| Country: | England |
| Static Image: | St_Mary_Woodnesborough_1.jpg |
| Static Image Width: | 220px |
| Static Image Caption: | St Mary the Blessed Virgin Church, Woodnesborough |
| Official Name: | Woodnesborough |
| Coordinates: | 51.2636°N 1.31°W |
| Label Position: | left |
| Population: | 1,066 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 census)[1] |
| Shire District: | Dover |
| Shire County: | Kent |
| Region: | South East England |
| Constituency Westminster: | Herne Bay and Sandwich |
| Post Town: | Sandwich |
| Postcode District: | CT13 |
| Postcode Area: | CT |
| Dial Code: | 01304 |
| Os Grid Reference: | TR310568 |
Woodnesborough is a village in the Dover District of Kent, England, 2miles west of Sandwich. The population taken at the 2011 census included Coombe as well as Marshborough, and totalled 1,066.[1] There is a Grade II* listed[2] Anglican church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin.
Its name is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Golles-Wanesberge, with forms like Wodnesbeorge being attested a little later, around 1100, and as 'Wodnesbergh' in 1484.[3] The name is believed to have meant Woden's hill/mound (Old English Wōdnes burh) after Anglo-Saxon god Woden (the English cognate of the Norse Odin, known in Proto-Germanic as Wodanaz); though some of the spellings also suggest *wænnes beorg ('hill of the mound'), from Old English wenn, wænn 'a tumour, blister, mound'. At the end of the eighteenth century there is a record of a burial mound beside the church, but the settlement also boasts a hill which could equally well have been described as a burh in Old English.[4]
The village was once served by East Kent Light Railway and can now be reached by bus services from Sandwich.
There was also a post office, which closed at the end of January 2008.
St Mary the Blessed Virgin Church: the village's 13th-century Anglican church is Grade II* listed, with 14th-century alterations and a Victorian restoration in 1884 by Ewan Christian. The building is made of flint and rubble and boasts an unusual ogee cupola, a design feature shared by nearby Sandwich's St Peter's Church.[5]
Woodnesborough Village Hall: the building, a former school, dates from the 19th century.
Sundial north of the Church of St Mary the Virgin: dating from 1738 with the inscription "Woodnesborough W IB RG 1738".
Tomb Chest to Harrison family: situated about 2 metres W of Church of St Mary, and dating from 1777.
Summerfield House: an early 18th-century house with red brick and plain tiled roof.
Barn about 20m E of Summerfield House: a 17th-century barn now converted to a garage.