Tunstall is a linear village and civil parish in
Swale in
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. It is about 2 km to the south-west of the centre of
Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...
, on a road towards
Bredgar
Bredgar is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swale, Kent, England.
Location
The village lies to the southwest of Sittingbourne on the road between Tunstall and Hollingbourne (previously the B2163). The M2 motorway crosses the parish. ...
.
History
In 1798,
Edward Hasted
Edward Hasted (20 December 1732 OS (31 December 1732 NS) – 14 January 1812) was an English antiquarian and pioneering historian of his ancestral home county of Kent. As such, he was the author of a major county history, ''The History and T ...
records that it had once been called ''Dunstall''. This comes from the Saxon words ''dun'', or ''dune'', meaning a hill, and ''stealle'' meaning a place. It was recorded in the
Domesday survey
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 ...
, mistakenly as Stealle.
At that time the parish covered around nine hundred acres of land (about 364 ha), of which about one hundred and forty were woodland.
[
In 1042, the manor was held by Osward (a ]Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
chief) before being given to Odo, Earl of Kent
Odo of Bayeux (died 1097), Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux, was the maternal half-brother of William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, second in power after the King of England.
Early life
Odo was the son of William the Conqueror's mother ...
(as the Bishop of Bayeux
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Baiocensis et Lexoviensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Bayeux et Lisieux'') is a diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is coextensive with the Department of Calvados and i ...
). After Odo's trial for fraud, the parish passed to 'Hugo de Port'. In the reign of King Henry II (1166), it passed to Manasser Arsic. In 1206, it was sold to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent (; ; ; c.1170 – before 5 May 1243) was an English nobleman who served as Chief Justiciar of England and Ireland during the reigns of King John and of his son and successor King Henry III and, as a consequenc ...
. His daughter Margaret (who was married at one time to Richard de Clare
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
) inherited and she then passed it to her eldest son 'John de Burgo'. In 1280, his son John died and his daughter, Margerie (who was married to Stephen de Pencester
Stephen de Pencester was Warden of the Cinque Ports when the first authoritative list of Cinque Ports Confederation Members was produced in 1293.
Pencester was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports for 32 years, his tenure finishing in 1299 when the B ...
) inherited the parish. When Stephen died in 1303, Margerie married Robert de Orreby, with whom she had a son John de Orreby (a clerk). In 1347 it was sold to Sir Walter Manny. His only daughter Anne, the wife of John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, inherited it after he died. His son, John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke later became the owner of the parish. It then passed to his cousin Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn
Reynold Grey, 3rd Baron Grey of Ruthyn (c. 1362 – 30 September 1440), a powerful Welsh marcher lord, succeeded to the title on his father's death in July 1388.
Lineage
Reginald Grey was the eldest son of Reynold Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Rut ...
. He sold this manor to John Drue, rector of Harpley, and John Seymour, citizen of London, who later sold it to Sir William Cromer (who was Lord Mayor in 1413 and 1423). His son William Cromer (who was High Sheriff of Kent in 1444). His son Sir James Cromer was also a High Sheriff. When he died in 1613, it passed to Christian, his youngest daughter, who carried it in marriage to John Hales (the eldest son of Sir Edward Hales, knight and 2nd baronet, of Tenterden
Tenterden is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the remnant forest the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother. It was a member of the Cinque Ports Confederation. Its riverside today is ...
). Then his grandfather Sir Edward Hales, 1st Baronet
Sir Edward Hales, 1st Baronet (1576–1654) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in various years between 1605 and 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War.
Family
Edward Hales was the son of Wil ...
inherited the manor and it passed through various members of his family.[
Also within the parish is Ufton, which was the family home of Sir Robert de Shurland (who also held Shurland Hall on the ]Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is deriv ...
). He possessed the manor in the reign of Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...
. He attended the prince in Scotland, to the siege of Caerlaverock
Caerlaverock Castle is a moated triangular castle first built in the 13th century. It is located on the southern coast of Scotland, south of Dumfries, on the edge of the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve. Caerlaverock was a stronghold of t ...
, where he was knighted, and in 1300, he then obtained a charter of free warren
A free warren—often simply warren—is a type of franchise or privilege conveyed by a sovereign in medieval England to an English subject, promising to hold them harmless for killing game of certain species within a stipulated area, u ...
for his manor of Ufton.[
Another estate in the parish is Gore Court. This passed through many generations of the Gore family.][
Another small manor is Pitstock, which changed its name to 'Woodstock'. Thomas Cheney (]Treasurer of the Household
The Treasurer of the Household is a member of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The position is usually held by one of the government deputy Chief Whips in the House of Commons. The current holder of the office is Mar ...
) was an owner in 1572.[
The church of St John Baptist is in the ]diocese of Canterbury
The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering East Kent, eastern Kent which was founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The diocese is centred on Canterbury Cathedral and is the oldest episcopal see, see of the Church o ...
, and the deanery of Sittingbourne.[ It is ]Grade I listed
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 I ...
.
Modern day
Notable sights include Tunstall Church of England primary school and a large village manor house, and a former police house which is now a private residence. Unusually for an English village, there are no shops or pubs within the village boundaries; these have been prohibited since the Middle Ages. The only amenity is a telephone box.
The Kent Science Park is in the parish, on a former Shell Research site.[Royal Society of Chemistry https://www.rsc.org/news-events/articles/2016/apr/cornforth-plaque/]
Notes
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in Kent
Civil parishes in Kent