All Saints Church, Maidstone

All Saints Church
West end of the church from across the River Medway
Location within Kent
Coordinates: 51°16′15″N 0°31′17″E / 51.2707°N 0.5215°E / 51.2707; 0.5215
Location	Maidstone, Kent
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	http://www.maidstoneallsaints.co.uk/
History
Founded	1395
Founder(s)	Archbishop William Courtenay
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	30 July 1951
Style	Perpendicular
Completed	1396–1398
Specifications
Materials	Rag-stone
Bells	10 (full circle)
Tenor bell weight	32 long cwt 0 qr 20 lb (3,604 lb or 1,635 kg)
Administration
Parish	All Saints, Maidstone
Archdeaconry	Maidstone
Diocese	Canterbury
Province	Canterbury

All Saints is a parish church in Maidstone, Kent. It is a Grade I listed building, and is described as the grandest Perpendicular style church in Kent, and by some, in the whole of England.

Founded by Archbishop of Canterbury William Courtenay in 1395 as part of a new College of All Saints, the church replaced an earlier one on the site dedicated to St Mary. Courtenay died in 1396 and the church and college were completed by his successor, Thomas Arundel, between 1396 and 1398.Richard II endowed the college with land and income from the Hospital of St Peter and St Paul in Maidstone and from the parishes of Linton, Farleigh, Sutton and Crundale. The college was also granted the advowsons for the parishes. To cover the cost of building the college, Courtenay obtained a bull to levy a charge of fourpence in the pound on all ecclesiastical revenue raised in his archbishopric.

When the college was closed in 1546 following the passing of the Chantries Act, its annual income was valued at £208 6s 2d (equivalent to £111,590 in 2015). The church and the college were separated. The church became the parish church for the whole of Maidstone and the college's estate was granted to George Brooke, Baron Cobham but was forfeited to the crown in 1603 when his grandson, Henry Brooke, the 11th Baron Cobham, was charged with high treason for his part in the Main Plot against James I. In the reign of Charles I the college became the property of Sir Edward Henden and later passed into the family of the Earls of Romney.