Visitor information

WELCOME!
All Saints’ Tudeley welcomes all visitors, whether you come to see Marc Chagall's masterworks or simply to seek the spiritual refreshment of our quiet country church.

As well as hosting art works of international importance, All Saints' Tudeley remains our parish church, and we ask visitors to respect that.

Quiet please!
It's a church, not an art gallery. So we ask you to speak in a low voice, not shout (yes, sadly, some do!).

Please allow others to enjoy the peace and quiet of this special place. Not like the poor man who left this message in our visitors book:

The best times to visit us
Surprisingly, wintertime and cloudy days are good times to come. The yellow south-facing windows can be rather bleached out in full sun, and are at their best on a cloudy day.

Winter light is great on the windows, as it slants in almost horizontally. The same is true of summer mornings and evenings.

Whatever season or time of day you come, the windows have something to offer; don't make a special effort to come in summer sunshine.

And if you avoid popular times, you may just have the place to yourself.

Entrance charges
All Saints’ Tudeley is a church and there is no charge for entrance. But maintaining our church with its unique art works costs around £200 a day, and we receive no funding either from the Church of England or from government. So we hope that visitors may like to donate £2 per person.

Photographs
You are welcome to take photographs: a donation to church funds would be appreciated.
 
Coach tours
Coach parties are very welcome, but PLEASE contact us in advance to make a reservation - email or complete this form.

Also please read these special instructions for coaches.

A local guide is available to give a 20-30 minute talk to groups, telling the story of the creation and installation of the windows. For this we ask a separate £25 per group. To book, email us or complete this form.

To watch a brief video of one of our volunteers talking about the creation of the windows, go here.

Coffee & biscuits (and sometimes ploughman's lunches!) may be available to groups: minimum 20 persons for coffee, 15 for lunch. Please ask for details.

Toilets
Although the church has toilets, these are not open to the public except during services, concerts or other events. Toilets will be made available to groups when a local guide is present, but at other times we regret there are no facilities on site.

24 hour public toilets can be found in Tonbridge in Priory Road opposite the railway station (with disabled Radar key and baby changing facilities).

Disabled access
The entrance to the church is ideal for wheelchairs etc, having only a very low threshold, and no steps or ramps. Inside the church there is a specially constructed ramp which allows wheelchair users access to the chancel.

The church hall next to the church has a disabled toilet, similarly accessible, but unfortunately we cannot keep this permanently open to the public. It is available, however, during services, concerts, group visits and other events.

We believe that disabled access is excellent, but if any visitor has a specific problem we would like to hear about it; email the webmaster.

During services an induction loop is employed.

Postcards and books
A selection of cards and books is available on the publications table which also houses the slot for donations:

Local services
A page of nearby pubs, restaurants and other useful links is here.

A map of some of them is here.

Where to stay
Capel Path Rangers' website has a useful page of local accommodation here.

You'll find many more places to stay via the local tourist information at Tunbridge Wells.

Other things to do near Tudeley
A public footpath passes through All Saints' churchyard, from which a number of pleasant walks may be had. For walkers, the wonderful Capel Path Rangers website can be found here.

Don't forget to visit our sister church at Capel, just a mile away: it has notable 13th century wall paintings, and a yew tree under which Becket himself is supposed to have preached.

More interesting stained glass windows can be found at St Mary's Speldhurst, just a few minutes away, including work by Burne-Jones and William Morris. Penshurst church has a fine window by Lawrence Lee.

While you are in the area, you may like to visit these local attractions:

Penshurst Place
Hever Castle
Ightham Mote
Chiddingstone Castle

Tudeley Woods RSPB

Notes from our visitors book
We love reading the messages left in our Visitors Book. Here are a few recent ones.