The Lost Village of Dode (Official)

06/01/2025

It appears our website may be having a little issue….our IT team are looking into it. Please email Becky if you need any information..🫶🏻

05/01/2025

✨ Final Spaces Remaining for Burns Night at Dode! ✨

Join us in the magical setting of the Lost Village of Dode for an unforgettable evening celebrating the life and legacy of Scotland’s beloved poet, Robert Burns.

🗓 When: Saturday, 25th January 2025
📍 Where: The Lost Village of Dode

Indulge in a traditional Burns Night supper catered by Flying Pig Kitchen, with haggis, neeps, and tatties, paired with the finest whiskies. Enjoy an evening of poetry, music, and laughter, all set within the enchanting 900-year-old Norman chapel.

Don’t miss out on this atmospheric evening! Limited spaces are available, so book now to secure your spot.

🎟️ Tickets: email [email protected] to confirm a booking £60pp BYO Booze.

We can’t wait to welcome you to Dode for this special celebration!

31/12/2024

30/12/2024

✨ As the year draws to a close… ✨

2024 has been a truly magical year at The Lost Village of Dode. From intimate ceremonies under the ancient beams of our Norman church to joyous celebrations surrounded by the timeless Kent countryside, every wedding has been a story of love and connection.

We’ve been honored to be part of so many beautiful journeys this year, and we’re endlessly grateful to the couples, families, and friends who’ve entrusted us with their most special moments.

As we step into 2025, we’re excited for the memories yet to be made. Whether it’s a unique handfasting ceremony, an unforgettable micro-wedding, or an event that celebrates your story in a way only Dode can, we can’t wait to welcome you.

Thank you for making 2024 a year to remember. Here’s to love, celebration, and the year ahead! 🕊️

Let’s make 2025 the year of timeless memories. 🌿



Photographers:
Matt James photography


Catherine Beltramini Photography

26/12/2024

Love truly is the magic of the season! Who got swept off their feet with a Christmas proposal? We’d love to hear your enchanting engagement stories...

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season. 🎄

Blessed Be

Our doors will open in the New Year for exclusive viewings beginning Sunday, 12th January. To arrange a personal tour of our charming venue, feel free to message us or email [email protected].

24/12/2024

Last Minute Christmas Present Idea?
Come to our 8 course Burns Night Feast at The Lost Village of Dode (Official) Saturday 25th January 6.30pm for a 6.45pm meal £60 per person
Bring your own drinks
To book tickets contact [email protected]

24/12/2024

Yuletide Blessings from us all at Dode 🎄🦌

May you and your loved ones enjoy the season whichever way that may be.

We will now be closed for a short break over the festive period to share with family and loved ones but will be open early January for those wishing to view Dode and discuss any potential wedding plans. Please email Becky to book in.

Xx

22/12/2024

A Tree for All Seasons

Mary and I are regular visitors to Hever Castle, we’re evangelical, verging on the nerdy about the beauty of the grounds and the many aspects of the natural world that call it home, and that live comfortably alongside, and even occasionally exploit, we humans.

A little used path is ‘The Sunday Walk’ so named because it leads to the church. At the top of the walk is a venerable Horse Chestnut tree which is the subject of this, my little ramble.

We have just returned from our Christmas visit and, if the past is anything to go by and the gods permit, we will return again at regular intervals throughout the coming year.

Last Saturday night the tree stood starkly against the winter sky, its bare branches illuminated by the full ‘Cold’ or ‘Long Night’ moon.

We are due to return in February, when we know that a necklace of pure white snowdrops will encircle its trunk. (As well as a harbinger of spring, it will be a time to remember; father died ‘at the time of the snowdrops’).

A few weeks later and the first sticky buds will appear, to be followed, in May, by the vibrant green leaves and flower heads of late spring and early summer.

Shortly, as the summer’s sun gains strength the flower heads will give way to the tiny embryonic nuts, I begin to notice them when they are no bigger than a pea.
As autumn approaches they grow into the burnished, beloved conkers of my childhood. We sometimes collect them as ‘accoutrements’ for Dode or to keep spiders away from the beams in the cottages (an old wives tale - they don’t work).
A few weeks later and the huge strangely shaped leaves, have taken on their autumn hues and begin to fall.

