Wrotham, Kent

Historical Description

Wrotham, a small town and a parish in Kent. The town stands at the foot of chalk hills, 8 miles ENE of Sevenoaks, with a station on the L.C, & D.R., 24 miles from London. It has a post, mosey order, and telegraph office. Acreage of the civil parish, 8883; population, 3437; of the ecclesiastical, 1450. For parish council purposes Wrotham, Platt, and Plaxtole were formed into an urban district council, Wrotham having six, Platt three, and Plaxtole four members. Wrotham was known at Domesday as Broteham, is supposed to date from the time of the ancient Britons, was given by Athelstane to Christchurch, Canterbury, had a palace of the Archbishops, now represented by only a few offices, suffered devastation by the Isleys and their party in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, and was formerly a market-town. It has a well-laid-out recreation ground. Wrotham Hill, near the town, commands a superb view. The Isleys and their party were routed at Blacksole Field. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £775 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop. The church is in various styles of architecture, and contains memorials of the Peek-ham family and others. Old British coins and fragments of brass armour have been discovered in the neighbourhood. There are almshouses for four poor parishioners.

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 Wrotham from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Wrotham 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

Villages, Hamlets, &c

Visitations Heraldic

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