East Farleigh, Kent

Historical Description

Farleigh, East, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on the river Medway, 2 miles SW of Maid-stone, and has a station on the S.E.R., 41 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Maid-stone. The parish comprises 1967 acres; population of the civil parish, 1611; of the ecclesiastical, 1436. The manor belonged at Domesday to the Archbishop of Canterbury— East Farleigh was the residence in his closing years of William Wilberforce, whose two sons were vicars of the parish. Hops of prime quality are extensively grown. A quondam hop-grower here, called James Ellis, began life in a. humble way, and left such a wealth of hop-farms at his death, that the poles alone were said to be worth £70,000. A picturesque ancient bridge, with ribbed arches, here spans the Medway. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £500 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church has some traces of Norman, but is chiefly Late Decorated English, and has a handsome spire." It was restored in 1891 by Mr Herbert Ellis of the priory as a memorial to his father. There are union workhouse schools within the parish.

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

Findmypast have the following online for East Farleigh, St Mary: baptisms 1580-1896, marriages 1580-1897, burials 1580-1907

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 East Farleigh from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Farleigh, East)

Maps

Online maps of East Farleigh 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.