Goudhurst
| Goudhurst | |
| Kent | |
|---|---|
 High Street, Goudhurst | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ725375 |
| Location: | 51°6’40"N, 0°27’49"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 3,204 (2001, incl Kilndown) |
| Post town: | Cranbrook |
| Postcode: | TN17 |
| Dialling code: | 01580 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Tunbridge Wells |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Tunbridge Wells |
Goudhurst is a village in Kent amidst the Kentish Weald, found about 12 miles south of Maidstone. It stands on a crossroads, where a large village pond is overlooked by the cottages of the village.
The parish is a little wider than the village, encompassing Goudhurst, Kilndown and Curtisden Green. It also has outlying hamlets including Bedgebury Cross, Iden Green, Stonecrouch and Winchet Hill.
Contents
The village
Goudhurst is a village is one of timeless charm. The view from the church tower looks out over rich green countryside of fields, hills and woods and a village scene unchanged from a hundred years ago, as photographs of the time attest. The same typically Kentish houses line the street and the lanes, and oast houses protrude their distinctive roofs.
A hundred years ago a visitor wrote:
The whole neighbourhood is singularly beautiful with the sylvan pastoral beauty that is England's great characteristic. The village is straggling. Genius could scarcely have made it more irregular. It is built on the slope of an eccentric hill. Approaching it from the south you see a collection of red roofs one above another, picturesque and promising. At the summit of the hill you come to the church, ancient, large and interesting. The landscape is richly timbered. There are woods on all sides. The whole scene sparkles with a light and laughter that makes you joyous in spite of care, the fret of life, the grasping at shadows, the missing of substance, all that is so crooked in the world, so hard to bear. I can never forget one Sunday morning standing at a certain gate in the highest part of Goudhurst, waiting for the bell to cease before entering the church. A vision of far-off wooded undulations, here and there villages reposed and church towers and steeples nestled amidst hills and trees and valleys. In every direction the fast- ripening hop gardens bore promise of an abundant yield. It was a perfect pastoral scene, one of those to be found only in England."
Today the village is just the same and these qualities so well described in an earlier ago brought Goudhurst to attention in 2011 as Sir Roy Strong used the village to illustrate his vision of Englishness in his book Visions of England
Origin of name
The place name of Goudhurst is derived from the Old English guð hyrst, meaning Battle Hill, or the wooded hill on which a battle has been fought, which apparently commemorates a battle fought on this high ground in Anglo-Saxon times. The spelling has evolved over the centuries: Gmthhyrste (c1100), Guthurst or Guhthersts (c1200), Gudhersts (1232), Guthhurste (1278), Goutherst (1316), Goodherst (1610), then the current-day spelling.[1][2]
Churches
The parish church is St Mary's, first recorded in 1119. The church tower was built in the early part of the 14th century a storey higher than today's with a lofty spire. However, in 1637 during a summer storm the spire was struck by lightning and burned down. The current west tower was built to between 1638 and 1640 and contains a curious blend of Gothic and Classical architecture.
From the tower it is said that you can see on a clear day as many as fifty-one other churches, from Lympne by the marshes to Ide Hill on the North Downs. To the northwest that modern cathedral of business, Canary Wharf Tower in the London Docklands can be seen, a distance of forty miles. One can only imagine how fine and far must have been the view before that fateful summer of 1637.
- Church of England:
- St Mary
- Christ Church, Kilndown
History
The church in Goudhurst probably existed long before 1119, its earliest recorded date. The church has been altered and restored many times over the centuries. Until 1637 it had a tall spire which was eventually destroyed by lightning. In 1638 three London masons rebuilt the west tower[3] During the Victorian era the church was restored by the architect Richard Carpenter.
The village was one of those involved in the Wealden iron industry and it was, like so many in Kent, a centre for hop farms and for weaving. A group of weavers' cottages stands opposite the church and the oast houses bear witness the roasting of hops for brewing.
The Battle of Goudhurst in 1747 led to the end of the Hawkhurst Gang of smugglers.[4] The village is somewhat calmer for it these days.
The village's recent history is extremely well documented. The Goudhurst Jubilee Book (1935), Goudhurst Coronation Book (1937) and Goudhurst and Kilndown Millennium Book (2001, ISBN 0-9527822-1-9) contain detailed reminiscences, directories, historical notes, matters of local intelligence and records of celebrations starting from the 1800s and before, up to the current time. These books were printed as limited editions and are much sought after, as the authors painstakingly recorded not only the written but also the oral history of the village.
Bedgebury
Bedgebury is one of the oldest estates in Kent. Having given its name to the de Bedgebury family, it passed into the hands of the Culpeper family in 1450. When the estate was sold in 1680, a new house was built which itself became a girls' school in the 1920s (closed in the summer of 2006). In 2007 the school was purchased by the Bell Educational Trust, an educational charity. In the summer of 2007 the school reopened as the Bell Bedgebury International School, and the grounds also play host to the Bell Bedgebury Language Centre.
Bedgebury Pinetum is nearby. It was acquired by the Forestry Commission in 1924.
The trains came and went
A branch railway line from Paddock Wood ran this way, with a station at Goudhurst serving the village. Defying the effect the railway had on other villages which found themselves so connected, Goudhurst yet remained a small and delightful village. That is not to say that change was not sought: when the station was opened on 1 October 1892 the prospect of improved trade was uppermost in the minds.
The station was originally named 'Hope Mill for Goudhurst and Lamberhurst' before being renamed 'Goudhurst' on 4 September 1893, the day the final part of the line came into service, namely the extension to Hawkhurst by way of Cranbrook. The station stood though about half a mile from the centre of Goudhurst, and somewhat further from Lamberhurst.
The station was closed on 12 June 1961 because of lack of use, passenger numbers having dropped to fewer than 200 per day. The track was lifted in 1964, and in 1967 the station sites were offered for sale.
At present, the only public transport for Goudhurst are two bus routes to Tunbridge Wells and to Tenterden and Ashford.
Notes
- ↑ The Place Names of Kent, Judith Glover ISBN 0905270 614
- ↑ The Origin of English Place Names, P.H.Reaney ISBN 0710020104
- ↑ Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 3rd ed. 1995, s.v. "Edmund Kinsman", "John Young".
- ↑ Mary Waugh, Smuggling in Kent and Sussex 1700-1840 1985 ISBN 0 905392 48 5 pp 74-5
Sources
- The Place Names of Kent, Judith Glover.
- The Origin of English Place Names, P.H.Reaney.
- The Dictionary of British Place Names
- Dictionary of English Place Names, A.D.Mills.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Goudhurst) |
