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Kenardington (St. Mary)

KENARDINGTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Tenterden, partly in the liberty of Romney-Marsh, but chiefly in the hundred of Blackbourne, E. and Lower divisions of the lathe of Scray, W. division of Kent, 8 miles (S. S. W.) from Ashford; containing 163 inhabitants. The neighbourhood is supposed to have been the scene of some encounters between Alfred and the Danes; and extensive military earthworks, including a high breastwork and a small circular mount, still remain, which are said to have been thrown up by that monarch in 893, when a division of the Danes sailed up the Rother, and entrenched themselves in the adjoining parish of Appledore. The manor of Kenardington formed a portion of the lands assigned by William the Conqueror for the defence of Dovor Castle, and came by marriage in the reign of George I. to the Breton family, with whom it has since remained. The parish comprises 2160 acres, about one-third of which is arable, and the rest pasture and wood, the wood covering 300 acres. The village, together with the larger part of the parish, is situated on high ground; but the southern part is low, and within the level of Romney Marsh, which is divided by the church from the upland, or Weald of Kent. The parish is intersected by the Royal Military canal. The living is a rectory and vicarage, valued in the king's books at £12. 1. 0½., and in the gift of the family of Breton: the tithes have been commuted for £200, and the glebe comprises 10 acres. The present church is a small structure, built out of the ruins of a former one, which was much larger, and was destroyed by lightning in 1559; at the west end is a brick tower, built about 70 or 80 years ago in the place of the old one, which fell down.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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