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Many of the north-west Kent villages have succumbed to the pressure for homes for people who are not, and do nor aspire to become in any traditional sense, villagers. They have sprawled over countryside well beyond any original village bounds, providing essentially town homes for families that look to nearby towns, including London, for employment and, as often as not, for most of the other elements of there chosen lifestyle, too.
Darenth is one of a number of such villages, a Darent Valley village with two distinct parts. South Darenth is the newer and much larger, and barely distinguishable from its similarly distended neighbour, Sutton at Hone. South Darenth is almost entirely purpose-built commuterland, conveniently close to the railway station at Farningham Road for trains to Swanley and central London and to the A225 road to Dartford and with easy access to the A2 (a motorway in all but name), the M20 and M25.
The antiquity of the place is all but swamped now but the village was once given by King Athelstan (AD 925-940) to Duke Eadulf and later passed into the possession of Christ Church at Canterbury, to become one of the manors of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Hubert Walter exchanged the church and manor of Darenth for the manor of Lambeth in 1195.
Two of the smaller Darenth manors, St Margaret Helle (or Helles) and Clequdon have since become lost. The chapel of St Margaret Helle was mentioned in the Textus Roffenses, where it was assessed at sixpence a year payable to Rochester Cathedral. In 1522 Archbishop Warham ruled that although it could baptise and bury local people, marriages could only be solemnised at the parish church, which was some distance away.
Nothing of the chapel remains today but the parish church continues to be dedicated to St Margaret, also. It dates from the 10th century and its fabric contains remnants of a nearby Roman villa on the banks of the River Darent which was excavated in 1894/95. One of the features of the church is the great sculptured Romanesque font which dates from about 1140. The church, which stands on Darenth Hill, is said to be the third oldest in Kent, having been built in about AD 940 although, of course, added to after that. It was largely destroyed by fire in 1710 and restored.
Darenth hospital was built as a lunatic asylum in the 1880s, one of the largest ever built. It continued to be a psychiatric hospital until the 1970s when demolition workers unearthed a very rare Anglo-Saxon glass bowl in the hospital burial ground. A new œ100m hospital was begun in 1997, and the old village of Darenth has a new Bluewater Park shopping complex virtually on its doorstep, too.
Davington achieved a brief prominence in 1956 when it became the home of retired English bullfighter the late Vincent Hitchcock, known in the bullrings of Spain as El Ingles. He came to live at Davington Farm house opposite the church, with his family, although he continued to spend much of his time in Spain.
Before that, though, Davington had to delve fairly deeply into its history to find a time when it had very much to say for itself. There are still hints of the old Davington on the short sharp hill that carries the road up from creekside Faversham to what remains of Davington Priory. The priory church has only one tower now, but originally it had two, and it is supposed to have inspired the twin towers of the church at Reculver, near Herne Bay, after two nuns from Davington were shipwrecked there on their way to the Minster on the Isle of Thanet. One of the two was saved and she had the new church built as a thanksgiving for her own safety and a memorial to her less fortunate sister.
The priory remains were damaged by the Faversham gunpowder mills explosion in 1781 and were bought by Thomas Willement. He was heraldic painter to George IV and a stained glass artist. Some of his glass was incorporated into the restoration work he carried out at the priory, which has remained a private home ever since. Somewhat ironically, considering its brow-beaten relationship with Faversham abbey, the prior remains still standing long after the abbey has almost totally disappeared beneath the playing fields of Faversham's grammar school. A particularly picturesque feature of the Priory and one of the chief architectural attractions of the village is the little postern gate at the top of a short flight of stone steps set into the stone wll at the top of Davington Hill.
The church was restored an rededicated in 1932, but in the 1950s, despite local opposition, nearby Davington Court, once the home of the Earl of Athlone, was demolished to make way for new homes, leaving only the old gateway incorporated into a modern wall to lend its name to Old Gate Road.
8 miles NE of Dover, off the A258, a fishing port and friendly seaside resort, Deal is a delightful jumble of narrow lanes which make dog-legs to divert the driving winds from the Channel. It is a 17th to 19th century townscape that, overall, amounts to more than the sum of its individual buildings.
