Hever, Kent

Historical Description

Hever, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands near the river Medway, 2¼ miles SE by E of Edenbridge, and has a station on the L.B. & S.C.R., 27 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, under Edenbridge. Acreage of the civil parish, 2660; population, 731; of the ecclesiastical, 412. The manor belonged anciently to the Hevers or Hevres; passed to the Cobhams and the Brocas; was purchased in the time of Henry VI. by Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, great-grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn; was given by Henry VIII. after the death of Anne Boleyn's father to Anne of Cleves; passed by gift of Queen Mary to the Waldegraves; was purchased in 1745 by Sir T. Waldo, and still belongs to the Waldo family. A castle on it, close to the Medway, dates from an ancient period; was rebuilt in the time of Edward III. by Sir William Hever; was again refounded by Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, and completed by his grandson, the father of Anne Boleyn; was the scene of Henry VIII.'s first acquaintance with Anne Boleyn, and of his courting her; retains curious traditional associations of his visits to it; is now an interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of its period; forms a quadrangle, surrounded by a double moat, and surmounted by high-pitched roofs and gables, and was approached by a strongly portcullised gatehouse, which still remains. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £330 with residence. The church is mostly Decorated English, consists of nave and chancel, with tower and lofty spire, and contains an altar-tomb of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and memorials of Cobhams and the Waldos.

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 Hever, St Peter: baptisms 1600-1918, marriages 1590-1919, burials 1632-1922

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Hever from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hever (St. Peter))

Maps

Online maps of Hever 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.