•  Chilham, Kent

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Chilham like this:

CHILHAM, a village and a parish in East Ashford district, Kent. The village stands near the river Stour and the Ramsgate and Hastings railway, 6½ miles SW by S of Canterbury; is the Cilleham of the Saxons; was once a market-town; and has a station on the railway, a post office under Canterbury, and a fair on 8 Nov. ...

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The parish comprises 4, 332 acres. Real property £7, 502. Pop., 1, 319. Houses, 256. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged to the Saxon kings of Kent; was given by the Conqueror to Fulbert, who assumed the name of De Dover; passed to the Badlesmeres and others; went, in the time of Edward VI., to Sir Thomas Cheney; went again, at the beginning of the 17th century, to Sir Dudley Digges; passed to the Colebrooks, the Herons, and the Wildmans; and was bought, in 1862, byHardy, Esq. A Roman castrum was here, and is said to have been the residence of Lucius, the Brito-Roman king; a castle of the Saxon kings succeeded the castrum, was renovated after the Conquest, and underwent demolition by Sir Thomas Cheney; and a mansion, in lieu of this, was built by Sir W. Digges, is still standing, and forms a fine specimen of Jacobean architecture. The castle was surrounded by a deep fosse, enclosing about 8 acres; and the remains of it include a late Norman octagonal, three-storey keep. Many Roman relics, of various kinds, have been found here; and a great barrow or artificial mound, popularly called Julaber's Grave, the subject of much dispute among antiquaries, is immediately above the railway station. the living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Molash, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £698.* Patron, Charles Hardy, Esq. The church is decorated English, with a later clerestory; was rebuilt, in the E part, in 1863; belonged anciently to Throwleigh priory, afterwards to Sion monastery; and contains monuments of the Diggeses, the Colebrooks, and the Wildmans. There are a national school, and charities £37.

Chilham through time

Chilham is now part of Ashford district. Click here for graphs and data of how Ashford has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Chilham itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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