Great Chart is a village in the

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 ...

of Great Chart with Singleton in the Ashford Borough 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 parish is split between the ancient village of Great Chart and the modern Singleton neighbourhood on the western outskirts of Ashford. The village centre of Great Chart is from the town centre. In 1961 the parish had a population of 969.

History

Great Chart is first mentioned in 762 as Seleberhtes Cert, a Jutish name. It is also known that at this year, the village was operating a mechanical

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

, the first water mill to be recorded in Britain. A charter first mentions Seleberhtes Cert when recording that King Ethelberht II (of Kent) exchanged half the use of the successfully operating mill for some pasture in the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

. In 776 Great Chart's manor, the village, its lands and much of its produce were sold by King Egbert (Ethelberht's successor) to Archbishop Jænberht of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a 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. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

to raise finances for a Kentish army - to rebel against

King Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æ ...

of Mercia. In that year there was a great battle between Mercians and Kentish men at

Otford Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It lies on the River Darent, north of Sevenoaks. Otford's four churches are the Anglican Church of St Bartholomew in the village centre, the Otford Methodist Ch ...

as, apparently, a red cross appeared in the sky. For nine years after this battle Egbert held Kent, but ultimately Offa took control and retrieved Great Chart and its lands from Canterbury dividing them up among his followers. After Offa died in 796 his successor

Coenwulf of Mercia Coenwulf (; also spelled Cenwulf, Kenulf, or Kenwulph; la, Coenulfus) was the King of Mercia from December 796 until his death in 821. He was a descendant of King Pybba, who ruled Mercia in the early 7th century. He succeeded Ecgfrith, the son ...

decided to reinstate properties, including Great Chart, back to the ownership of Canterbury. This ownership continued for hundreds of years through the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

- 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 ...

entry for Certh (Great Chart) makes clear that it was still in the possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury and had two mills, a salt-pit, feeding ground for a hundred hogs, and a population of fifty-two - up to the advent of Henry VIII when between 1536 and 1539 he dissolved all monasteries. He confiscated Great Chart and its lands from the priory but soon reinstated them to his new Protestant Dean and Chapter in whose administration they remained until Victorian times (though in a map of the area from 1621 the lands are still attributed to 'Christ Churche', referring to Christ Church in Canterbury). On a map made of the Chart and Longbridge

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

in 1559, the village was named Charte Magna. The civil parish of "Great Chard" was abolished on 1 April 1987 and became part of the parishes "Great Chart with Singleton",

Hothfield Hothfield is a village and civil parish in the Ashford Borough of Kent, England and is 3 miles north-west of Ashford on the A20. It is completely split in two by Hothfield Common. Geography In the north west is Hothfield Common, 58 hectares (1 ...

, and

Kingsnorth Kingsnorth is a mixed rural and urban village and relatively large civil parish adjoining Ashford in Kent, England. The civil parish includes the district of Park Farm. Features The Greensand Way, a long distance footpath stretching from Hasl ...

and the

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unpa ...

of Ashford. On 10 March 2021 police found human remains in a wood near the village. On 12 March 2021 they were confirmed to be those of

Sarah Everard On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police office ...

Description

Great Chart is a largely agricultural village with the farms in the area producing cereals and grass for cattle and sheep. The north-east quarter contains most of the housing in alike construction 20th and 21st century neighbourhoods. A cluster of

listed building 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 ...

s is in the old centre of Great Chart, along the main road in the village (the Street). The area drains via many streams and underwater drainage to the West Stour along the northern boundary before its merger into the Great Stour in Ashford.OS Map with Listed Buildings and Parks marked
The Street, Great Chart - geograph

Amenities

Great Chart has two pubs: A food led pub, ''The Swan and Dog'' and ''The Hoodener's Horse'' which serves a great pint. A football clu
Pilgrims Football Club
with age groups from U7s to seniors are resident at the playing field. A cricket club with competing elevens (XIs), including colts sides have a ground and pavilion in the village. The medieval parish church is of an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

on the same boundaries and is dedicated to St Mary; its community in Singleton is larger than that in the church at meetings in the village hall. Cross-village sports clubs, gardening clubs and social circles cover the area.

Former residents

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

recipient Major William Leet died in Great Chart.

Transport

The village is located near the

A28 road The A28 is a trunk road in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in south east England, connecting Margate, Canterbury, Ashford and Hastings. Starting at the seaside resort of Margate at the north-east point of Kent, the A28 runs inland and we ...

, which connects it to junction 9 of the M20 motorway in Ashford. The bus route 2 operated by Stagecoach in East Kent connects the village with Ashford town centre and

Ashford International railway station Ashford International railway station is a National Rail station in Ashford, Kent, England. It connects several railway lines, including High Speed 1 and the South Eastern Main Line. Services are operated by Southeastern and Southern. The stat ...

External links

Parish Council notes
Ashford Borough Council.
St Mary's, Great Chart

Village history academic blog from 762 AD

Great Chart Cricket Club

Geograph accepted photographs

Statistical overview of civil parish - map

References

{{authority control Villages in the Borough of Ashford Former civil parishes in Kent