Capel or Caple, Kent
Historical Description
Capel or Caple, a parish in Kent, 3 miles SE of Tunbridge. In 1885 it was amalgamated for all but ecclesiastical purposes with that of Tudeley. There are some mineral springs. The hospital of the Tunbridge Rural Sanitary Authority, erected in 1887, stands in the parish. It has a post office at Five Oak Green; money order and telegraph office, Paddock Wood. Acreage, 3057; population of the civil parish, 1128; of the ecclesiastical, 1133. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £180. The church is small. There is also an ancient church at Tudley, and a new chapel of ease at Five Oak Green.
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 | Capel St. Thomas à Becket | |
| Hundred | Washlingstone | |
| Lathe | St. Augustine | |
| Poor Law union | Tonbridge |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1663; marriages, 1754.
Findmypast have the following online for Capel, St Thomas a Beckett: baptisms 1702-1919, marriages 1702-1919, burials 1702-1922
Churches
Church of England
St. Luke's Mission Church
St. Luke's Mission church, erected 1894, on a site given by Viscount Falmouth, will seat 220.
St. Thomas à Becket (parish church)
The church of St. Thomas à Becket, at Capel, is chiefly in the Early English style: the tower, which is Perpendicular, has a spire and contains one bell: the church affords 175 sittings: in the churchyard is a very large yew tree.
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 Capel or Caple from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Capel (St. Thomas à Becket))
Maps
Online maps of Capel or Caple 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.