Chevening, Kent

Historical Description

Chevening, a parish in Kent, on the river Darenth, 3¼ miles NW of Sevenoaks, and 3 from Dunton Green station on the S.E.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office at Chipstead, under Sevenoaks. Acreage, 3893; population, 1050. There are two manors. The one belonged to the See of Canterbury till the Reformation, and then passed to the Crown. The other belonged early to the family of De Chevening, passed to the Lennards, afterwards Lords Dacre, was purchased in 1717 by General Stanhope, created Earl Stanhope. The mansion here was built in 1630 by Lord Dacre after designs by Inigo Jones, but has been greatly altered, both externally and internally, and it contains some interesting portraits. The grounds are crossed by the ancient British Way, called the Pilgrim's Road, include a fine lake and maze, and a mass of Roman monumental stones and altars, brought from abroad by the first Lord Stanhope, and command from their highest point a brilliant view. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £450 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church has some Early English masonry, but is chiefly Perpendicular, and it contains altar tombs of the Dacres and monuments of the Stanhopes. The church has commodious mission buildings at Chipstead. There are also three dissenting chapels. Bessels Green and Chipstead are two hamlets in this parish.

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	Kent
Ecclesiastical parish	Chevening St. Botolph
Hundred	Codsheath
Lathe	Sutton-at-Hone
Poor Law union	Sevenoaks

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

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1561.

Findmypast have the following online for Chevening, St Botolph: baptisms 1561-1919, marriages 1550-1919, burials 1568-1922

Churches

Church of England

St. Botolph (parish church)

The church of St. Botolph is of stone in the Early English and later styles, and has a tower of Perpendicular date, containing 2 bells; there are monuments to the Cranmer family, and in a side chapel or chantry two fine Elizabethan monuments to the Lennard family, several mural tablets to the Stanhope family and a tomb by Chantrey to Lady Frederica Stanhope, d. 14 Jan. 1823, and several stained windows: the church was restored in 1855, at a cost of nearly £1,300; and again in 1890-91, at a total cost of £900, and further in 1901, when it was reseated in oak and the floor lowered to its original level, at a cost of £1,350; it now affords 300 sittings. In the churchyard is a memorial cross to Arthur Philip, 6th Earl Stanhope, d. 19 April, 1905, designed by Mr. W. D. Caröe F.S.A. architect.

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 Chevening from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Chevening (St. Botolph))

Maps

Online maps of Chevening 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:

Villages, Hamlets, &c

Bessels Green
Chipstead

Visitations Heraldic

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

District	Sevenoaks
County	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Postal district	TN14
Post Town	Sevenoaks