Faversham has one of the largest collections of municipal charters of any city or town in Britain, some dating back more than 700 years to 1252. The small Roman town of Durolevum (stronghold by the clear stream) was at, or near, Faversham. Tradition says that St Crispin and St Crispianus, after fleeing persecution in Rome by Emperors Diocletian and Maximianus, settled in Faversham in AD 284/6 and worked as shoemakers at the site of the Swan Inn. The site was visited by pilgrims till as late as the 17th Century, and Faversham Church had an altar to Crispin and Crispianus, patron saints of shoemakers, saddlers and tanners. After their Faversham sojourn, the pair were missionaries in Gaul, where, after refusing to reject their faith, they were executed on 25 October, 296, by order of Maximianus. Faversham is a market town of Saxon or earlier origin; the 6th and 7th centuries Kings Field cemetery has proved to be one of the richest uncovered in Kent. The settlement then was centred on what is now Tanners Street and West Street.

Faversham Abbey was founded in 1147 by King Stephen and his Queen, Matilda, daughter of Eustace, Count of Boulogne. The aim of Stephen and Matilda was to found a royal mausoleum for the House of Blois. King Stephen, whose mother was a sister of Henry I, became the last Norman king of England as a grandson of William the Conqueror and in 1154, his wife Matilda in 1152 and son Eustace, in 1153, were all buried in the Abbey; two deep pits close to the very centre of the choir were probably the royal tombs. Stephen was born c1096, son of Stephen, Count of Blois, and Adela (daughter of the Conqueror). The Abbey Church was excavated in 1964 and the empty graves of King Stephen, his wife and son were found. Their bones are said to have been thrown into Faversham Creek when the building was dismantled. A carving of King Stephen and his queen, Matilda, is in the town’s Old Grammar School. Following the Norman Conquest Faversham grew to become a busy port and market town, and during the 11th cenyury it joined the Cinque Ports confederation. Like the other Ports, Faversham functioned virtually as a ‘city-state’, owing allegiance only to the Crown and not forming part of the administrative county of Kent. [Haneseatic League]

Significantly, the arms of Faversham Abbey were those of the Ports, with an abbot’s crosier added. Each head port had its own MP and in the 16th century, when Dover was in decline, Faversham often elected one instead. When St Saviour's Abbey was founded in 1147 a further expansion of the town to the north-east was prompted. The port at Faversham grew and prospered in post-medieval times, along with other industries such as brewing, gunpowder making, and boat building. Maidstone

In the Pipe Roll of 1191 it is stated under the Hundred of Faversham that a murder had been committed and that it had been amerced at 5 Marks. In the exchequer were 45s 8d and for charters of pardon the brothers of the hospital paid 7s, the church there 20d and the monks of Faversham 12s 3d. The reference to the brothers of the hospital can only relate to the Maison Dieu; its foundation in 1234 has traditionally been ascribed to Henry III. It was run by monks, covered a large area, and was to all intents and purposes a small monastery. A place for the sick was usually also a place where travellers could rest, even on royal jaunts. Indeed, even Chaucer’s pilgrims passed by and perhaps remained here, at least for a pint. The French expression Maison Dieu was quite likely from the Anglo-Norman language spoken after 1056 AD when a mix of French and English was spoken in England. The exact name of this property was the Hospital of the Blessed Mary of Ospringe. There was also other space for pilgrims travelling to the shrine of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. Some of the priests who managed the hospital lived in this building and they were a small group of priests called the Brethren of the Holy Cross who followed the rule set up by St Augustine of Hippo. Across the Roman Road and Watling Street was a chapel and private rooms for the royalty when they travelled from London to Dover Castle, to Canterbury or on a wine run across the Channel. Ospringe is halfway between London and Dover. Those royal rooms were called ‘Camera Regis’ or in English, the King’s rooms. Maison Dieu doesn’t seem so old. The earliest records of the hospital date to 1234 AD, but the foundation would have been before that date. This house was built circa 1250 and rebuilt in the 1500s. It was used by royalty for the last time by King John of France in 1360. Later King Richard II gave the hospital additional property.

