Badlesmere, Kent
Historical Description
Badlesmere (usually corrupted into Basmere), a parish in Kent, 4½ miles S of Faversham station on the L.C. & D.R. It has a post office under Faversham. Acreage, 781; population of the civil parish, 134; of the ecclesiastical, 232. The manor belonged, in the times of Edward I. and Edward II., to the potent family of De Badlesmere; was forfeited by the attainder and execution of John Earl of Oxford and Baron Badlesmere; and passed into the possession of the family of Sondes, now represented by Lord Sondes. A house of regular canons was founded in the 13th year of Edward II. by Bartholomew de Badlesmere. The living is a rectory, united to the rectory of Leaveland, in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £323 with residence. Patron, Lord Sondes. The church is a small, plain, Saxon structure in good condition.
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 | Badlesmere St. Leonard | |
| Hundred | Faversham | |
| Lathe | Scray | |
| Poor Law union | Faversham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1558.
Findmypast have the following online for Badlesmere, St Leonard: baptisms 1558-1822, marriages 1561-1883, burials 1559-1841
Churches
Church of England
St. Leonard (parish church)
The church of St. Leonard is of flint stone, in the Early English and Decorated styles, and has a tower containing one bell: in the chancel are remains of elaborately carved mediaeval stalls with inscriptions and a representation of the Archi-episoopal pall: there are 150 sittings.
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 Badlesmere from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Badlesmere (St. Leonard))
Maps
Online maps of Badlesmere 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.