Benenden, Kent
Historical Description
Benenden, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands 3 miles SE of Cranbrook, and 8 S of Staplehurst station on the S.E.R., and has a post office under Staplehurst. It is a place of great antiquity, contains several good old houses, and presents a pleasant appearance. It once was noted for cloth manufacture, and it has a fair on 15 May. The parish comprises 6693 acres; population, 1596. Ponds and springs abound. A beacon stood near the village during the civil wars, forming part of a line of communication between Tenterden and London. The St George's Club was erected in 1881 by Viscount Cranbrook, and contains reading rooms and library. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £207 with residence. Patron, Viscount Cranbrook. The church was restored in 1862 at a cost of £6000. There are a school-church, a Baptist chapel, and some charities. Hemsted Park, the seat of Viscount Cranbrook, is in the vicinity.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Kent | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Benenden St. George | |
Hundred | Rolvenden | |
Lathe | Scray | |
Poor Law union | Cranbrooke |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1653.
Findmypast have the following online for Benenden, St George: baptisms 1558-1919, marriages 1558-1919, burials 1558-1922
Churches
Church of England
St. George (parish church)
The church of St. George is of stone, in the Gothic style, and has a tower containing a clock with chimes and 8 bells: there are a number of memorial and other stained windows, and several monuments to the Hodges and Norris families, an ancient brass to Edmond Gybbon esq. founder of the Free school, and a memorial brass to the Rev. Canon Samuel Joy M.A. vicar of this parish 1887-96: there are also three brass memorials to the 1st and 2nd Earls of Cranbrook (d. 1906 and 1911) and Countess (1897) of Cranbrook: the church was restored in 1861-2, and affords 600 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Benenden from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Benenden (St. George))
Maps
Online maps of Benenden are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:
- Kent & Sussex Courier
- Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
- Dover Express
- Kentish Gazette
- Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
- Kentish Chronicle
- Maidstone Telegraph
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.