Golden Green 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 ...

in the Medway valley near

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

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 ...

. It is 1 mile (1.6 km) from the larger village of

Hadlow Hadlow is a village in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone. The Saxon name for the settlement was Haeselholte (in the Textus Roffens ...

(of which it is part of the

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 ...

) and from the town of Tonbridge.

Location

Golden Green has a population of around 350. The surrounding area is predominantly agricultural with fruit orchards and cereals as the principal crops. It stands on a ridge, with the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

to the south and the River Bourne to the north. Goldhill Mill is the only watermill on the Bourne that retains its

machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecule ...

. The village is popular with commuters and has many expensive houses.

Barnes Street Barnes Street is located on the River Medway to the east of Tonbridge in Kent, England. It is part of the hamlet of Golden Green and in the civil parish of Hadlow Hadlow is a village in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England ...

hamlet is located immediately adjacent along the same minor road. The Bell Inn

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

is located in the village centre. There are no shops or schools, but the Golden Green Mission Church—a

Grade II-listed 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 ...

tin tabernacle A tin tabernacle, also known as an iron church, is a type of prefabricated ecclesiastical building made from corrugated galvanised iron. They were developed in the mid-19th century initially in the United Kingdom. Corrugated iron was first us ...

opened in about 1914—serves

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

worshippers. It is a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to St. Mary's Church, Hadlow.

Hartlake disaster

On 20 October 1853, a wagon carrying migrant hop pickers back to their camp site overturned on Hartlake bridge, tipping its occupants into a flood swollen River Medway. The accident, known as the Hartlake disaster, resulted in the deaths of 30 people. An inquest into the disaster held at the Bell Inn in the village blamed the Medway Navigation Company for failing to adequately maintain the old wooden bridge.

Aircraft accident

On 6 August 1924,

Farman F.60 Goliath The Farman F.60 Goliath was a French airliner and bomber produced by the Farman Aviation Works from 1919. It was instrumental in the creation of early airlines and commercial routes in Europe after World War I. Design and development The ''G ...

F-ADDT ''Languedoc'' of

Air Union Air Union was a French airline established January 1, 1923, as the result of a merger between the airlines ''Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes'' and '' Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens''. Air Union was merged with four other French airli ...

was on a scheduled international passenger flight from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

when the port engine failed. A forced landing was made at Golden Green. One person amongst the pilot and five passengers on board was injured. The aircraft was dismantled to allow removal. It was later repaired and returned to service. In 1931, the aircraft was written off when it crashed shortly after taking off from

Marden Airfield Marden Airfield was an airfield in Marden, Kent, United Kingdom. It was operation from 1917 to 1935. Initially a Royal Flying Corps airfield during the First World War it was used post-war as an Emergency Landing Strip, RAF Marden by the Royal ...

, Kent.

References

Hadlow {{Kent-geo-stub