Notification by Simon abbot of St Bertin that Henry de Insula (de L'Isle) and Margaret his wife were at strife with St Bertin's abbey, for endeavouring to withdraw themselves from parochial allegiance of Throwley, which parish belongs to St Bertin. In the presence of Herbert (Hubert) archdeacon of Canterbury and master William de St Fide in Canterbury in the chapter house of the priests, they agreed and acknowledged themselves to be parishioners etc. on condition they and their relatives share in all the benfits and prayers of St Bertin and that their obits should be kept annually. In a pledge of peace Henry is to send one of his sons over sea to the abbot, who after being taught letters and carefully educated by the abbot, who after being taught letters and carefully educated in all that is necessary shall, if he will, become a monk. By the view also of the chapter of Ospringe, in the presence of Master William de St Fide 1176 preciding in the church of St Bertin by my predecessor in blessed memory Godeslac abbot. Henry II gave the Templars a manor in Strood in 1158/9, referred to subsequently as 'Temple Manor'. In the great survey of Templar holdings, done in c1185, it is shown that a group of five tenants held land in return for acting as drovers of pigs, sheep or oxen, and as messengers to Ospringe or to London, distances of 18 and 28 miles respectively. King John fir example visited in 1213 on 5th, 6th and 10th June. In the following yeare he went from Ospringe to Ewell to stay with the Templars. Cole, in his Calendar of Documents Illustrative of English History reproduces the Misae Roll of 1214, showing his expenses in travelling to and from Ospringe, including payments made to men of Ospringe. He visited again in the following year.

In medieval times the road through Ospringe was again of great strategic importance as the connection between London and Canterbury; and after 1170 it was much used by pilgrims journeying to the Shrine of St Thomas a Becket. In 1234 King Henry III founded a hospital at Ospringe to care for the sick, the aged, travellers and pilgrims. Known from its earliest days as Maison Dieu, the 13th century remnants of hospital buildings (perhaps housing the chantry priests) still survive on either side of Water Lane. In past times a nailbourne ran north along the Ospringe valley with water flowing north along the Water Lane carriageway from the corner of Mutton Lane

John Lewis in his History and Antiquities of Faversham (1727) and Edward Jacob in his History of Faversham (1774) both believed that the hospital had been staffed by templars. Southouse, writing in 1671, goes further, in so far as he says it was a house of the Templars where the Templars and after them the Hospitallers reposed themselves in their progress towards their other demeans in the county. Henry II gave the Templars a manor in Strood in 1158/9, referred to subsequently as 'Temple Manor'. In the great survey of Templar holdings, done in c1185, it is shown that a group of five tenants held land in return for acting as drovers of pigs, sheep or oxen, and as messengers to Ospringe or to London, distances of 18 and 28 miles respectively. In 1511 Archbishop Wareham's visitation stated that 'Master Woodruff, the warden said that he believed at the first foundation the custos and fellow were priest professed of the Holy Order of the Cross and used to wear a cross on their shoulders. He may have been referring to the re-establishment of the hospital by Henry III, the first master then had been a Templar, Geoffrey de Sutton. Perhaps this was in recognition of earlier service rendered by the order or the simple fact that he was a trusted royal official, having been appointed King's almoner in 1229 and Keeper of the Wardrobe in 1236. The Templars were noted for their administrative abilities. Faversham is the only town in the UK to use the royal arms of England as its own. They appear on the town council’s seal, approved by the heraldic authorities. Davington Priory was never dissolved by Henry VIII (it simply faded away) and so most of its Norman church (1153) and nuns’ quarters survive.

Kent’s largest brass is the one to Henry Hatch (died 1533) in Faversham Parish Church, leaving his estate to the town for Creek maintenance, care of Parish Church ornaments and highway improvements. An arch was erected in memory of Hatch at the churchyard’s Church Road entrance in 1862. Robert Dod in 1255, became the first person to bear the title of Mayor of Faversham, lived at 12 Market Place and made his fortune as a merchant venturer and wholesale fishmonger. This angered the Abbot of Faversham Abbey, who was Lord of the Manor of Faversham and was ever seeking to exert his authority over townspeople and the corporation, and early in 1256 he complained to King Henry III.

