Capel, Kent

Capel is a hamlet and civil parish in the Tunbridge Wells District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the north of the Weald, three miles (4.8 km) to the east of Tonbridge. The southern part of the parish lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, whilst most of the land also falls within the Metropolitan Green Belt. As well as Capel itself, the parish includes the communities of Castle Hill, Colts Hill, Five Oak Green, Postern, Tudeley and Whetsted.HistoryThe name Capel may have derived from its church being a chapel of the nearby church at Tudeley.The parish Church of St Thomas à Becket is now redundant, and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Services are held there four times a year, and the church is open to visitors daily. It contains some lovely 12th century wall paintings depicting Cain and Abel, and Christ's entry to Jerusalem, originally there to help those who could not read learn the stories of the Bible. Outside is a yew tree under which Thomas a Becket himself is supposed to have preached. The church tower was partly rebuilt following a fire in 1639.