Ightfield, Kent

Historical Description

Ightfield, a village, a township, and a parish in Salop, near the boundary with Cheshire, 4 miles SE of Whitchurch station on the L. & N.W.R. and G.W.R., and 7 NW of Market Drayton. There is a post office under Whitchurch; money order office, Whitchurch; telegraph office, Calverhall. Acreage, 1615; population, 314. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £210 with residence. The church is ancient, and was restored in 1865. It contains two brasses and an old oak chest, and there is an ancient stone cross in the churchyard. There are Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels. Ightham, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands near the railway from Otford to Maidstone, 1 mile SWby S of Wrotham station on the L.C. & D.R., and 5½ NE of Sevenoaks; was anciently called Eightham; was once a market-town; has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Sevenoaks, and a fair on Whit-Wednesday, called Cockscombe Fair. The parish contains also the hamlets of Mote, Ivy Hatch, Redwell, Oldbury, and part of Borough Green. Acreage, 2611; population, 1258. The manor belonged to the Crevequiers, the Criols, the Inges, the Zouches, and others, and passed to the Jameses. There is a nursery ground. A Roman vicinal way passed through, and has left traces of its course in the names of Oldbury and Stone Street. A Roman camp of irregular form, and enclosing about 137 acres, is on Oldbury Hill, has a single vallum, and contains near the centre two fine springs. A cave, mostly filled by sinking of the earth, is said to exist on the brow of the hill. A building called Ightham Mote stands in a ravine of the Weald, about 2 miles S of the village, the name being probably derived from the old word Witenagemof, the council in Anglo-Saxon times. It forms an excellent specimen of the fortified mansion of former times, and is the residence of the Colyer-Fergusson family. Ightham Court and St Clere are chief residences. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £305 with residence. The church is ancient but good, includes portions from Norman to Later English; consists of nave, aisle, and chancel, with embattled tower; and contains a brass of about 1530, and monuments of the 17th century to the Selbys of Mote. There is a Wesleyan chapel.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient County	Salop
Ecclesiastical parish	Ightfield St. John the Baptist
Hundred	North Bradford
Poor Law union	Wem

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ightfield from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ightfield (St. John the Baptist))

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.