Hernhill is a village and

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 authority ...

between

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British t ...

and

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. ...

in southeast

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The parish includes the hamlets of Crockham, Dargate, The Fostall, Lamberhurst, Oakwell, Staple Street, Thread, Waterham and Wey Street.

Churches

During the Anglo-Saxon Christian period (from 600 AD) there was a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

church in Hernhill, built of wood. In 1120 this was replaced with a church built of wood and stone and dedicated to

St Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

.St Michael, Hernhill
Faversham tow
website
. Accessed 2007-05-06; also 2009-06-15

St Michael's Church

In about 1450 the church was replaced again, this time with a stone and flint church building on the same site. This 15th-century structure, dedicated to St Michael, incorporated some of the masonry from the 12th-century building. St Michael's is

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

in style and has a square tower with a ring of eight bells. The main door and door to the bell tower are 15th century, and the

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

is 16th century. Much of the furniture dates from a

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

of the church in the 19th century, and a Lady Chapel was added in 1928. The churchyard contains a monument to parishioners killed in the nearby

Battle of Bossenden Wood The Battle of Bossenden Wood took place on 31 May 1838 near Hernhill in Kent; it has been called the last battle on England, English soil. The battle was fought between a small group of labourers from the Hernhill, Dunkirk, Kent, Dunkirk, and Bo ...

in 1838, said to be the last armed uprising on British soil.History of Dunkirk
Faversham tow
website
. Accessed 2009-06-15

Hamlets

Dargate

Dargate is a hamlet near

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 consists of mainly farmland containing of fruit trees and shrubs, and hops in the past. It is also on the edge of Blean Woods. It has 42 houses. In April 1999 Dargate was made into a conservation area, which means that it is protected. This means that any building or development has to be approved and must be the same as how they imagined Dargate to look historically. In the centre of the hamlet is the Dove Public House. Shepherd Neame purchased The Dove in 1884. In 1884 it was described as a Beer House, that is a low rent drinking den, licensed by The Beer Act of 1830. It became a beer house sometime between 1830 and 1867. The old thatched house was extended in the 1890s and further extended probably in the early 1900s when the old thatched house was demolished and made over to garden/yard. The name Plumpudding Lane came from the fruit trees and the desert of the same name. When the new Thanet Way dual carriageway was built, it split the hamlets of Hernhill. Dargate had a post office which closed in 1990. There was also regular deliveries by a milk float and a weekly visit from a coal man and the Library van. All of which have now stopped. Oakleigh Manor Landscape design used to be a Motor museum and Belvedere farm (originally Dargate Farm) had a farm shop which sold amenities, fruit and vegetables as well as Easter Eggs and Christmas gifts. When Sir William Courtney came to Hernhill in 1838, he persuaded 44 people in Hernhill and Dunkirk to Revolt, which has been described as ‘The Last Rising of The Agricultural Labourers’. They killed a policeman and then six of them were then shot, including Courtney or John Tom which was his real name, in woods nearby. They are buried in Hernhill church. A lot of the rioters came from Dargate. Goodwin ran the Dove and John Spratt lived in what is now called ‘The Old Post Office.’

Waterham

Waterham is a hamlet in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Swale Swale or Swales may refer to: Topography * Swale (landform), a low tract of land ** Bioswale, landform designed to remove silt and pollution ** Swales, found in the formation of Hummocky cross-stratification Geography * River Swale, in North ...

, England.

In popular culture

Author Russell Hoban repurposes Dargate as "Dog Et" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel '' Riddley Walker''.

References

External links

Hernhill at the Faversham Enterprise Partnership
{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent