're unsure where St Martin came into it but the church was rebuilt in 1290 before it was again restored and enlarged by John Kemp, the Archbishop of York and then Canterbury. The church itself really stood out to us following the more modern renovations. There's a glass door which really makes it stand out, but we didn't get too close as there were other people visiting at the time and we didn't want to be disrespectful.
The plaque however, was our main reason for the stop. John Philpot and Thomas Stephens were burnt at the stake for being Protestant during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary. Bloody Mary indeed! It isn't known why the location of the gate by Wye church was picked as their execution spot, as both men were not local, Mr Philpot of Tenterden and Mr Stephens of Biddenden (both also near Ashford, but neither lived in Wye, but they became martyrs for their religion and have now been recognised for it all these years later. Evidence of their deaths have been recorded as well as their bones and charred remains being found by the gate of the church. Canterbury was a popular place for the death of these martyrs, and when you research these men the conclusion for their executions was London, but Wye was their final resting place without a doubt.
In terms of hauntings, we're not really sure that we need to go into it in a churchyard. No doubt the tragic murders of these two men were enough to have some spirit lingering here, not to mention countless other unrestful spirits buried within. But that wasn't the focus of our visit here, we chased the history no matter how morbid and we didn't see anything untoward. We paid our respects, learnt our history, and left.
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