Graveney is a relatively small but widely dispersed village located between

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...

and

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of ...

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. The main part of the village is located along the intersection of Seasalter Road, Sandbanks Road and Head Hill Road (at the railway crossing), which is surrounded by farmland. The rest of the village is dispersed amongst this farmland. Features include a local

Pub 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 ...

('The Four Horseshoes'), a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

and a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

. There is also a regular

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

service that runs through the village. The

Saxon Shore Way The Saxon Shore Way is a long-distance footpath in England. It starts at Gravesend, Kent, and traces the coast of South-East England as it was in Roman times as far as Hastings, East Sussex, in total. This means that around Romney Marsh the ...

(long-distance path) passes around the Graveney Marshes (between

Seasalter Seasalter is a village (and district council ward) in the Canterbury District of Kent, England. Seasalter is on the north coast of Kent, between the towns of Whitstable and Faversham, facing the Isle of Sheppey across the estuary of the River Swa ...

and Faversham). The marshes are part of the South Swale SSSI.

History

The first records of Graveney are as land acquired in 811 by Wilfred, archbishop of Canterbury, from Cenulph, King of Mercia. Graveney is listed 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 manus ...

in 1086 and was held by the de Gravene and de Feversham families and from 1408 by the Botiller family. Anne Botiller married John Martyn (d.1436) who built the manor house Graveney Court.

Graveney Church

All Saints Church, Graveney, was constructed in

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

times, but it is mainly 14th century. The connections between the village of Graveney and the Christian Church can be traced back to a time before the

Domesday Survey 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 ...

Graveney boat

In 1970, when improvement works were being undertaken by Kent River Authority to drainage channels (Hammond Drain and White Drain) in Graveness, an Anglo-Saxon

clinker-built Clinker built (also known as lapstrake) is a method of boat building where the edges of hull planks overlap each other. Where necessary in larger craft, shorter planks can be joined end to end, creating a longer strake or hull plank. The techni ...

boat was found in the mudflats. The boat was carefully removed by the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

to be conserved and stabilised by the

Mary Rose Trust The Mary Rose Trust is a limited charitable trust based in Portsmouth in the United Kingdom. Its primary aims are to preserve, display and spread knowledge about the 16th century warship ''Mary Rose'' which sank in the Solent on 19 July 1545 ...

. It was a cross-channel cargo vessel, reconstructed as some long and wide and in draught. Later studies, including dendrochronology determined that it was built from

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

, in the mid-890s. It was abandoned in the mud in 950AD. It was also found that one of the last cargo's it carried was hops (vines used in making beer). Other remains include fragments of

quern-stone Quern-stones are stone tools for hand- grinding a wide variety of materials. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a saddle quern, while the upper mobile stone is called a muller, rubber or handstone. The ...

s (grinding stones) made from Mayen lava, located in the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Graveney marshes

Across the marsh run the 400kV powerlines of the national grid They are supported by eight pylons. There is a large 150/400kV electricity substation, serving the London Array offshore wind farm that lies to the north beyond the mouth of the Thames Estuary. Planning permission has been granted to construct a 350MW solar power farm around Cleve Hill, and connect the output to the grid through this substation. The Battle of Graveney Marsh was the last ground level battle fought on British soil; there were no fatalities and one flesh wound. It was fought on 28 September 1940 and the participants were the crew of Ju88 twin engine bomber that had been forced to crashland and

London Irish Rifles The London Irish Rifles (LIR) was a reserve infantry regiment and then company of the British Army. The unit's final incarnation was as D (London Irish Rifles) Company, the London Regiment. On 1 April 2022 soldiers in the company transferred to ...

who had been billeted in

.Hollway, Don. 'The Battle of Graveney Marsh'. ''History Magazine''. Feb/March 2019. http://www.donhollway.com/graveneymarsh/index.html Accessed 2020-04-20. The marshes are the homes to many wildlife species, including

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...

brent goose The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after t ...

golden plover '' Pluvialis '' is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds comprising four species that breed in the temperate or Arctic Northern Hemisphere. In breeding plumage, they all have largely black underparts, and golden or silvery upperparts. The ...

and

marsh harrier The marsh harriers are birds of prey of the harrier subfamily. They are medium-sized raptors and the largest and broadest-winged harriers. Most of them are associated with marshland and dense reedbeds. They are found almost worldwide, excluding ...

References

External links