Elvington is a small

pit village A pit village, colliery village or mining village is a settlement built by colliery owners to house their workers. The villages were built on the coalfields of Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution where new coal mines were developed in ...

on a ridge in between

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

and

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

in the 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 ...

Southeast England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, ...

. Located near

Eythorne Eythorne is a civil parish and small village located 7.3 miles north-northwest of Dover in Kent, with a combined population of approximately 2,500 residents including nearby villages Barfrestone and Elvington. Although not classed as one of the ...

, Elvington was mostly built in the early 20th century to serve the nearby

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

Tilmanstone Tilmanstone is a small village and civil parish in Kent, in the South East of England, near Eastry, a much bigger and more developed area. Tilmanstone no longer has a village school; however, the independent Northbourne Park School is close to the ...

, as were other Kent Coalfield villages including

Snowdown Snowdown is a hamlet near Dover in Kent, England. It was the location of one of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield, which closed in 1987. The population of the village is included in the civil parish In England, a civil pari ...

Aylesham Aylesham is a village and civil parish in the Dover district of Kent, England. The village is located around 6.5 miles (10.5 km) southeast of the cathedral city of Canterbury, and around 8.5 miles (13.7 km) northwest of the town an ...

and

Betteshanger Betteshanger is a village near Deal in East Kent, England. It gave its name to the largest of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Northbourne. Before the coal mine ...

."Introduction to the project"
, Coalfields Heritage Initiative Kent website

History

The name Elvington derives from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

meaning "farmstead of someone named Ælfwine";''Oxford Dictionary of British Placenames'', A.D.Mills, Oxford University Press a manor or farm of that name reportedly once stood at what is now the bowling club. Apparently the

Romans 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 lette ...

once marched through this area of Kent using the Ashey path to

Barfrestone Barfrestone is a village in East Kent, England, and between Shepherdswell, Eythorne and Nonington, and close to the pit villages of Elvington and Snowdown. Alternative spellings are Barfreston and Barfreystone. The old pronunciation was "Barso ...

and the Roman Path across the downs and along what is now Roman Way, hence the name. In 1916 the

East Kent Light Railway The East Kent Light Railway was part of the H. F. Stephens, Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager. The line ...

opened a station at Elvington called Elvington Halt. This served passengers until 1948, and closed entirely in 1951."Elvington"
Disused Stations, retrieved 20 September 2010 Today the site of the mine is an industrial estate between Tilmanstone and Eythorne located on the Pike Road. A new housing estate was built in the mid-1990s and has been extensively added to. The village is also on the

Miner's Way Trail The Miner's Way Trail is a long-distance circular footpath in England, starting at Sholden, Kent. Linking up the coalfield parishes of East Kent. Including; the parishes of Deal, Ash, Aylesham, Chillenden, Eastry, Eythorne, Elvington, Goodnes ...

. Using the Roman Way to head to

Shepherdswell Shepherdswell (also Sibertswold) is a village in the civil parish of Shepherdswell with Coldred, and the Dover District of Kent, England. Culture and community Village social life centres on the local Grade I listed church 'Church of St Andrew' ...

. The trail links up the coalfield parishes of East Kent.

Community

Services today include a community/learning centre, school,"Elvington Community Centre"
Dover District Council website shop, hairdressers, and takeaway shop as well as local information centre providing access to training and employment for local residents. The post office closed in 2008. Eythorne Elvington Community Primary school serves 104 pupils from school years one to six from Elvington and Eythorne."Eythorne Elvington Community Primary website"
Recent investment from agencies such as the South East England Development Agency has led to the development of the former miners hall into a communication and learning centre. Dover District Council has earmarked land around Elvington as potential for housing development in their recent draft local plan.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent