This is one of our local historic buildings which will be open to the public from 12th to the 21st September. It is usually open only by appointment on 07590753394. (Check English Heritage website to confirm opening before your visit).

Free entry

This building was built in the 13th-century. It was a chapel and hall of a 'Commandery' of Knights Hospitallers. The Knights Hospitaller were a military and religious order founded in the 12th century with the purpose of caring for and protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land. Their main unit of local administration was the commandery, where knights and sergeants lived together under the rule of a commander, who administered the estates with which the order had been endowed. Revenues from commanderies funded hospitals for sick pilgrims. The Hospitallers founded a religious community here in 1180,  This Chapel is the only remaining building of the Commandery of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem. There were 38 of these Commanderies in England, four in Kent, one of which was Swingfield.  

(Swingfield, Dover. Kent CT15 7HG)