And so the tree drifts into sleep once again, the circle is complete.

Nobody actually needs a calendar hanging on their wall to tell them what time of year it is - there’s a tree near you and it’s free to view!

But you have to admit, those Pagans knew a good thing when they saw it - a holiday every six weeks or so, simply by reacting to nature in the most natural of ways.
I’ve been crafty and have of course, just shamelessly promoted one of my talks ‘The Celtic Wheel of the Year.

My little talks including some new mystic and history subjects will recommence in the early spring (or as we like to refer to it as ‘the time of the sticky buds’) at Dode and hopefully later (if a supply of electricity is possible) at our ‘sister church’ at Paddlesworth.

I hope to see you at one, or if you can put up with my droning on, perhaps a couple of them.

Yuletide Blessings
Doug.

21/12/2024

Winter Solstice at Holly Barrow: A Time for Reflection

As the longest night of the year blankets the land, we pause to honor the Winter Solstice – a moment of stillness, reflection, and renewal.

At Holly Barrow columbarium, this sacred time reminds us of the cyclical nature of life and the quiet beauty found in embracing the dark to welcome the returning light. The resting place within our natural burial ground stands as a symbol of enduring peace, where loved ones are cradled by the earth in timeless serenity.

This Solstice, let us light a candle, reflect on the year passed, and look ahead to the promise of brighter days. May the turning of the wheel bring warmth to your heart and hope to your spirit.

From all of us at Holly Barrow, we wish you a peaceful and restorative Solstice.

20/12/2024

Another wonderful evening spent for the first joint Carols with our sister church St. Benedict's Church, Paddlesworth 🎄🎶

19/12/2024

Remembering the past.

Another Christmas, another couple of wonderful evenings spent in the warm embrace of my little church, drinking mulled wine, singing carols, greeting old faces and making new friends.

Perfect.

Speaking as one ‘of advancing years’ I can’t always remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, but the more distant past is another matter.

I vividly remember my childhood, loved ones and friends that are no longer a part of our lives, either by death, happenstance or design. Bright sunlit days, stories of snow and storms. Opportunities taken and lost. The list goes ever on!

Whilst doing my usual welcome speeches this year, looking at so many happy faces, I couldn’t help but think back to a very different day in mid December exactly 34 long years ago.

Rain dripped through the roof, parts of the altar, mixed with spliff ends, cans and needles lay at my feet, the door was burnt off, and graffiti covered the walls.

Here’s a little montage of some of the newspaper headlines from that time.

It was as if I had come across a wounded animal. The little building was wary, frightened even. Its spirit was strong but it was asking, crying for help.

Above all, even in decay, it was proud and beautiful.

And so; 34 years later, through bright sunny days, snow and storm. With help from loved ones and friends, many no longer with us. An opportunity taken, and a couple sadly lost, we are where we are, and I and Dode are happy.

It’s the same, and yet a very different place.

It’s still a meeting place but of differently minded people (although you might be surprised to learn how many, now in their mid fifties, return and ‘fess up’!)
At the beginning did I say ‘my little church’ - I’m sorry I should have written ‘our’.

Sacred places, no matter where they are, big or small, impressive or, as little Dode, remote and understated, belong to everyone. To humanity.

And therein will lie the next chapter, perhaps one of the most difficult, yet rewarding, in its long story.

Bright Yuletide Blessings - Doug.

19/12/2024

🎄 Let the Festivities Officially Commence 🎄

Two nights….150 guests and plenty of Christmas spirit. That’s a wrap on this years Christmas Carols and what a wonderful 2 nights we had. I think it may have been one of the best yet and thank you everyone who made the journey out to join us. Just one last night to go with our joint carols at our sister church .benedictspaddlesworth

A big thank you of course to the amazing Choir ‘Innominata’ it really is a pleasure to have them back each year and they do a wonderful job.

A thank you to all our amazing volunteers and helpers who help make the evenings go so smoothly and for capturing some excellent photos this year.

for providing the locally produced Mulled Wine for the evenings 🍷

The proceeds from the Carol evenings along with the majority of events held over the course of 2024 helped raise in excess of £3,200 which is donated to this years charity THANK YOU ❤️

We hope you all enjoyed the evening and we look forward to welcoming many of you back I’m sure either to one of our next events or for next years Carols.

