St Mary & St Eanswythe’s Church – Venue

Church Street, Folkestone. CT20 1SE.
What3Words: keen.helpfully.iron

St Eanswythe’s Church is proud to play its part in the life of the town, both as a place of Christian worship but also as somewhere that music and the arts can flourish and be celebrated.

The church is developing an increasing reputation within the town as a venue for the arts and in recent years has hosted: exhibitions, musical events from contemporary classical through to rock and jazz gigs, and other cultural events including a celebration of music and food from across the world for International Women’s Day. There are two distinct spaces within the church that could be used, depending on the nature of a performance, with the largest accommodating an audience of around 250.

There has been a church on this site since the 1130s and we’ve been serving our town and parish ever since. In recent years we’ve had the exciting and renewed focus on Saint Eanswythe, Patron Saint of both the church and the town of Folkestone, whose relics were ‘rediscovered’ in 1885 and scientifically verified in 2020 to international acclaim. The relics were placed in a new, specially commissioned reliquary, designed by contemporary British artist, Sophie Hacker, in 2024 and draw pilgrims from across the world.

The church is usually open for visiting between 11am & 1pm Wednesday-Saturday (and often on a Monday too) plus there’s a service at 10.30am on Sunday. It’s worth a visit for its notable stained glass and other artwork as well as a sense of history and worship in this place across nearly a millennium.

It’s always worth considering St Eanswythe’s as a venue, so do please contact us to explore options!

sainteanswythe@gmail.com
01303-252947
https://stmaryandsteanswythe.org/