English: St Margaret's church, parish of Horsmonden, and its history. The parish of Horsmonden extends to about nine square miles and its church, St Margaret's, stands on a gentle slope looking across the Teise valley towards the hilltop village of Goudhurst just a mile away. It was during the 14th century that Henry de Grofhurst, Rector of the Parish for fifty years, built the church in this commanding spot in the south of the parish using the local Wealden sandstone. Some two centuries later the present village of Horsmonden became established on the Heath centred on the new iron foundry (gun making) and broadcloth industries that became established there. See images Furnace Pond, Horsmonden and Old Clothmaster's hall, Broadford). This is why Horsmonden village is some two miles away from its parish church.

Foremost among the antiquarian treasures in St Margaret's is a contemporary brass portrait in the chancel floor of Henry de Grofhurst, the builder, engraved about 1340. Looking down on the congregation from the south wall is the sculptured marble head of John Read (1760-1847), gardener and handyman to the Rector of the time. Read was also an inventor of exceptional ingenuity. Many of his clever ideas were taken up. Among them were his methods for hop-drying and for the treatment of blown cattle. In 1823 he astonished the medical establishment by successfully demonstrating the very first stomach pump, an unpretentious invention which must have relieved a great deal of suffering.

Ref: Cronk, Anthony "St Margaret's Church, Horsmonden" (3rd Edition 1995). Good photos of the main features of this interesting old church are at http://www.roughwood.net/ChurchAlbum/Kent/Horsmonden/HorsmondenStMargaret2005.htm, also see Gallery at: https://www.geograph.org.uk/gallery/the_history_of_horsmonden_8738 and full article on Horsmonden at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2_ZstVBZSfIC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA99#v=onepage&q=&f=true