The village church is All Saints, Petham and is Grade I listed.[2] It was built in the 13th century but suffered from a fire in 1922 and had to be reconstructed. The village hall was rebuilt in the early 21st century next to Marble pond on relatively low meadows deemed unsuitable for housing and insurance.
Petham has rolling hills within its bounds, including ancient forested slopes and thatched medieval and Tudor period cottages.
Similar to other comparable villages, Petham once featured multiple facilities such as a baker, cobbler, post office and garage.[5] Today, none of these facilities remains and the only public buildings are the Petham Pint, a small tavern that was opened during COVID times to try and increase morale, and the All Saints church and graveyard. This decline began in the 1940s and can be attributed to increasing household car ownership (in the early 1940s 90% of households did not own a car).[6] Increasing car ownership allowed easier travel between Petham and Canterbury, enabling residents to access services in the city.
^Cunliffe, Barry W., Iron Age Communities in Britain, Fourth Edition: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC, Until the Roman Conquest, near Figure 1.4, 2012 (4th edition), Routledge, google preview, with no page numbers
