Faversham is a large market town in East Kent, a few miles W of Canterbury. It was the location of a royal abbey. The parish church of St Mary of Charity is mostly of the 13th-14thc and has a nave, Victorian W tower, unusual aisled transepts, chancel, NE vestry, crypt, and S porch. The nave and central tower were demolished in 1755, and the nave rebuilt with the exception of the westernmost bay, which contains a blocked Romanesque arch on its N side. The original clerestory window over this arch now opens into a later medieval upper room, possibly for the use of the sexton. It is plain apart from a simple exterior chamfer.

Faversham in 1087 (Domesday Survey) was held by King William I and prior to this by Edward the Confessor. No church is mentioned.

The nave and central tower, being deemed unsafe, were pulled down in 1754-55. The tower was described retrospectively as 'a large, square castellated tower' (Tuesday Express, 8 April 1919, 2, quoting a source of 1818) The nave was described as follows: 'the roof of the nave was supported by large square low pillars, with semi-circular arches between them, over which was a parapet wall, with several openings' (Tuesday Express, 8 April 1919, 2). The nave arcades were rebuilt to designs by the architect George Dance. A W tower was erected to designs by Charles Beazley in the 1790s. The entire church was reworked by George Gilbert Scott in 1855 and 1873-75.

The church from the exterior appears to be thoroughly 19thc but the Romanesque fabric is a small but telling part of the building. It implies the existence of a long arcaded nave. No 12thc work is evident elsewhere in the church and no re-set fragments are visible.