Tonbridge or Tunbridge, Kent

Historical Description

Tonbridge or Tunbridge, a town and a parish in Kent. The town stands on the river Medway, with a station on the S.E.R., 30 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of the civil parish, 14,511; population, 41,757; of the ecclesiastical, 10,746. Tonbridge was held at Domesday by Richard Fitzgilbert who assumed the name of De Tonebridge or De Clare, acquired in his time a castle and a Premonstratensian priory, sent two members to Parliament in the time of Edward I., is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, publishes three weekly newspapers, occupies ground rising from the Medway, which is navigable hither for barges of 40 tons, and divides here into several branches. The town contains one long street, and includes a new town on the S in the vicinity of the railway station. It has two banks, two chief inns, a town-hall and market-house, an iron bridge erected in 1888, several smaller bridges, a police station, a literary and scientific institution with reading-room and library, a public hall erected in 1874, a grammar school with a large endowed income and several exhibitions. The school was founded in 1553, and rebuilt in 1863 by the Skinners' Company, who are the governors of the school. It proved inadequate for the accommodation of the increasing number of pupils, and extensive additions were made in 1894, and there is now accommodation for 400 boys. New buildings for Sir Andrew Judd's commercial school were erected in 1895-96. There is a workhouse, two suites of almshouses, and other charities. The castle was taken by William Rufus, was taken again by Prince Edward, son of Henry III., was seized by Hugh de Andley in the time of Edward I. and taken from him, was forfeited to the Crown by the Staffords in the time of Henry VIII., was given by Elizabeth to the Careys, and is now represented by some interesting remains. The parochial church, or St Peter's, was given in the time of Henry II. to the Knights of St John, lias been very much disfigured, and shows in the nave and the tower Decorated and Later English features. The building was restored and enlarged in 1879. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £500 with residence. St Saviour's church was erected in 1876 as a chapel of ease to St Peter's, and is a small building of red brick in the Early English style. St Stephen's Church was built in 1852, and is in the Early English style, with tower and spire. The living is a vicarage; net value, £300 with residence. There are Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels. A well-attended market is held on Tuesdays, the manufacture of " Tunbridge ware," in toys, snuff-boxes, dressing-cases, and other articles from soft woods, is largely carried on, and there are makings, breweries, corn-mills, an iron-foundry, a tannery, and gunpowder mills. The poet Cawthorne and V. Knox were masters, and Sir Sydney Smith a pupil, of the grammar school.

The parish includes Lower Haysden, Upper Haysden, Southborongh, and part of Tunbridge-Wells. The chapelries of Hildenborough and Southborough are separate benefices. Dry Hill Park and Quarry Hill are fashionable suburbs, and contain some handsome residences. Somerhill Park is the seat of Sir Julian Goldsmid; the mansion is built of stone in the Elizabethan style, and stands in an undulating park of about 400 acres. The neighbourhood around Tonbridge is thickly wooded and very picturesque.

Tonbridge or Tunbridge or South-Western Parliamentary Division of Kent was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 72,369. The division includes the following:-Tonbridge-Bidborough, Brenchley, Capel, Chiddingstone, Cowden, Edenbridge, Hadlow, Hever, Leigh, Penshurst, Shipbourne, Tudeley, Tonbridge (except such parts of the parish as are comprised within the Local Act District of the town of Tunbridge Wells and the Ecclesiastical District Parish of Tunbridge Wells); Tunbridge Wells-Ashurst, Frant (the part of the parish which is in the county of Kent),Lamberhurst (part of), Pembury, Speldhurst, Tunbridge (the portion of the parish of Tonbridge forming the Local Act District of the town of Tunbridge Wells, and the Ecclesiastical District Parish of Tunbridge Wells); Mailing (part of)-Nettlestead, East Peckham, Hunton, Yalding.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

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	Tonbridge St. Peter and St. Paul
Lathe	Aylesford
Poor Law union	Tonbridge

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Tonbridge or Tunbridge from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Tonbridge, or Tunbridge (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Maps

Online maps of Tonbridge or Tunbridge 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:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.