Little Chart, Kent
Historical Description
Chart, Little, a parish in Kent, 2 miles SW of Charing station on the L.C. & D.R. Post town, Ashford; money order and telegraph office, Pluckley. Acreage, 1607; population, 313. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; the commuted tithe rent charge is £398 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is old, and has a tower with a peal of five bells. It was well restored in 1877. There is a Roman Catholic chapel in the mansion of Cale Hill.
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 | Little Chart St. Mary | |
Hundred | Calehill | |
Lathe | Shepway | |
Poor Law union | West Ashford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1569; marriages from 1562.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an ancient stone building in the Perpendicular style, and has a tower containing 5 bells: the east window and others are memorials to the Cheesman family: in the aisle is the effigy of a knight in armour, and brasses and monuments to the Darell family: the church was restored in 1876-7, at a cost of £1,200, and affords 150 sittings.
Roman Catholic
St. Francis Xavier and St. Joseph, Calehill
Attached to Calehill, the ancient mansion of the Darell family, is a Catholic chapel dedicated to St. Francis Xavier and St. Joseph; it was served by the Catholic priest of Ashford.
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 Little Chart from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Chart, Little (St. Mary))
Maps
Online maps of Little Chart 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.