Rodmersham is a village and

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 authorit ...

in the

Borough of Swale Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England and is bounded by Medway to the west, Canterbury to the east, Ashford to the south and Maidstone to the south west. Its council is based in Sittingbourne. The distri ...

in the north of the English county 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 ...

. It is just under south of

Bapchild Bapchild is a village and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England, about two miles inside of Sittingbourne. It lies on the old Roman road (Watling Street) now the A2, and according to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of ...

on the A2 road and south-east of the town of

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

. Rodmersham Green, which forms the bulk of the modern village, is to the south-west of the village church towards the Highsted Valley and Tunstall.

History

In 1798,

Edward Hasted Edward Hasted (20 December 1732 OS (31 December 1732 NS) – 14 January 1812) was an English antiquarian and pioneering historian of his ancestral home county of Kent. As such, he was the author of a major county history, ''The History and T ...

records that the parish was made up of of land, of which were woodland. It was under the control of the Manor of Milton, who controlled most of Kent. In

King Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

's reign, it was owned by John de Podach (from

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

shire). His descendants renamed themselves 'Pordage'. In the reign of

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

, it was owned by Sir William Pordage. In 1615, he renamed the manor house, 'New House', now ( Grade II listed) and called Rodmersham House. In Queen Anne's reign it passed to the Lushington family. Which included Mr Thomas Lushington, a noted scholar, born in

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

in 1589, and afterwards educated at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. The manor house stayed in the private hands of the family. The village church, (the

Grade I 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 ...

listed) Church of St Nicholas, is in the

diocese of Canterbury The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering East Kent, eastern Kent which was founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The diocese is centred on Canterbury Cathedral and is the oldest episcopal see, see of the Church o ...

, and deanery of Sittingborne. The church contains an example of a timber

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...

thought to be 15th century. The altar and reredos are by Buckeridge and Floyce, described as representing "the best order of ecclesiastical art, viz., the 15th Century German, whilst the character of the ornament is founded on the old Norfolk work".

Rodmersham Green

Hasted notes that Rodmersham Green also had a nearby hamlet of Upper Rodmersham, which is to the south of the village in an area traditionally used for orchards. There was a windmill at the north end of Rodmersham Green, built in 1835 and demolished in September 1969. The village has six listed buildings: Baker Cottages, Pardoners Cottage, Holly Tree Lodge, Victoria House, Orsett House, and Vine Cottages. It also has a primary school, the ''Fruiterers Arms'' public house, Rodmersham Coffee Shop and two sporting venues, Rodmersham Cricket Club and Rodmersham Squash Club. The artist Edward Ardizzone had a second home at 5 Vine Cottages, Rodermersham Green from the 1950s and took up full-time residence in 1972, dying in the village in 1979.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent