The tiny farming hamlet known as East End - literally named because it was in the far east end of the Benenden parish - was three miles away from the parish church of St. George's, and in 1888 the main landowner, Lord Cranbrook, decided to build the residents a small church dedicated to St. Margaret, alongside a little schoolroom and a house for the schoolmistress. In 1892 St. Margaret's was licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In 1907 the Post Office Sanitorium was built (later known as the Benenden Chest Hospital).
The patients began to use St. Margaret's for worship during their convalescence.
However the regular congregation was dwindling as the invention of the motor car meant that local residents could drive into Benenden to St. George's. In 1926 St. Margaret's became the property of the Parish Church as a chapel-of-ease. In the early 1930s the building was passed to the hospital who took over its maintenance. Between 1959 and 1961 the interior was refurbished by architect William Wheeler with Messrs. Woodgate of High Halden providing the joinery work with local oak. The redecoration work was commissioned by the Civil Service Association and the emblems of the various contributing Branches are carved on the various fixtures and fittings inside the church. Text by Rob Baker