These include St Leonard's Church, which is part Norman, but with a cupola maintained by Trinity House as a landmark for shipping, The stately Royal Marine barracks towards Walmer, and three castles built by Henry VIII, namely Deal, Sandown and Walmer. The town is home to the famous Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club.
Just outside the village of Denton, some seven miles from Dover, is a Jacobean farmhouse known as Tappington Hall. This was the manor ofTappington-Everard built by Thomas Marsh in about 1628 and inherited by theseven year-old Richard Barham who, later on, wrote many of his Ingoldsby Legends there. Barham was born in Canterbury in 1788 and he became particularly good at composing sharply witty verses, some of which were published while he was still at school in 1808. As a young man he decided not to pursue the legal career he had trained for but instead took holy orders and became a curate at Ashford and later rector of Snargate and curate of Warehorn on Romney Marsh.
There he made something of a hobby of collecting old stories told to him by his parishioners and these formed the basis for many of the Legends later on. The Legends were published as tales of the fictional Ingoldsby family of Tappington-Everard.
The village of Denton is fairly typical of its East Kent kind - village green, half-timbered and tile-hung cottages, a church a little distanced along a grassy track neighbouring Denton Court. It became the home of children's author and short story writer Mrs Mary Stephens-Smith whose distinction it was to have been the model, in her youth, for one of the most famous of all Victorian paintings, entitled 'And when did you last see your father?'
The picture showed a fair-haired young Royalist standing before a Bench of Parliamentarians seated behind a table, and being questioned about his Royalist father's whereabouts. Behind the boy a pike-bearing Roundhead soldier had his hand round the shoulders of the boy's weeping sister, who was Mrs Stephens-Smith, niece of the artist William Yeames who painted the picture in 1878. Her brother James was the model for the young man being questioned.
Unspoiled village on the Pilgrims Way. One mile outside the village is the Kent County Showground, which retains some WW2 buildings from former airfield days. Detling, which is bypassed by the A249 and relatively unspoilt, is on the Pilgrims Way, sheltered by the North Downs. Its population is over 700 and the early Norman Church of St Martins has an elaborately carved mid 14th century oak lectern.
Independence Day was celebrated in Detling with great gaiety in July 1985. The villagers hoisted their very own blue, white and yellow flag, the patriotic colours of the new Duchy of Detling, and the Detling National Anthem was sung by The Detling Singers with the backing of the local school children. The exchequer benefited by more than œ800 and a thoroughly good time was had by all.
The celebrations followed the 'discovery' of an ancient charter upon which Detling based its claim to independence from the rest of Kent. Afterwards, the village went back to being part of the borough of Maidstone, for the while thing was a variation on the ever-popular village fete. But it did demonstrate very stylishly that Detling is a lively village where the past - even a fictional past - is pressed into the service of the present.
Once, all the traffic travelling between Maidstone and the North Kent coast around Sittingbourne used to go through Detling. Now it goes past it, thanks to the dual carriageway road linking the M20 south of the North Downs to the M2 on the north side.
The Cock Inn, at the top end of the village main street, used to be The Cock Horse Inn and was the place where carriers would hire an extra horse to help haul their loads up the hill. Detling earned early notoriety in 1252 after a local cleric called Hamon fell in love with a lady from Adisham, near Canterbury, called Juliana, who was the wife of a certain Ralph de Bubehurst. Their affair led to the murder of poor Ralph, whose dagger-hacked body turned up on a beach in Sussex and started a hunt for the killers.
The guilty lovers fled, but Juliana was caught and imprisoned in the Archbishop's gaol in Maidstone from where she escaped and claimed sanctuary in Detling church. She could not stay there forever, though, and eventually she gave herself up, was tried and banished from the realm forever. After that, history lost sight of her and Hamon, who disappeared without ever standing trial. Perhaps they met somewhere and lived happily ever after. For the most part, though, Detling has gone about its business, century after century, without attracting very much attention to itself.
