Headcorn

Headcorn
Kent
Shakespeare House, Headcorn
Location
Grid reference:	TQ837439
Location:	51°10’10"N, 0°37’13"E
Data
Population:	3,387  (2011)
Post town:	Ashford
Postcode:	TN27
Dialling code:	01622
Local Government
Council:	Maidstone
Parliamentary constituency:	Faversham and Mid Kent

Headcorn is a village and parish in Kent, located on the floodplain of the River Beult south-east of Maidstone.

The village is eight miles from the county town of Maidstone, on the A274 road to Tenterden. In addition to the parish church, dedicated to saints SS Peter and Paul, there are also churches and chapels for the Methodist, Baptist mand Roman Catholic congregations.

There is a small airfield located nearby, where there is an aviation museum and a parachuting centre. Headcorn Parachute Club is the only skydiving club in Kent.

Headcorn railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line between London and Dover. It was opened on 31 August 1842. On 1 December the same year, the South Eastern Railway opened the second section of its main line onward to Ashford. By 1844, trains were running from London to Dover. The line here is allegedly the longest straight stretch of line in the United Kingdom.

History

Early history

A Neolithic polished flint axe was found in the stream near the present school in Headcorn, and a bronze palstave axehead dating from the Bronze Age from New House Farm reveal the presence of people in the area from early times.

However, just to the north of the village a total of four much earlier Paleolithic flint handaxes have been found. Three were found west of the Ulcombe Road and one from north-west of Tong. These have originated from the river gravel terrace that partially survives beneath Tong Bank. This is evidence for a former ancient river system that predates the last glacial episode which ended around 15,000 years ago. The handaxes date from perhaps 250,000 BP.

There is evidence from one site in the south of the parish for a probable farmstead that dates from the prehistoric Iron Age into the early Roman period. This was discovered by fieldwork undertaken by Neil Aldridge and members of the Kent Archaeological Society between 1993–95. Evidence for iron smelting, in the form of iron slag, and a small cemetery with three Roman cremations in pottery vessels were found. There were also a number of ditches and part of a Pre-Roman roundhouse.

The earliest written records are references in charters of King Wihtred and King Offa to Wick Farm, 724 AD and Little Southernden, 785 AD. Headcorn may have originated as a "denn" or clearing, to which pigs were driven in the fall to feed on acorns in the Wealden Forest.

11th–18th centuries

Although Headcorn does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086, the Domesday Monachorum (the ecclesiastical survey made at about the same time), records the existence of a church at Hedekaruna. According to the Oxford Names Companion, the name could possibly mean 'tree-trunk (used as a footbridge) of a man called Hydeca'.

Henry of Ospringe, was appointed the first rector in 1222 by King Henry III. However, in 1239, the King gave the den of Headcorn, with the rectorial endowments, to the Maison Dieu at Ospringe, near Faversham. In 1251, the Master and Brethren of Ospringe, were granted a weekly market on Thursdays and an annual fair at Headcorn on 29 June, St Peter and St Paul's Day. In 1482 the Ospringe house was dissolved and in 1516, St John's College Cambridge, was given the Maison Dieu properties. The fair was later held on 12 June, having apparently been merged with the Trinity-tide fair of Moatenden Priory.

The Trinitarian Order, or Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives, was founded in France in 1198. Among the first of the dozen houses it established in England, was Moatenden Priory dating from 1224. The site is off Maidstone Road Headcorn. In 1536, the priory was suppressed, among England's smaller houses, and its revenues went to the King.

The site was partially excavated by Neil Aldridge along with others of the Kent Archaeological Society and the site of the priory church and other structures including the cloister garth were recorded beneath the garden of the present house which incorporates part of the mediæval western range of the priory. This was published in Archaeologia Cantiana for 1995. The pottery from the excavation site dates from the 13th–15th centuries,there were also three lead papal seals from the site.The site is surrounded by a large moat and a number of monastic fishponds also survive . The former course of the Maidstone to Rye road passed alongside the site of the priory.During the excavations earlier material including Roman pottery and a coin was found at Moatenden indicating settlement here over an extended period.

The prosperity brought to Headcorn by the weaving industry, established in the reign of King Edward III, is reflected in the houses built at that time and the enlargement of the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul. In 1450, eighty men of Headcorn took part in Jack Cade's rebellion and subsequently received pardons.

The remains of the Headcorn Oak are near the south door of the parish church. It was extensively damaged by fire on 25 April 1989, but continued to produce new growth until July 1993. It has been claimed that the Headcorn Oak is up to 1,200 years old. However, Ian Mitchell of the Forestry Commission, an expert on old oaks, compared his own measurements taken in 1967, with those made by Robert Furley FSA, in 1878 and estimated it to be only 500 years old.

