Ivychurch
St Georges 14th Century Church
Sprawling Counryside
Ivychurch is a Romney Marsh village which has a thriving pub, The Bell Inn close by is St George’s church , known as the “cathedral church’ of the marsh – as it is the largest of the 14 famous churches of Romney Marsh.
Why Live in Ivychurch?
Ivychurch is 3 miles from New Romney to the south east and 4 miles from Hamstreet to the north west up the A2070 , which has good connections by train to Ashford as well as the road route up the 2070 to junction 10 of the M20.
Like many of villages close to the English Channel Ivychurch was a centre for smuggling in the 1700’s – the crypt of the church was as important as the Inn; legend has it that no service was possible one Sunday because “the vestry was full of tobacco and the crypt full of brandy”.
Today the church is the centre for many community activities and festivals as well as worship. Ivychurch has a well known auto grass racetrack, and there is the nearby Brenzett aeronautical museum which collects and displays the many recovered aeroplanes from WW2 that came down on the Marsh returning from sorties across the English Channel. This is an area of agriculture and engineering.
Ivychurch has a unique setiing and landscape and is a special place of big skies and wide open fields separated by the sophisticated network of drainage channels that have made this marshland into agricultural land for centuries, and continue to protect it.