West Peckham 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 authority ...

in the borough of

Tonbridge and Malling Tonbridge and Malling is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. Tonbridge is the largest settlement but the authority is based in the modern development of Kings Hill. Geography Tonbridge and Malling Borough covers ...

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 River Bourne flows through the extreme west of the parish, and formerly powered a paper mill ( Hamptons Mill) and corn mill ( Oxenhoath Mill). The

Wateringbury Stream The Wateringbury stream is a tributary of the River Medway in Kent, England. It rises at Swanton, West Peckham parish, flows south east towards Mereworth and then flows in a generally easterly direction to join the River Medway at Wateringbury. ...

rises in the parish.

Oxon Hoath Oxon Hoath is a Grade II* listed Châteauesque-style former manor house with 73 acres (29½ hectares) of grounds at West Peckham, Kent. The spellings Oxenhoath, Oxen Hoath and Oxonhoath are common alternatives. The spelling Oxenholt was also u ...

is the former manor house of West Peckham.

History

The

Domesday 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 ...

entry for

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and West Peckham reads:- :'' The Archbishop himself holds Pecheham, In the time of King

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

it was taxed at six sulungs, and now six sulungs and one yoke. The arable land is ten

carucates The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

. In

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

there are two, and sixteen

villein A villein, otherwise known as ''cottar'' or ''crofter'', is a serf tied to the land in the feudal system. Villeins had more rights and social status than those in slavery, but were under a number of legal restrictions which differentiated them ...

s, with fourteen borderers, having four carucates and a half. There is 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 * Chris ...

, and ten servants, and one

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

, and six acres of meadow. Wood for the

pannage Pannage (also referred to as ''Eichelmast'' or ''Eckerich'' in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) is the practice of releasing livestock-domestic pig, pigs in a forest, so that they can feed on falle ...

of six hogs.'' :''Of the land of this manor, one of the archbishop's tenants holds half a sulung, and was taxed with these six sulungs in the time of King Edward the Confessor, although it could not belong to the manor, except in the scotting, because it was free land.'' :''Richard de Tonebridge holds of the same favour two sulungs and one yoke, and has there twenty-seven villeins, having seven carucates, and wood for the pannage of ten hogs. The whole value being four pounds. In the time of King Edward the Confessor, the manor was worth twelve pounds, when the Archbishop received it eight pounds, and now what he has is worth eight pounds.''

Amenities

The Saxon church of St. Dunstan's is open most days to visitors and the church is still actively used. Dukes Place on Mereworth Road is a Grade I listed timbered hall house, originally built as Preceptory of the Knight's Hospitallers in 1408 by John Culpepper.

Notable people

John Culpeper Sir John Culpeper (c. 1366 - 1414) was an English landowner whose holding was at Oxenhoath (Oxon Hoath) in the Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey ...

(1366-1414) built

and established

West Peckham Preceptory West Peckham Preceptory was a preceptory in West Peckham, Kent, England. History West Peckham Preceptory was founded circa 1408 by Sir John Culpeper of Oxon Hoath, West Peckham. It was held by the Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights ...

c1408. *

Joyce Culpeper Jocasta "Joyce" Culpeper, of Oxon Hoath ( – ) was the mother of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife and Queen consort of King Henry VIII. Family Joyce Culpeper, born about 1480, was the daughter of Sir Richard Culpeper (d. 4 October 1484) and h ...

(c1480-1531) was born at Oxon Hoath. *

Richard Watts Richard Watts (1529–1579) was a successful businessman and MP for Rochester, South East England, in the 1570s. He supplied rations for the English Navy as deputy victualler and supervised the construction of Upnor Castle. After Queen Elizabe ...

(1529-1579), merchant and MP for

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, was probably born in West Peckham.

References

External links

Villages in Kent Tonbridge and Malling Civil parishes in Kent {{kent-geo-stub