Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CHARTHAM

CHARTHAM, a village, a parish, and a subdistrict, in Bridge district, Kent. The village stands on the river Stour and the South-eastern railway, 3½ miles SW of Canterbury; and has a r. station, and a post office under Canterbury. It was known at Domesday as Certeham; it occupies a low site, round a green; and it contains a house built by Dr. Delangle, a French refugee who became rector here, and marked by a bust of Charles II. The parish includes also Horton, consisting of 399 acres, and the hamlets of Chartham-Hatch and Shalmsford-Street. Acres, 4,530. Real property, £6,672. Pop., 1,094. Houses, 242. The property is much subdivided. The manor was given, in 871, to Christ Church, Canterbury; belongs now to the Chapter there; and is still called the Deanery. Chartham downs, above the village, have remains of a number of tumuli, called Danes' Banks; and are marked by lines of ancient entrenchments. One of the earliest discoveries of great fossil bones, giving rise to the modern science of palæontology, was made, in 1668, at Chartham, in the sinking of a well. A large paper mill is at the back of the village. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £800.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is cruciform, variously early and decorated English; has rare and very beautiful tracery in the windows, and an embattled tower at the west end; and contains brasses, monumental slabs, a monument of Dr. Deangle, and an elaborate monument, by Rysbrach, of Sir William Young. There is a Wesleyan chapel.-The subdistrict contains nine parishes, part of another, and an extra-parochial tract. Acres, 18,523. Pop., 5,020. Houses, 1,051.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Chartham CP/AP       Chartham SubD       Bridge RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place names: CERTEHAM     |     CHARTHAM
Place: Chartham

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