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 ...
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, with a
population
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...
of 1,407. The centre of the parish is
Hamstreet
Hamstreet is a village in Kent, in South East England.
The village is located 6 miles (10 km) south of Ashford (borough), Ashford on the A2070 road, A2070, the main road between Ashford, Kent, Ashford and Hastings. The majority of the villa ...
village which falls almost entirely within it but has a small fraction in the parish of
Warehorne
Warehorne is a village and civil parish in the south of the Ashford Borough of Kent, England. It is a scattered community centred on the Hamstreet to Tenterden road (B2067) around seven miles SSW of Ashford. The Royal Military Canal passes ...
. The civil parish here reflects the very longstanding dominance of Orlestreet as its
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 ...
boundary and provides a third alternative to most residents of Hamstreet to their village name, other than 'Ham Street'. Hamstreet is bypassed by the A2070 road, six miles south of
Ashford Ashford may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Ashford, New South Wales
*Ashford, South Australia
*Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia
Ireland
*Ashford, County Wicklow
*Ashford Castle, County Galway
United Kingdom
*Ashford, Kent, a town
**B ...
.
Description
Most of the population live in a cross-civil parish settlement at the middle and edge of Orlestone, which is Hamstreet.
Orlestone itself is a small
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
with a typical short street number of houses and the
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
parish
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
* Chri ...
of St Mary the Virgin, parts of which date to the 11th century. Much of the population moved to Hamstreet (originally known as Ham) when the Ashford to Hastings railway opened in 1853; there was also a better source of water at the newer place.
Eponymous places in the civil parish are Orlestone
Forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
, and buildings such as Orlestone Grange and Orlestone Riding Centre (near
Shadoxhurst
Shadoxhurst () is a civil parish and a village on the remnant forest the Kent Weald, near Ashford in Kent, England between the Greensand Ridge and Romney Marsh.
Geography
Part of the vestige of county-sized woodland known as The Weald, Shadoxhurs ...
). Also a neighbourhood of Hamstreet built in 2006 has been named Orlestone View.
As with Warehorne the north of the area is forested.
Transport
Ham Street railway station
Ham Street railway station is a Grade II listed stop on the Marshlink line in the village of Hamstreet, Kent, between and . Services are provided by Southern.
Location
The station is on a dual-track section of the unelectrified Marshlink Line ...
is central to Hamstreet and is also in approximately the midpoint of this parish.