Tenterden, Kent

Historical Description

Tenterden, a market-town, a municipal borough, and a parish, in Kent. The town stands on elevated ground, 7½ miles WNW of Appledore station on the S.E.R., and 12 SW of Ashford. It was anciently called Theinwarden; became, in the time of Henry VI., a member of the Eye cinque port and a municipal borough; is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors, who act as the urban district council; includes within its borough boundaries all Tenterden parish and part of Ebony; is a seat of quarter sessions, petty sessions, and county courts. It consists chiefly of one street about a mile long, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Ashford; two banks, three good inns, a town-hall, a church, two working men's clubs, a union workhouse, a weekly market on Friday, a fair on the first Monday of May, and a lamb fair in Sept. The parish church belonged anciently to St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury; is a large and fine building of Later English, with a lofty pinnacled tower and a fine peal of eight bells. The tower is of a later period than the main body; was erected in the time of Henry VI., and ia notable for a proverbial expression that Tenterden Steeple was the cause of the Goodwin Sands, the funds for maintaining the sea-wall having been taken for the erection of the steeple. The living of St Mildred is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £240 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. Area of municipal borough, 8948 acres; population, 3429. There are Wesleyan, Baptist, and Unitarian chapels. Heronden, Heronden Hall, Morghew, Hales Place, and Westrom are chief residences. Kenchill, formerly a mansion, is now a farmhouse. A section in the N was constituted a separate charge, under the name of St Michael, in 1864; and another section, noticed in our article SMALL HYTHE, is also a separate charge. The church of St Michael is a building of stone in the Early English style. The living is a vicarage; net value, £280 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Population, 786.

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.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Tenterden from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Tenterden 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.