Newnham, Kent
| Newnham | |
| Kent | |
|---|---|
 View of Newnham from Hilly Field | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ954576 |
| Location: | 51°17’5"N, 0°48’5"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 386 (2011) |
| Post town: | Sittingbourne |
| Postcode: | ME9 |
| Dialling code: | 01795 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Swale |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Faversham and Mid Kent |
Newnham is a little village in the Syndale valley in Kent, near the mediæval market town of Faversham.
History
Newnham has existed as a community of dwellings and work-units for at least 1,000 years. Though it had a lord of the manor and the church of SS Peter and Paul at the beginning of the 12th century, it could be said that nothing of importance ever happened there; yet in it took place centuries of everyday social history and a history of domestic and economic life of generations of English people.
Originally little more than a grouping of farmhouses and farmworkers' cottages clustered around a church and pub, both more than 600 years old, the village featured blacksmiths, a draper, a butcher, a baker and several other shops and pubs by the early 20th century.
Even until the Second World War, most of its inhabitants were born, worked, lived and died in the valley. Many of the men worked on the hop farms, the apple and cherry orchards, or the wood industries that dominated the local economy. The women were domestic servants in some of the larger houses, many set in parklands on surrounding hills (Sharsted Court, Doddington House, Belmont, Champion Court).[1]
About the village
The police house was sold as a private residence in the 1990s, and the post office shut in 1998 while the last shop closed in 2002.
Two pub-restaurants remain: opposite the church is the George Inn, which is now no longer mainly a drinking house for locals but instead attracts families and groups of businesspeople for meals. It features 16th-century rafters, inglenook fireplaces, and a garden that looks up to the Hilly Field.
Above the field stands the 12th-century manor house, Champion Court, still an apple farm, though employing few people now and an abundance of modern science, overlooking the valley. The other pub-restaurant is much newer but has the air of a barn converted from use on the Syndale vineyard. From its garden there is another striking view across the village past the oast house, now converted from drying hops for beer into a private home.
The valley road was a highway in Norman times, linking to the Roman Watling Street from Dover and Canterbury to London.
Many farmhouses in the village, including the old Parsonage Farm whose farmhouse now stands in only half an acre next to the church in The Street, have yielded most of their farmlands to provide space to accommodate new homes.
Church
The parish church, St Peter and St Paul, dates back to the Middle Ages[2] and now shares a vicar with half a dozen other parishes.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Newnham, Kent) |
References
- ↑ "The 1881 Census, formerly more easily searchable by property". Church of LDS. http://www.familysearch.org.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1055749: Newnham, Kent (Grade @ listing)