Blean
| Blean | |
| Kent | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Cosmus and St Damian | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TR119608 |
| Location: | 51°18’25"N, 1°2’35"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 5,589 (2011[1]) |
| Post town: | Canterbury |
| Postcode: | CT2 |
| Dialling code: | 01227 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Canterbury |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Canterbury |
Blean is a village and parish in the Whitstable Hundred of Kent. The civil parish is large and is mostly woodland, much of which is ancient woodland. The suburban developed village within the parish is scattered along the road between Canterbury and Whitstable, in the middle of the Forest of Blean. The ancient parish is known as "St Cosmus and St Damian in the Blean", while the civil parish was renamed to simply "Blean" on 1 April 2019.[2]
History
According to Edward Hasted's 1800 county study, the village was once part of the king's ancient forest of Blean.[3]
The name Blean is the dative form of the Old English word ‘blea’ which means rough ground.[4][5] Therefore the name of the parish means "the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian (sic) in the rough ground."
In 1835, the Blean Union Workhouse, designed by William Edmunds, was built on four acres south of Herne Common. The design was based on Sir Francis Bond Head's Plan of a Rural Workhouse for 500 Persons, a publication of the Poor Law Commission. To keep costs down, no outside drains were added, and the building was windowless. Discipline was severe. A nine-year-old girl was once punished for a small offence by being forced to remain overnight in the mortuary with a corpse; however, the Master and Matron were dismissed as a result.[6]
Amenities
The village has a druid woodland sculpture park, noted for its large sleeping dragon. The east of the village has a hall and recreation ground used for sports.
The parish church is about half a mile from the village centre. It is dedicated to St Cosmus and St Damian and emphasising some kind of descriptor of the land itself, has always been suffixed 'in the Blean'. It is a 13th-century building and Grade-II* listed, the second highest designation in the national grading scheme.[7][8]
Veering towards the north of the village's main street is a pub; a post office is no longer in the village.
Economy
Blean's economy is closely tied to Canterbury and to a lesser extent, Whitstable. In television entertainment Smallfilms operates here the production company that created the animated series Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and the Clangers, at Peter Firmin's barn on the Blean farm. The bay window of Firmin's house was featured in the opening sequence of Bagpuss.[9]
Eponyms
HMS Blean was named after the village's Blean Beagles hunt.
References
- ↑ Key Statistics; Quick Statistics: Population Density United Kingdom Census 2011 Office for National Statistics Retrieved 21 November 2013
- ↑ "The Canterbury City Council (Reorganisation of Community Governance) Order 2018". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. http://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lgbce/Reviews/South%20East/Kent/CGRs/Canterbury%20CGR.pdf. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
- ↑ Hasted, Edward (1800). "Parishes". The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (Institute of Historical Research) 9: 2–7. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62986. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ↑ English, University of Nottingham - Institute of Name Studies School of. "Key to English Place-names". http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Kent/Blean. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ↑ "Blean Parish Council". http://www.bleanpc.kentparishes.gov.uk/.
- ↑ "Blean, Kent". http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Blean/. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ↑ "Church of St Cosmus and St Damian, St Cosmus and St Damian in the Blean". http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-171415-church-of-st-cosmus-and-st-damian-st-cos. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1085522: Church of St Cosmus and St Damian (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ "Bagpuss - See Emily Play". BBC. London. 9 December 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7773124.stm. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Blean) |