The Abbey was dissolved in 1538 and subsequently most of it demolished as part of King Henry VIII’s plans to sweep the monasteries from England. Much of the building material was removed by military engineers and transported by sea to France, where it was used to strengthen the fortifications of the towns in the Pale of Calais, which at the time was England's continental bridgehead. Among the few surviving buildings of Faversham Abbey are the two Barns at Abbey Farm. The smaller (Minor) Barn dates from 1425 and the larger (Major) Barn dates from 1476. In the farmyard of which they form part there are other listed buildings, including Abbey Farmhouse, part of which dates from the 14th century, and a small building which is thought to have been the Abbot’s stable. Also surviving is the Abbey Guest House, on the east side of the Outer Gateway of the Abbey; now known as Arden's House. Winchelsea

Norton is a small village about 3½ west of Faversham and is part of the Norton, Buckland & Stone Parish. In 1086 the Domesday Book surveyor reported that it possessed three churches, three mills and two fisheries. There used to be no ‘village’ of Norton, just a scattering of houses and farms, but recently the picturesque settlement of Lewson Street, with its popular pub, The Plough, was transferred from the parish of Teynham and now fulfils this role. Among fine historic buildings are the Church, Barbary Farm and Provender. The Church, set in an orchard, goes back to the 12th century and is notable for its fine monuments. Barbary, built in the 15th century, is a classic Wealden hall house. Provender has a 14th-century core, substantially extended in 15th-17th centuries. Clement Norton, Vicar of Faversham for 24 years from 1535, is traditionally said to have been Mayor of Faversham in 1536 and the only vicar to have held the post. Norton, third son of Faversham gentry, was a Fellow of All Souls’, Oxford, before becoming vicar. Norton has seen its fair share of history. William Laud (1573-1645), Archibishop of Canterbury from 1633, who was beheaded on Tower Hill on 10 January 1645, had been Rector of the Parish from 1610 to 1617. Edward Lake, Rector from 1669-1683, was chaplain and tutor to the two daughters of the Duke of York, both of whom were to become Queens of England - Mary II and Anne. Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), the great naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage of exploration and was President of the Royal Society in 1779 was the owner of Provender, a house which in the 20th century was to have close associations with members of the Russian royal family.

Arden's House, now a private residence in Abbey Street, was the location of the infamous murder of Thomas Arden in 1551. The 1551 murder, by Alice Arden and her lover, of her husband, Thomas, a past Mayor of Faversham, inspired the first English domestic drama, Arden of Faversham, ascribed to Shakespeare by some scholars. Thomas was killed in his parlour by Alice Arden, and her lover, Thomas Mosby, steward to her stepfather, Sir Edward North, aided by two hired thugs, Black Will and George Loosebag (the play’s Shakebag). For this, Alice was burnt to death at Canterbury and Mosby was hanged in London. Black Will was burnt. Loosebag fled justice. Alice was granddaughter of Robert Brigandine, the Mary Rose’s designer. All the leading companies of travelling players, including the one to which Shakespeare belonged, performed in Faversham in Elizabethan and Jacobean times.

Provender, at Norton, one of the finest medieval houses in the Faversham area, was a hunting lodge of Edward the Black Prince. At Teynham, locally-born Richard Harris, fruiterer to King Henry VIII, pioneered the growing of cherries in England. Faversham was the birthplace of John Ward, who flourished between 1603 and 1615 as the biggest pirate of his day. He settled in Tunis, converted to Islam and built up a fleet that was a match for Venice’s. Ward’s life was dramatised in the Jacobean play A Christian Turn’d Turk. Creation of the British Empire and the Commonwealth, and adoption of English as the international lingua franca, would have been impossible without the output of the gunpowder factories for which Faversham was once famed. Faversham welcomed refugee Huguenots persecuted in France. King James II was held captive in Court Street, Faversham, in 1688 while trying to flee to France after the landing of William the Orange, his son-in-law. James was held at 12 Market Place (now Stead & Simpson) and 18 Court Street, home of the mayor, Thomas Southouse, until his release was negotiated by the Earl of Feversham, his confidant, and a military escort took him to London. He later left for France. His release was negotiated by Louis Duras, second Earl of Feversham, who, though a Protestant, was a confidant of the Catholic king.

