Penshurst Medieval Dole Table

The Penshurst medieval dole table is one of only a handful to survive in English churchyards.

The dole was a small portion of food, clothing or money that was placed on the table for the poor on special occasions such as St Thomas' Day, 21st December each year.

Dole tables or stones were stone tables or ledges usually located in church porches and more rarely in churchyards.  Dole tables were in use from medieval times until the 16th  or 17th centuries.

Stone dole tables and wooden dole cupboards located inside churches were used to distribute money or bread to the needy of the parish and travelers in need of help passing through a town or village.

Very few dole tables have survived to the present day.  

A church has stood in Penshurst since 1115. The Grade I listed church is located at the center of a cluster of buildings, including the manor house, a timber-framed guild house built in the 16th century and the rectory. The first priest of the church was installed in 1170 by Archbishop Thomas Becket, his last official act before his murder in Canterbury Cathedral.

Within the church and churchyard, those buried or commemorated include knights, earls and viscounts. The Sidney Chapel vault, as well as a stone carving of the porcupine crest of the Sidneys, are also part of the church building.  The Sidney family has lived in the adjoining Penshurst Place for over 450 years and family members enter the church through a gate directly from the garden of Penshurst Place.

The village itself is filled with a number of timber-framed buildings including the post office, with an entrance shaped like a huge horseshoe.