During WW1, there were two army camps and a Royal Flying Corps airfield in the parish, and even before 1939 the airfield at the top of Detling Hill was ready for the coming war. It was severely damaged by enemy bombers several times in 1940 and 1944 but it survived the war and was finally disposed of by the RAF in 1959.
Now part of the former airfield belongs to the Kent County Agricultural Society, which holds the three-day County Show there each July. Just across the road from the showground, though, at aptly-named Cold Blow, is an isolated military establishment that mans one of the country's network of early warning bases.
The little church of St Martin of Tours at Detling has what is claimed to be the oldest and most ornamental 14th century carved oak lectern of its kind. It was once pawned by a churchwarden who couldn't balance his books and had to be redeemed in haste by a local benefactor.
This is the village to which, in 1982, came the former Coxheath World Custard Pie Championships, which now attract competitors from far outside Kent or even England. In 1984, for example, the championship was taken back to Holland by a Dutch team who won the title from opposition from such teams as The Mudslingers and The Fantom Flan Flingers. The Championships are a highlight of the annual Ditton Fun Day which is held on the village recreation ground.
Despite all appearances today, Ditton is an old village and it shows its age to best advantage where the stream runs shallow over the ford behind the village green. Elsewhere the green has been totally over-developed with 20th century estates, so that apart from a few remaining old buildings, like 15th century Stream Cottage, the half-timbered former rectory near the ford, and Old Mill House, there is very little to recall the once wholly rural character of the little village between Maidstone and East Malling. Yet it got a mention in the Domesday Survey 1086, and there has been a minister at the church since AD 980.
The most distinctive feature of Doddington is the church, which has an unusual wooden tower and an even more unusual dedication, to the Beheading of St John the Baptist. The reason for the dedication is well known. At least, local tradition has it that Richard I (The Lionheart) stopped overnight at Doddington on his way back to London from the Crusade in the Holy Land.
Instead of a chip off the 'true cross' or a phial containing 'one of the tears shed by the Virgin Mary' (or any of the other 'relics' brought back by Crusaders to be cherished by their loyal abbeys and churches) the Royal souvenir hunter had nothing less than the stone on which John the Baptist was beheaded. He did not leave the precious relic at Doddington, but in 1467 the church adopted the dedication in commemoration of the stone's passage through the parish.
Doddington is still a very attractive village. The Chequers Inn, which claims 12th century origins, forms a welcoming focal point where the road through the Newnham Valley is joined by the road that crosses the M2 on its way from Lynsted. The most significant house is Doddington Place which although not particularly old (it was built during the 19th century) is well known for its beautiful gardens, open to the public throughout the summer.
Early in the 20th century, Dr Josiah Oldfield, author and penal reformer, came to Doddington where he built a little hospital in 1935. He was co-founder, with Mahatma Gandhi (the Indian independence campaigner who pioneered non-violent civil disobedience), of the Fruitarian Society to promote vegetarianism. After the house burned down, Dr Oldfield lived the rest of his life almost as a hermit in a converted woodshed, dying at the age of 89. The site is now occupied by a youth hostel.
A less visible curiosity of Doddington is the parochial library that was founded as a result of the will of a former vicar, the Rev Daniel Somerscales, who died in 1737. The library was added to be a 19th century successor, the Rev John Radcliffe, and by others and is one of the few surviving ancient libraries of its kind. It was formerly housed in the vicarage but in 1982 the Faversham Society arranged for it to be installed in the attic of its Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre in Preston Street, Faversham. It consisted of 400 volumes of theological, medical, natural history and geographical books in Greek and Latin, including on of the works of Erasmus, printed in Antwerp in 1535, and several books by the 16th century theologian John Calvin.
Dover, 15 miles SE of Canterbury off the A2, is one of England's most important sea ports with exciting docks, Dover owes its existence to its proximity to France, the Eastern docks are a busy cross-channel port. The Romans developed Dover as their main naval base and it continued to be important, becoming a founder member of the Confederation of Cinque Ports founded by Edward I. Slowly the old harbour silted up, and it now lies under the town; a new harbour was built out into the English Channel in the 19th century.
