Chiddingstone, Kent
Historical Description
Chiddingstone or Chydingstone, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands in the Weald, on the river Eden, 1¼ mile SW of Penshurst station on the S.E.R., and 6 miles WSW of Tunbridge, contains interesting specimens of old gabled timbered houses, and has a post and telegraph office under Edenbridge; money order office, Penshurst. The parish includes also the hamlet of Little Chiddingstone. Acreage, 5981; population of the civil parish, 1236; of the ecclesiastical, 1185. The manor belonged once to the Burghs and the Cobhams, and has belonged since the time of Henry VIII. to the Streatfields. The ancient manor-house was called High Street House, and the present one is modern and castellated. The Chiding Stone, figured by Grose, and the subject of curious tradition, is a weatherworn mass of sandstone, about 18 feet high, on the edge of the path behind the village. Wild boars anciently haunted the surrounding tract, and are commemorated here in the names of Boar Place and Boreshill. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £555 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church has a fine Perpendicular English tower, but includes some portions of Decorated date, and it contains many monuments of the Streatfields. It was restored in 1870.
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 | Chiddingstone St. Mary | |
Hundred | Somerden | |
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 1558.
Findmypast have the following online for Chiddingstone, St Mary: baptisms 1631-1919, marriages 1558-1919, burials 1631-1922
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is of stone in various styles from Early English to late Jacobean, and consists of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, and an embattled western tower of Kentish rag stone, containing a clock and 8 bells: there are hatchments and tablets to the Streatfeild family: the chancel was restored about 1870, and the church in 1898, at an outlay of about £1,000; in 1901 the tower was renovated and the bells rehung at a cost of £1,000, the gift of Mrs. Yates, of Latymers, Penshurst: the church affords 350 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 Chiddingstone from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Chiddingstone (St. Mary))
Maps
Online maps of Chiddingstone 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.