Eltham, Kent

Historical Description

Eltham, a village and a parish in Kent, within the parliamentary borough of Woolwich. There is a station on the S.E.R., 8 miles from London, and another at Pope Street, called New Eitham and Pope Street, 9 miles from London. Eitham has a head post office. It was known at Domesday as Alteham; it enjoyed distinction and prosperity from the 13th century till the 16th, in consequence of its possessing a royal palace; it flourished also for some time as a market-town, afterwards sank into comparative neglect and insignificance, yet continued to present attractions to visitors and residents; and it now has some good houses, and rejoices in picturesque environs studded with villas and mansions. The area is 3782 acres; population, 5682. The manor belonged to the Crown in the time of Edward the Confessor; was given by William the Conqueror to Odo, Earl of Kent; soon partly reverted to the Crown and partly was given to the Mandevilles, from whom it took the name of Eitham Mandeville; was conveyed by Edward I. to John de Vesci, passed first to the Aytons, next to the Scroops, reverted in 1318 to Queen Isabel, and went for a short time, about the middle of the following century, to Robert Dawson; was given by Henry VIII. to successively Sir Henry Guildford and Sir Thomas Speke, passed under Edward VI. to Sir John Gates, was held under the Crown in the time of Elizabeth by William Cromer and Lord Cobham, went in lease at the accession of Charles I. to the Earl of Dorset, was seized by the Parliament in the time of the Commonwealth, occupied for some time by the Earl of Essex and sold to Nathaniel Rich, and purchased at the Restoration by Sir John Shaw. A large and splendid mansion appears to have been erected on it about the middle of the 13th century, was almost entirely rebuilt by Edward IV., received large additions from Henry VII., consisted then of four quadrangles within a high-walled and wide-moated½enclosure encompassed by parks of about 1700 acres, suffered some neglect from the time of Henry VIII. till that of Charles I., underwent enormous devastation during the time of the Commonwealth, and is now represented by only a few remains, which were rescued from utter decay by a slight restoration at a cost of o£700 in 1828. Henry III. kept Christmas here in 1269. Edward's second son John was born here, and hence was called John of Eitham. Edward III. held parliaments here, and in 1365 gave sumptuous entertainment here to his former prisoner King John of France. The Regent Lionel, son of Edward III., kept Christmas here in 1347. Richard II. entertained here Leo, King of Armenia, in 1386. Henry IV. was here in 1409, Henry VI. in 1429, Edward IV. in 1483. The Princess Bridget, daughter of Edward IV., was born here. Henry VIII. was here in 1515 and 1526, but began after the latter year to cherish a preference for his new palace at Greenwich. Mary was here in 1556. Elizabeth when a child was often brought hither for a change of air, but on reaching the throne gave preference, as her father had done, to Greenwich. The Earl of Essex died here in 1646. The chief remains arc the tilt-yard entrance archway, the moat, partially drained and dressed, the battlemented wall, with flanking loop-hole turrets, subterranean passages or drains, which served as sally-ports, a three-arched ivy-clad bridge spanning the moat, the buttery with barge-board gables and fine-corbelled attics, and above all the banqueting-hall, in good preservation, 100 feet long, 56 wide, and 60 high, with double windows on each side, two grand bays, and a magnificent open roof, and forming a beautiful specimen of the domestic architecture of the time of Edward IV. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester; net value, £206 with residence. The church of St John the Baptist was rebuilt in 1875, in the Early English style. Holy Trinity Church was erected in 1869. The living is a vicarage; net value, £280. St Peter's Church was built in 1871, and is a red brick structure in the Early English style. The living is vicarage. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels, a public hall, lecture hall, working men's club; cottage hospital, and almshouses. There are some good residences in the neighbourhood. Over, the translator of (t Juvenal," was vicar. Bishop Home, the comedian Doggett, and Sir William James, the conqueror of Severndroog, whose castle stands on the neighbouring Shooters' Hill, were buried in the churchyard. The Philipotts, authors of the "Survey of Kent," were natives. Vandyke the painter, Lilbourne the republican, and Dr Sherard and Dillenius the botanists were residents, and the house which Sherard inhabited still stands. The area of the parish is 3782 acres; population, 5682.

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 Eltham, St John the Baptist: baptisms 1813-1917, marriages 1583-1837, burials 1813-1970

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Eltham from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Eltham (St. John the Baptist))

Maps

Online maps of Eltham 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.