Boxley, Kent

Historical Description

Boxley, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands at the foot of a barren range of chalk hills, 2 miles NE by N of Maidstone station on the L.C. &.D.R. and S.E.R., has a post office under Maidstone, which is the money order and telegraph office, and was once a market-town. The parish includes part of Penenden Heath, and comprises 5787 acres; population of the civil parish, 1562; of the ecclesiastical, 1428. The manor was given by Richard I. to Boxley Abbey, passed at the dissolution to Sir Thomas Wyatt, and belongs now to the Earl of Romney. The abbey was founded in 1146 by William d'Ypres, Earl of Kent, stood 1½ mile WSW of the village, was Cistercian, mitred, and well endowed, had an image of St Eumbald and an automaton crucifix which attracted crowds of pilgrims and were publicly burnt at the Reformation, and is now all effaced except the foundations. A deep thick vein of fuller's-earth occurs at Grove, and was worked so early as 1630. Fulling-mills stood on the neighbouring rivulets, and have been succeeded by paper-mills. A Roman urn and several other Roman relics have been found in the neighbourhood of Grove. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £534 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. The church is Decorated English, and contains the remains of the poet Sandys, and tombs of the Wyatts and others. It was restored in 1876.

Administration

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

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

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1558.

Findmypast have the following online for Boxley, St Mary the Virgin: baptisms 1558-1858, marriages 1559-1919, burials 1558-1921

Churches

Church of England

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Boxley from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Boxley (All Saints))

Maps

Online maps of Boxley 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.