Our Story

Before our Parish was established, the needs of the Catholic communities were provided for by the Maidstone Parish which was founded in 1859.

In 1960 St Thomas More became an independent Parish when Fr. Timothy Daly was appointed Parish Priest and a house together with 3 acres of land was purchased in East Malling. The parish at that time, had a small church in Frog Lane, West Malling and a Mass centre at Snodland.

The church in its current location was built in 1972 and the school was completed by 1973 with Derek Johnson as the first Head Teacher. It was at about this time that the house at East Malling was sold but the land retained.

By now Fr. Daly had an assistant Priest from Malta, Fr. Pat Zammit and we now had daily Mass at West Malling, weekly Mass at Snodland and Leybourne Grange hospital.

In 1982 the church was consecrated by the Archbishop of Southwark the Most Rev. Michael G. Bowen. The Hermitage was divided to provide a home for the Auxiliary Bishop the Right Rev. John Jukes who was ordained Bishop in 1980.

Fr. Daly retired in 1988 due to poor health after 45 years of service. He lived for a while in Snodland before returning to Ireland.

1989 saw many changes. Fr. Kevan Hayden the assistant Priest left to go to Ashford and was not replaced. Our new Parish Priest Fr. John Lawrence now had to run the Parish on his own. Also in 1989 Pat Lonergan was ordained a Deacon on the 19th. June, but tragically died in January 1990. A sad loss to the Parish.

Fr. John Lawrence started up our nursery school soon after arriving and it is still thriving today. The creation of the school required many changes to the Priests house as they occupied half of the ground floor.

In 1999 it was all change again and Fr. John left West Malling Parish to become Parish Priest of Cranbrook. He was replaced by Fr. Peter Soper from Margate. The last few years were quite eventful. We now had a Senior and Junior Youth Groups, Children's Liturgy Group and a child protection policy in place. The land at East Malling was sold, planning permission was obtained to convert the stable block for the nursery school and Parish use. And after much soul searching and debates the decision to close the Church at Snodland was made.

Five Area Groups were setup to be a means of 'welcome' and 'welfare' in the Parish. A 'Donate 8' scheme (people donating 8 hours a year to the Parish). This was to involve Parishioners in the running of the Parish so that we can look to the future with confidence whatever happens. It has been a great joy to see the Parish coming together - Church, Schools, Parish Groups and communities - to become very much a real 'family'.