Conservation works are underway at one of Kent’s oldest and once-forgotten churches. The 900-year-old seats at Dode Church, near Luddesdown, Gravesend, are one of the features which have been restored after falling into disrepair following more than two decades of use. The ancient Norman seats would have been where the congregation sat whilst they heard the news of the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Beckett or prayed for their loved ones when the Black Death hit England. In Medieval times, they would have surrounded the nave of the church and only used by the elderly, infirm or pregnant wo…