The chancel of the present parish church, is believed to mark the site of the nave of its 11th-century counterpart and the Lady Chapel that of the 12th-century south aisle. The 13th century saw the construction of a new nave, about half the length of the present one and possibly also a cell on the site of the vicar's vestry, which dates from the early 15th century. The nave was completed in the 14th century and the present south aisle in the early 15th. Late in the same century, the tower and south porch were built.

Kent's Chantry was founded in the Lady Chapel in 1466, under licence from King Edward IV. In the south aisle, just outside the Lady Chapel and in the south wall, is an altar-tomb bearing the Culpeper arms, which also figure over the west door. The font dates from about 1450.

The Baptist community in Headcorn dates from around 1675, the first chapel having been at Bounty Farm in Love Lane. The present building in Station Road, was opened in 1819 and renovated and extended in 1978, following the addition of a hall in 1971.

19th century to present

The exact date of the first Methodist Society in Headcorn is not certain, but it built its first chapel for worship separate from the parish church in 1805. It was replaced by a second in 1854. The present building cost £800 when it was put up in 1867. Headcorn's Roman Catholics have had their own building since 1968, when the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury was erected in Station Road. The cedar building of 1968 has been replaced by a brick one, dedicated by Bishop John Jukes on 25 June 1990.

Eight roads converge on Headcorn and there are several old bridges. Stephen's Bridge in Frittenden Road is said to have been built by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury 1207–1228. There are records from the reigns of Edward I, Edward III and Henry IV, relating to the need to repair this bridge and Hawkenbury Bridge.

Before railways, the George Inn on Borough High Street in Southwark was the hub of coach services throughout Kent, Surrey and Sussex. At 7 am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the Tenterden Coach set out on a 10-hour journey of 55¼ miles, passing through Headcorn. By 1838, the Tally Ho Coach had shortened the journey time, leaving London at 1 pm and reaching Headcorn at 8.15 pm and Tenterden at 9.30 pm. For 130 years (until 1915) Messrs R and J Bennett ran a horse bus service between Tenterden, Headcorn and Maidstone. An advertisement of 1750, illustrates R Hammond's Tenterden, Staplehurst, Biddenden, Headcorn and Town Sutton stage wagon, with a team of eight horses. It went to London and back once a week, taking two days each way. The current train service from Headcorn to London, takes about 1 hour.

On 31 October 1904, the Headcorn, Sutton Valence and Maidstone Motor Omnibus Co Ltd opened a service using steam vehicles. This was replaced about 1912 by Reliance Motor Services. Maidstone & District Motor Services was also operating on the route by 1914 and took over Reliance two years later.

The South Eastern Railway was opened in stages, reaching Tonbridge in May 1842, Headcorn in August and Ashford in December. From 1905 to 1954 the Kent and East Sussex Railway operated between Robertsbridge and Headcorn via Tenterden. A proposed extension to Maidstone was never built.

In 1940, following the evacuation from Dunkirk, many thousands of British and allied troops received their first meal in Britain at Headcorn Station. Local volunteers assisted the Royal Army Service Corps in providing refreshments. 100 trains per day were halted, allowing only eight minutes for each.

The Aerodrome at Shenley Farm, first used by one aircraft in the 1920s, served as an advanced landing ground for Canadians and then Americans in World War II. Today, as a private civil airfield and parachute centre, it also houses the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum, the Air Cadets of 500 Squadron and Thurston Helicopters Ltd, a helicopter flying-school company.

The 1986 list of buildings of architectural or historic interest has 88 entries for Headcorn, including the parish church (Grade I), the former old vicarage (II*) a traditional 15th-century Wealden hall house renamed Headcorn Manor about 1960, the Cloth Hall (II*) and Shakespeare House (II).

There are a number of significant mediæval buildings in the area of Church Walk and the High Street. In Church Walk are three Wealden Hall Houses with the most important being Headcorn Manor. In the High Street recent research has identified 21–25 High Street as being a large mediæval structure. The scantlings in the front upper floor of 25 extend through into 23 High Street and indicate the size and importance of this building.

Foreman's original store with its overhang, preserved as part of the Foreman's Centre, marks the site of the old National School, which was in existence by 1846 and replaced in 1870 by the building in Parsonage Meadow, since known as the Church School and now Longmeadow Hall. This was used only briefly as a National School, because a Board School (now part of the Headcorn Primary School) was opened in King's Road in 1873. Longmeadow Hall is currently being restored as part of the Community Centre project.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Headcorn)

• Headcorn Parish Council Official Website
• Select H for Headcorn village notes
• Headcorn Weather Webcam
• Headcorn Airfield Webcam