Lenham
| Lenham | |
| Kent | |
|---|---|
 High Street, Lenham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ585395 |
| Location: | 51°14’17"N, 0°42’58"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 3,370 (2011) |
| Post town: | Maidstone |
| Postcode: | ME17 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Maidstone |
Lenham is a pretty market village in the midst of Kent, on the southern edge of the North Downs, nine miles east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hotel), a couple of restaurants, and a tea-room.
Lenham recorded a population of 3,370 at the 2011 Census. It has a railway station is on the Maidstone East Line.
The village is at the main source of the Great Stour and the Stour Valley Walk starts here, heading to Ashford and on to Canterbury and the English Channel near Sandwich. It is also the source of the River Len, which flows in a westerly direction to join the River Medway at Maidstone.
Parish church
The parish church, St Mary's, was rebuilt in the 14th century after fire had destroyed its predecessor. It is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Nearby and associated with it is a mediaeval tithe barn.
From 1876 to his death in 1903, the vicar of the church was Charles Nepean,[2] who played for Oxford University A.F.C. in the 1874 FA Cup Final. Nepean also played cricket for Middlesex.[3]
History
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The village is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The right to hold a market dates back to 1088, when the village was an important crossroad settlement.
The manor of Lenham belonged to St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, until the dissolution of the monasteries when it reverted to the Crown. Queen Elizabeth I awarded the manor to her chief courtier, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh. It then passed through ownership of the Wilford, Montagu, Hamilton and Best families.[4]
The High Street has a number of listed buildings.
Mary Honywood was born in Lenham. When she died in Essex at the age of 93, she had 367 living descendants.
The Pilgrims' Way and North Downs Way, following the same route, pass along the downland ridge to the north of Lenham. Between this ridge and the village is a 200-foot chalk cross carved into the scarp slope. First constructed in 1922, to remember those who fell in the Great War, and fully restored in 1994, the Lenham Cross now commemorates the dead of both world wars. To avoid its use as a navigation aid by the Luftwaffe, the cross was filled in between 1939 and May 1945.
On 27 August 1950, Lenham, along with the village of Harvel, was one of the signal receiving points (between Calais and London) of the first-ever live television pictures from the continent.
About the village
The Tithe Barn in Lenham is a Grade I listed building.[5]
There is a primary school, Lenham Primary and a secondary school, The Lenham School, at Lenham. A pair of cottages in Lenham had to be demolished to make way for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Maidstone Line). They were dismantled and re-erected at the Museum of Kent Life in Sandling.
A local kit car firm, GKD Sports Cars, has its workshop based in Lenham and its main base in Boughton Monchelsea.
Also in Lenham is a pharmacy, famous as the discovery site of a sixth century Saxon warrior body and weapons.
Community
- Conservation: Lenham Meadows Trust works to protect open spaces in the area.[6]
- Film Club: Lenham Film Club[7]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Lenham) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1086103: Church of St Mary (Grade I listing)
- ↑ "Rev. C. E. B. Nepean". Obituaries in 1903. Wisden. http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/227830.html.
- ↑ "Charles Edward Burroughs Nepean". Middlesex cricketers. Cricket Archive. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Middlesex/Players/31/31684/31684.html.
- ↑ Bristow, W.: 'The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5: Parishes: Lenham' pp 415-445 (1798)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1116543: Barn circa 40 yards North West of Court Lodge (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Lenham Meadows Trust
- ↑ Lenham Film Club