Skip to main content
Contact us Submit an event listing
Visit Medway Web Logo Visit Medway
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Travelling to Medway
    • Itinerary Ideas
    • Attraction Listings
    • What's On Event Listings
    • Car Free Days around Medway
    • Places to Stay
    • Accommodation
    • Hotels
    • Bed & Breakfast
    • Self-catering and Holiday Park
    • Support Services for Visitors & Coach Groups
    • Parking in Medway
    • Weather and Tide Times
    • Medway's Breathtaking Wedding Venues
  • Things To Do
    • Our Destinations
    • Find Attractions
    • Dickensian Medway
    • Castles and Forts
    • Military and Maritime
    • Natural Landscape & Open Spaces
    • River Medway
    • Houses of History
    • Get Active
    • Rochester Castle
    • Rochester Cathedral
    • Eastgate House & Gardens
    • Guildhall Museum
    • The Historic Dockyard Chatham
    • Upnor Castle
    • Royal Engineers Museum
    • Medway Aircraft Preservation Society
    • Wings Over the River Medway
    • Fort Amherst
    • Huguenot Museum
    • The Lena Kennedy Shack
    • Shopping & Markets
    • Food & Drink
    • Blogs & Features
    • Events, shows & exhibitions
    • River trips
    • Walking tours
    • Costumed Guided Tours
    • The Rochester Trail
  • What's On
    • What's On in 2025
    • Call the Midwife Official Tour 2025
    • Rochester Sweeps Festival 2025

    Armed Forces Day at the Historic Dockyard Chatham coming this June

    DSCF5390

    Click here for a full list of festivals & events in Medway.

    • Medway's Major Events
    • Submit an event listing
    • What's on at the Theatres
  • Cultural & Creative
    • Medway Arts Tours - Costumed Character Tours
    • Stephen Moriarty Artist - Costumed Tours of Rochester
    • The Central Theatre
    • The Riverside Gallery at Sun Pier House
    • Halpern Pop Gallery
    • Nucleus Arts Chatham
    • Intra Arts Chatham
  • Itinerary Ideas
    • Medway's Breathtaking Wedding Venues
    • Medway's Military Marvels
    • Magnificent Craft Ales & Micropubs
    • Car Free Days around Medway

    Check out our blogs and features for itinerary ideas and inspiration

    • Dickensian Medway
    • History & Heritage
    • Castles & Forts
    • Military & Maritime
    • Natural Landscape & Open Spaces
    • Houses of History
    • River Medway
  • Getting Married In Medway

Search our site

Visit Medway Web Logo Visit Medway
Plan Your Visit Things To Do What's On Cultural & Creative Itinerary Ideas Getting Married In Medway
Terms & Conditions Cookies Accessibility Privacy Contact Us Site Map
  1. Home
  2. See and do
  3. Find Attractions
  4. St James' Church, Cooling
st-james-church-cooling.jpg

St James' Church, Cooling

Web Links Location Local station Higham
Heritage and Gardens

The inspiration for a dramatic Dickens tale... Charles Dickens used the churchyard of St James' Church as his inspiration in the opening chapter of Great Expectations, where the hero Pip meets Magwitch the convict.

In the churchyard, you can find what have become known as Pip's Graves - the forlorn gravestones of 13 babies that Dickens describes in the chapter as "little stone lozenges each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their [parents'] graves".

Inside, the church is light and spacious. There is a 500-year-old timber door that still swings on its ancient hinges - even though it now leads to a blocked north doorway! Another quirky feature is the 19th-century vestry - its walls are lined from top to bottom with thousands of cockle shells - the emblem of St James....

st-james-inside.jpg
st-james-church-cooling.jpg

Did you know you can camp out in St James' Church? The church is one of only two churches in Kent where you can enjoy Champing, a unique experience by the Churches Preservation Trust. Find out more. Read our blog. 

Open Map

Address

St James' Church, Cooling Main Road, Cooling Rochester
ME3 8DG

Contact

[email protected] 01634 220204

Links

  • Website
  • accessibility Accessibility
Audio tours
Coaches welcome
Groups welcome
Guide Dogs, Hearing Dogs and Registered Assistance Dogs welcome
Guided tours
Medcouncil Cmykstrapline
Visit Medway
Official website of Visit Medway, Medway Council
Our other sites

Visit Medway B2B Hub Enjoy Medway What's On Medway Tickets Live Medway Council Adobe Acrobat Reader Google Maps
Our Destinations

Rochester Chatham Gillingham
Terms & Conditions Cookies Accessibility Privacy Contact Us Site Map
Official website of Visit Medway, Medway Council