Cindy Kent, the former lead singer with 60s folk band The Settlers, has quit London to settle on the sun-kissed Isle of Sheppey.

Older readers may recall the Settlers, not to be confused with The Seekers, had a top 40 hit with The Lightning Tree in 1971 which was used as the theme to the ITV children’s series Follyfoot about a rest home for horses.

For the benefit of younger readers, these Settlers had nothing to do with the popular computer game of the same name. Neither do they bring relief to indigestion.

Back in the day, Cindy wore short miniskirts and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Cliff Richard, Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Roy Orbison and The Small Faces. Disgraced radio DJ Jimmy Savile once introduced her as “the girl with the unsettling legs” on the radio programme Speakeasy.

But time marches on and at the age of 70, Cindy had set her heart on a retirement home by the sea. But why pick Sheppey?

She said: “I’d reached the age when I wanted my own front door. I didn’t want to rent and the only places I could afford in London were the size of shoe boxes. After visiting the 15 place I went home, cried and prayed to God.

“I had always fancied a house with a sea view but I had no idea where to go. So I typed into Google ‘house with a sea view’ and ‘Kent’, because that’s my surname, and up popped the Isle of Sheppey.

“It ticked all my boxes. It had a dual sea view, it was a bungalow, which was a bonus, but it was on Sheppey and I had no idea where that was!”

She plucked up the courage to make the trip, first with a friend and then with her son James, and in January she moved into her new home in Minster. While waiting for broadband to be installed she conducted most of her business affairs using the free WiFi at the Abbey Hotel.

“This is a most amazing place,” she gushed. “Do you know you can get lunch here for £5.45? You’d be hard-pressed to get a coffee for that in London. And the people are so friendly. My neighbour gave me a lift to Sheerness. In London you don’t even know who your neighbours are.

“It seemed rash to move here because I don’t know anyone. But everyone has been so welcoming. I should have done this years’ ago.”

The Settlers were initially known as the Birmingham Folk Four but changed their name after their first single Settle Down. A six-month residency on the BBC television series Singalong led to tours with the stars.

Cindy, originally from West Bromwich, was 17.

She recalled: “My family was very musical and I loved singing. One night I went to a folk club at a Birmingham and met Mike Jones and John Fyffe who were at the local teacher training college. Afterwards we all went for coffee and ended up singing.”

Double-bass player Geoff Srodzinksy joined later. Soon they were gigging at working men’s clubs and won a talent contest on the Isle of Mann which gave them TV and radio exposure leading to a 26-week spot on Singalong.

Cindy said: “We toured with all the big stars of the 60s. In those days different acts were packaged together.

“I remember on the first night of our tour with the Small Faces someone stole all our money from the dressing room. Steve Marriott arranged for a whip round. He had a heart of gold.

“On the last night of the tour they played a nasty trick on Roy Orbison and retuned his guitar up a whole tone so when he started singing Only The Lonely he had to sing even higher. But he was a great sport.

“I also shared a dressing room with Dusty Springfield. We got on very well because we came from similar backgrounds as she had been with The Springfields. She was great and used to stand outside and gargle with port. But she was very short-sighted and refused to wear glasses. She had to get very close to the mirror to apply her make-up. I think that’s why she ended up using so much mascara.”

Cindy added: “Cilla was just Cilla and I think the DJ Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart had a terrible crush on me. He’d always play a track called Cindy Oh Cindy on Radio London with lots of little coded messages. It was a great loss when he died recently. I went to his funeral. We have lost so many people recently Terry Wogan had a terrific gift of making radio presenting seem so easy.”

After 11 years with the group, Cindy quit in 1973 to become a radio presenter, too, first starting on Radio Four, then Radio Two and then Radio One before switching to commercial radio.

In 1995 she was the first presenter employed by Premier Christian Radio and still presents some shows.

But her biggest challenge came eight years ago when she became priest-in-charge and later the first woman vicar of the hitherto male-dominated St John the Apostle Church in Whetstone, Barnet. She said: “I’d always been a Christian but I finally got a calling and after a couple of attempts was ordained by the Bishop of London at St Paul’s Cathedral.”

At St John’s she was known for, not surprisingly, having the loudest singing voice and for introducing fun to parish life. The congregation soon doubled.

In one service she handed out £10 notes and told the congregation to make more money. The stunt brought in £3,000. But when her five-year stay was up last month she was forced to move out of her rent-free vicarage – hence the switch to Sheppey.

She has already sounded out the Rev Tim Hall, vicar of Minster Abbey and the Holy Trinity churches of Sheerness and Queenborough, for part-time work.

Meanwhile, she still has ambitions to tread the boards. She is hoping to get the remaining Settlers together to join her friend 60s singer Billie ‘Tell Him’ Davies for a variety show at Blue Town’s Criterion Theatre on Saturday December 10.

And as she can still belt out songs like My Old Man she has also shown an interest in joining the cast of the theatre’s popular Old Time Music Hall shows.

The Rev Cindy chirped: “I think I’m going to enjoy it here. I’ve moved from a Settler to a Swampy!”

Where are they now?

Banjo-player John Fyffe runs the Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel in Alnwick. Northumberland, with his family and still gigs.

Bass-player Geoff Srodzinksy married a Dutch girl called Gerry and lives in Holland where he tunes and renovates pianos and still gigs.

Singer and guitarist Mike Jones died from throat cancer in 2008.