The exponential growth of Victorian London would have been impossible without Faversham’s brickfields. By the end of the 20th century, however, the stream had dried up and the old red brick bridge in Vicarage Lane over the dry stream bed is now a ghostly reminder of the once picturesque watercourse. Preston, which now forms part of the town of Faversham, is a settlement of Anglo-Saxon origin. Preston itself means Priest's farmstead or manor and from Anglo-Saxon times to the Reformation was actually owned by the Monks of Christ Church, Canterbury. It is referred to in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Prestetone. In 1716, there were but 16 families in the parish. The population was 220 at the time of the first national census in 1801. In 1831 the population was 673. Preston Church is dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, a virgin martyred at the city in the early fourth century AD. St Catherine was a focus of intense devotion in the Middle Ages. She was regarded as the patroness of young women, lawyers, philosophers, preachers, millers and wheelwrights. The church has served the needs of both Preston and the wider community of Faversham since Anglo-Saxon times. The brass on the north side is of Valentine and Cecilia Baret of Perry Court. He died on 20 November 1440 and she on 11 March 1442. She was a daughter of Marcellus at Lese, of Sheldwich. They had no sons- Perry Court which had belonged to the Barets for about a hundred years, passed into the hands of the Darell family of Colehill. The Barets' only daughter - Joanne married John Barrel. The brass on the south side is of William Mareys, courtier and squire of Henry V, the victor of Agincourt. His "fantastic armour work" as Arthur Mee described it, incorporates the latest technology of the day, including some elbow buckles. William, who later married Joan, the widow of Thomas Brimstone, the owner of Macknade Manor, was later a member of the household of Cardinal Beaufort, son of John of Gaunt, "time honoured Lancaster", several times Lord Chancellor of England. William died on 31 August 1459.

In the sanctuary is the impressive marble tomb erected in 1629 by Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork 1566-1643), in memory of his parents, Roger and Joan (nee Naylor). They are the recumbent figures on the tomb; they lived in Preston Parish until their respective deaths in 1576 and 1586. The eldest son, John, is depicted kneeling at the feet of his parents: John became Bishop of Cork in 1618, dying in 1620. Richard himself is depicted kneeling at his parents' head, facing eastwards. Kneeling at the side of tomb are depicted the three remaining children of Roger and Joan. Hugh, their third son, killed in wars abroad, is joined by Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, wife of Piers Power, and Mary, wife of Sir Richard Smyth. Richard made his money mainly by buying all Sir Walter Raleigh's confiscated estates and developing them. He had 12 children; the eldest inherited his title as Earl of Cork (to which was added that of Burlington, so Preston can claim a link with the fashionable Burlington Arcade of Piccadilly). After two more generations, that family became extinct since the fourth Earl had only two daughters, one of whom married Lord Hartington, later Duke of Devonshire (so that the Boyle estates in Ireland went to that family). The other married Lord Euston, son of the Duke of Grafton, who is reputed to have murdered her. The fifth son of Richard, who erected this monument, was Robert Boyle (1627-1691), philosopher and scientist. Robert formulated the scientific law, known as Boyle's Law, that the volume of a given mass of gas varies inversely as the pressure, if the temperature remains constant. He was a founder of the Royal Society and founded a lectureship in defence of Christianity. The monument, having fallen into a sad state of decay, was restored during the ministry of Noel Brownsell (1938-1951). More recently, work to the tomb has been carried out and funded by the Duke of Devonshire. One of the tombstones in the nave floor is inscribed in Latin and bears the coat of arms of Charles Hulse, Gentlemen, who died on 17 October 1678, aged 54 years.