Chalk is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
and since 1935 a former
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
which adjoins the east of
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England. As is intuitive, its name comes from the
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
word ''cealc'' meaning a chalkstone. In 1931 the parish had a population of 563.
One layer of the chalk carries ''
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
s'', stones embedded in the chalk, and these were used in building and in providing the means of fire for ''
musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...
s''. The stone is often cut to provide a flat edge as a craft known as ''flint-knapping''. The trade was worked in Chalk from the 17th century onwards. Gun-flints were produced here in large quantities until the early 19th century.
Current issues relating to the immediate environment around Chalk include a proposed new
Lower Thames Crossing
The Lower Thames Crossing is a proposed road crossing of the Thames estuary downstream of the Dartford Crossing that links the counties of Kent and Essex, and its proposed approaches. If built it would pass through the districts of Thurrock an ...
across the nearby estuary marshes, confirmed in 2017.
History
![East Court Farm, Chalk - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/East_Court_Farm%2C_Chalk_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1088983.jpg)
Chalk was known to people as early as the 8th century, as a ''witanagemot'' (a Saxon meeting) held here is mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
. An Iron Age settlement was discovered near St. Mary's Church during the laying of a gas pipeline. A large
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
villa was discovered here in 1961. Of the farms in the parish, Filborough is the oldest, having historical mention as early as AD 1220. At one time it was owned by
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
. Two of its
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
s were called ''West Court'' and ''East Court''.
Chalk's major claim to fame is its connection with
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
. Here he spent his honeymoon with his new bride,
Catherine Hogarth; and it was here that he wrote the early instalments of ''
Pickwick Papers
''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to s ...
''. He also used the old
forge
A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...
in the village as a model for Joe Gargery's cottage in ''
Great Expectations
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...
''. The building still stands as a historically
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
In 1935 Chalk parish became part of the Municipal Borough: until then it had been a somewhat remote village. In the main street was one of the tollgates for
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...
opened between Northfleet and
Strood
Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, South East England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham and Rainham. It lies on the northwest bank of the River Medway at its lowes ...
; it remained until 1871. In 1921 the new Gravesend-Rochester road was built which left the former main village street to the north. The village inn, the ''White Hart'' now stands on the main road (now converted and part of the Harvester Restaurant group); and the school closed to be replaced by the village hall.
[ The school project had been the brainchild of the Vicar of Chalk during the Victorian era, the Revd. William Joynes, and was originally funded largely through Joynes's good working relationship with the Earl of Darnley; the ownership of the school became vested in the church's Diocesan Board of Education. The local church bought the site through its PCC in 1960 during the ministry of the Revd Alan Holloway. The name "Chalk Parish Hall" was formalised at this time. The building was extensively enlarged in wood and equipped with a new but non-pitched roof in the later 1960s. After the building became significantly decayed through the rotting of the wooden structure, it was totally rebuilt in brick during 2006–7, and officially re-opened by ]The Duke of Kent
Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of peerage of Great Britain, Great Britain and the peerage of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, most recently as a Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom, royal dukedom ...
on 5 June 2007.
The parish church of St. Mary the Virgin lies some distance to the east of the village centre. A church building existed in this location for the Synod of Chalkhythe in 785 and was noted in the Domesday Book of 1086; the current structure dates from the 12th century. The font is Norman and the oldest bell was first hung in 1348. The tower, a prominent landmark for navigation in the Thames, dates from the 15th century.
Also within the parish was the one-time Gravesend Airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
, opened as the Gravesend School of Flying in 1932,[ which during ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
became a Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
fighter base. Sold to developers in 1957, on much of its site is now one of the biggest post-war housing estates, known as Riverview Park Estate.
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in Kent
Populated places on the River Thames
Former civil parishes in Kent
Gravesend, Kent