Brenchley, Kent
Historical Description
Brenchley, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands 2½ miles S by E of Paddock-Wood station on the S.E.R., and 7 ENE of Tunbridge Wells. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office (S.O.) Some good old timbered houses are in it, and a clump of trees on high ground near it figures conspicuously over many miles. The parish includes also the hamlets of Colts-Hill, Mascalls-Pound, Henlys, Piersons-Green, and Pettridge. Acreage, 7804; population of the civil parish, 3822; of the ecclesiastical, 1624. There are mineral waters similar to those of Tunbridge. A holiday home in connection with the Ragged School Union was opened here in 1886. Hops and fruit are extensively grown. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £560 with residence. The church is old, cruciform, and good, and has a lofty tower. Paddock-Wood and Matfield are separate benefices. There are a Baptist chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and small charities.
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 | Brenchley All Saints | |
Hundred | Brenchley and Horsemonden | |
Lathe | Aylesford | |
Poor Law union | Tonbridge |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1560.
Findmypast have the following online for Brenchley, All Saints: baptisms 1560-1975, marriages 1560-1917, burials 1560-1909
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is of stone, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, and has a tower containing 6 bells and a clock with chimes, placed in 1886, at a cost of £300: the church affords 550 sittings: in the churchyard is a remarkably fine avenue of yew trees leading up to the north porch.
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 Brenchley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Brenchley (All Saints))
Maps
Online maps of Brenchley 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.