Sandwich Town, Kent, Part 2 St Peters Church

A Norman church stood on the site of the present church by about 1100. This was probably destroyed in 1216 when Sandwich was attacked by the French. The church was rebuilt during the 13th century, it is thought, by Carmelite friars from France.

In 1560 a group of Flemish Protestants from the Spanish Netherlands came to live in Sandwich and St Peter's became their church. The tower collapsed in 1661, destroying the south aisle. The Flemings rebuilt the tower, but left the south aisle ruined, and filled in the south arcade, making it the exterior south wall.

Before Sandwich became a Cinque Port, the ancient Saxon town of Stonar on the bank of the Wantsum estuary (on the opposite side of the mouth of the River Stour), was already well established. It remained a place of considerable importance but it disappeared almost without trace in the 14th century. The ruins of the major Roman fort of Richborough are close by. It was the landing place of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43.[5] In 2008, an archaeological dig proved that this was a defensive site of a Roman beachhead, protecting 700 metres of the coast.[6]

In 1028 King Canute (c. 995–1035) granted a charter to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, to operate a ferry across the river and collect tolls. In 1192, returning from the Third Crusade, Richard the Lionheart was jailed by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. Henry released Richard in February 1194. On 13 March 1194, Richard landed at the port of Sandwich and came back to England. In 1216, Prince Louis of France landed at Sandwich in support of the First Barons' War against King John. The Battle of Sandwich occurred just off the coast in 1217.

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