Cuxton is a village in the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

of Medway in

South East 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, Berkshi ...

. It lies on the left bank of the River Medway in the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...

. It is served by the A228, and

Cuxton railway station Cuxton railway station is on the Medway Valley Line in Kent, England, and lies well to the east of the village of Cuxton. It is down the line from London Charing Cross via and is situated between Strood and . The station and all trains that ...

on the Medway Valley Line between Strood and

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

. A low valley leads up from the river to the hamlet of Lower Bush.

History

Archaeological evidence suggest the first human occupation was around 200,000 years ago. A hoard of 196 handaxes from the Acheulian era was excavated in 1962. This is now displayed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The name is believed to have developed from "Cucula's stone".Judith Glover, The Place Names of Kent, 1976, Batsford. The remains of a Roman villa were found under the church yard. The Saxons occupied the town and it became known as Cuckelstane. The church and parish was given by Æthelwulf, King of the West Saxons to the Cathedral church of St. Andrew, Rochester. The church contains much

Norman architecture The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used f ...

, and is unusual as it lies on a southeast–northwest axis. This gave rise to the rhyme, ''He that would see a church miswent / Let him go to Cucklestane in Kent.'' In Tudor times the principal house in the town was Whorne's Place, erected on the river by

Sir William Whorne Sir William Whorne was Lord Mayor of London in 1487. He is sometimes also reported as William Horne or William Littlebury. William Whorne was Lord Mayor at the time of the coronation of Elizabeth of York as the queen of King Henry VII of England, ...

, Lord Mayor of London in 1487. This was later owned by the Leveson family and most notably

Sir John Leveson Sir John Leveson (21 March 1555 – 14 November 1615) was an English politician. He was instrumental in putting down the Essex rebellion of 8 February 1601. Family John Leveson, born 21 March 1555 at Whornes Place, Cuxton, Kent, was the eldest ...

who was Lord Deputy Lieutenant of Kent. This was taken over by the Mashams, strong

royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

who moved on to the Mote in Maidstone. The mansion was demolished in 1782 and only an outlying granary, now a house still bearing the name Whorne's Place, survives in 2011. The only other manor in Tudor Cuxton was that of Beresse or Beresh, now known as Bush. It doesn't survive. In 1610,

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...

was rector of Cuxton; he later became Archbishop of Canterbury under

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

and was executed by the puritans in 1645 because of his strong royalist loyalties. In

Upper Bush Upper Bush is a hamlet in the parish of Cuxton, in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. The hamlet has only a few houses, including two Grade II listed buildings; Barrow Hill House and High Birch The North Downs Way long-dist ...

there are four houses dating from 14th century and a Tudor Kentish

Yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

's house.Brian Matthews, M.A., A History of Strood Rural District, pub. Strood Rural District Council 1971 A tin chapel from Cuxton was dismantled and re-erected at the

Museum of Kent Life Kent Life (formerly the Museum of Kent Life) is an English open-air museum located at Sandling, next to Allington Locks, on the east bank of the River Medway. History Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake bequeathed the Cobtree Manor Estate to Maidsto ...

, Sandling. On 10 August 2015, a gang smuggling guns into the UK were filmed by officers from the

National Crime Agency The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...

(NCA) as they unloaded their illicit cargo near Cuxton Marina. The gang were intercepted as they made their way to a second site, where they planned to bury the weapons; two of the gang were subsequently found guilty of gun smuggling. The NCA described the haul of weapons and ammunition seized by its officers as the largest of its kind in the UK.

Ranscombe Farm

Ranscombe Farm is a

plantlife Plantlife is the international conservation membership charity working to secure a world rich in wild plants and fungi. It is the only UK membership charity dedicated to conserving wild plants and fungi in their natural habitats and helping peo ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, country park and working farm. Part of the site is included in the Cobham Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole farm is within the

Kent Downs The Kent Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in Kent, England. They are the eastern half of the North Downs and stretch from the London/Surrey borders to the White Cliffs of Dover, including a small section of the London Borough ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

Governance

Cuxton is part of the electoral ward called Cuxton and Halling. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 5,448.

Industry

Chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

extraction and

Cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

References

External links

{{Medway Places in Medway