Merry Yuletide Blessings 🎄

18/12/2024

🎶Carols night 2🎶
The weather may not be so kind to us tonight so for those attending please remember your ☔️ for heading back to the car….

15/12/2024

13/12/2024

Wow a week ago already….what a fantastic and busy weekend it was.

🎄 3 delicious Christmas Feasts served by Flying Pig Kitchen and for those who attended please join us in giving Sally & Rob and the team an almighty thank you. Come rain or shine (in this case storms) they cooked up a feast with smiles on their faces.

🎶 Music was provided by the talented Phaedra Friday and Sunday evening and !nVerse on Sunday lunch and a big thank you to them both, adding to the festive vibe.

We are now getting ready for next weeks Carols and we can’t wait to see everyone there.

If you have any pictures from the Christmas feasts last weekend please do share…we didn’t manage to get many ourselves. 🫶🏻

Fancy hosting your own private party/event….get in touch with [email protected].

11/12/2024

Different strokes for different folks.

Recently a few people have asked me about Dodes doctrine and as we are now at an important time of the year in a number of religious calendars perhaps this is the time to elaborate.

One of the most recent was an enquiry from a lady a couple of weeks ago who asked why, if Dode isn’t aligned the Christian religion, we held carol services.
It was a fair question.

My answer was firstly that it’s a carol concert, and not service, there are no bible readings but rather poems that usually reflect on the natural world and Dodes place within it.

I also pointed out that many carols, particularly the melodies are old folk tunes, that originally had nothing to do with Christmas and, that as far as organisation permits, we hold the concerts as close as possible to the Winter Solstice, an event entirely dictated by nature and not mankind.

I ended by saying that a number of religions have major celebrations in December, nothing is exclusive and it’s simply something that everybody needs and enjoys.
A gathering together of humanity at the darkest time of the year.

It’s was a bit of a mishmash of an answer, thinking on my feet, in front of 30 other people, but along with a number of other similar questions asked recently the general ‘thrust’ of the question deserves a more fulsome answer, together with a short history as to how it came about.

I’m not the most intelligent, knowledgeable or eloquent of blokes but no one can doubt my enthusiasm so here goes.

I was brought up in the Christian faith and at the time that my involvement with Dode started almost 35 years ago, despite reservations, is how I would have described myself.

Recognising immediately that the place we had so unexpectedly acquired was sacred, believing that in essence, religion is often divisive and being aware of its deep heritage l wanted to make Dode a little centre of multi faith worship, with all religions able to use it, free of charge.

My ‘first ports of call’ were obviously various branches of the Christian Church, with initial approaches also made to other mainstream religions, all of whom expressed interest.

A number of the ‘branches’ of the Christian faith were most helpful and enthusiastic.

Then, as now, considerably out of my depth, I spoke, amongst many others, with such diverse representatives of religion as an Anglican Bishop and a Catholic Archbishop, a Swami and a Shaman.

Back then, two men in particular; the Prior of Aylesford, and The Metropolitan of Glastonbury offered sound advice, both spiritual and practical but most importantly of all, encouragement.

Sadly all I received from the local diocese of the Church of England was a negative, even hostile response.

If my own church, in which I was baptised, confirmed and married, could not entertain the concept, it was clear that I was ‘barking up the wrong tree’ and following a particularly acrimonious exchange with the then Archdeacon of Rochester involving our ‘inappropriateness’ of depicting a dragon within our walls (strange, since Rochester Cathedral hosted an artwork of a dragon earlier this year) l decided that if we could not host all religions at Dode we would host none, but that people all religions, and of course of none, would be welcome.

And that’s where we stand.

To reiterate, people of all religious beliefs are ‘accepted on equal love’ as are adherents to ‘world views’ such as Anamism. People who are conflicted, and those who have no faith or belief whatsoever. All are welcome.

A decision made over a quarter of a century ago works well at little Dode and, if you have been lucky enough to secure your ticket, we look forward to greeting you next week to our two carol concerts.

Not to a solely Christian ‘event’ but simply to a much needed and appreciated tiny gathering of humanity in our secluded valley, at this, the dark time of the year.

Bright Yuletide Blessings
Doug.