Snodland, First Independent Chapel

Earliest records of Non-Conformists worshipping in Snodland are certificates granting meeting-houses in various homes from 1816. The Ebenezer Chapel at Chatham supplied visiting ministers. When William Joynson managed the paper mill between 1824 and 1833 he fitted up the house of a paper-maker, Thomas Kidwell, as the first Independent Chapel. This building in Mill Street served until 1855 and later became the time office for the paper mill and home to William Penny (c.1832-1909), seen here outside it. Following the mill fire of 1906 it was demolished.