Two world wars destroyed much of old Dover - this was Hellfire Corner - and the town itself is a jumble of modernity. Castle Street is the one good street remaining, while the best of the old buildings is Maison Dieu House, built in 1665, now a library.
(individual features about Dover Castle, its secret tunnels and Hellfire Corner can be found elsewhere on this site)
There is still a Bossenden Farm at Dunkirk to recall that day in 1838 when the Battle of Bossenden Wood was fought by a rather pitiful little band of 'disciples' of the self-styled Messiah, John Nichols Thom or, as he preferred to call himself, Sir William Honeywood Courtenay, Knight of Malta and rightful heir to the Kentish estates of Sir Edward Hales.
Thom was born a Cornish publican's son in 1799 and had already led a fairly lurid life by the time he turned up in Canterbury in 1832 at the age of about thirty-five - although he himself claimed to be two-thousand years old. He offered himself as a candidate for Parliament and during the elections campaigned colourfully in a crimson velvet suit with gold lacings and tassels, carrying a sword which he did not hesitate to draw if haranqued during an election speech.
He won 374 votes and elevated himself to the peerage by assuming the title of Lord Viscount William Courtenay of Powderham. He was tried for perjury and spent the next four years in Barming Asylum, from which he was eventually released by Royal Decree after his father had petitioned on his behalf.
It was shortly after that, that he went to lodge with the Culver family at Bossenden Farm where he decided he would champion the cause of the local farm workers who murmured against the 1834 Poor Law Act which ended outdoor relief of poverty for the able-bodied, and required anyone unable to keep themselves to seek help in one of the hated Union workhouses.
First Courtenay made full use of his undoubted charm and plausibility to persuade the locals, especially the women, but also comparatively comfortable small land owners, that he was in fact the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Witnesses afterwards said he showed them the marks of the nails in his hands. For several days he and his followers paraded a home-made banner round the surrounding countryside, until a farmer applied to the authorities at Canterbury for the arrest of his truant workers.
The summons was issued and Constable John Mears with his brother Nicholas and another man, set out to serve it, fully aware that Courtenay would not be taken nor allow his followers to be taken without a fight. Nicholas is said to have decided that if they found themselves in mortal danger, it should be he that would die because he had no children and his brother had.
Thus it was that he confronted Courtenay, who killed him by bullet and blade and flung him into a ditch. The deed stunned Courtenay's disciples, many of whom would have deserted at this point if their leader had not called them, administered a 'sacrament' of bread and water and renewed promises to lead them to glory and a share in the great estates of the gentry that would amount to fifty acres of land apiece.
At about noon, a hundred men of the 45th Foot regiment came from Canterbury to arrest Courtenay, and in the brief battle that followed Courtenay himself shot and killed a young officer, Lieutenant Bennet, and altogether eight people died in the short, sharp battle, including Courtenay himself. Twenty-five of the rioters were arrested, some to be transported for life, others destined for terms of imprisonment.
The bodies of the dead were taken to the Red Lion Inn at Hernhill and an inquest was held, but not before relic-hunters had ripped their hero's blood-stained shirt to shreds. Others broke their fingernails tearing bits of bark off the oak tree against which he had fallen.
Thousands of sightseers came to see him in his coffin and for a time after he was buried in Hernhill churchyard a watch was kept on the grave to protect the body from grave-robbers. The grave was purposely left unmarked and is now lost. The burials had to take place at Hernhill because their was no church at Dunkirk at the time. Events there focused attention upon the village and the Central Society for Education sent an investigator to find out what is was about life in Dunkirk that had led its people to follow so tragically a man like Courtenay.
The report of the investigation mentioned widespread smuggling going on in and around the village, and 'nothing calculated to inspire any regard for order and law.' The report summed up, 'It is not to be wondered that the people fell into pernicious courses.'
Perhaps Mad Thom (as he came to be called) did not after all fail the followers to whom he had promised a better life. In 1840, only two years after the battle, the little hilltop church was built, using flints from Canterbury's old city wall.