Wye, Kent

Wye is a village in Kent, England, from Ashford and from Canterbury. It is the main settlement in the civil parish of Wye with Hinxhill. Hop varieties including Wye Challenger were bred at Wye College and named for the village.

In 2013, '' Sunday Times'' readers voted Wye the third best place to live in the UK.

History

The village's name comes from the Old English "Wēoh" meaning ''idol'' or ''shrine''. Wye may have been used for worship by the pre-Christian Angles.

Wye became an important communications centre because of a ford across the River Great Stour connecting with ancient trackways across the North Downs. Romans constructed a road between Canterbury and Hastings using the gap through the North Downs and there have been suggestions the straight Olantigh Road may have been built by them as a separate route from Wye to Canterbury on the east of the River Stour. Remains of an ironworks at the west bank of the river, from that period, have been found. By medieval times, Wye had a market and hosted the local hundred court.

In 1798, Hasted described Wye as:-

Later in the 18th century a turnpike had bypassed the village on the west bank of the River Stour, which the A28 road still does today. Wye railway station was built for the South Eastern Railway line from Ashford to Margate and opened on 1 December 1846.

RAF Wye

During World War I the Royal Flying Corps established an unpaved aerodrome off Bramble Lane near Wye Railway Station. It became RAF Wye in 1918 but closed the following year. , it is farmland.

Wye Racecourse

Wye Racecourse's inaugural 1849 meeting was held in Fanscombe Valley, an isolated coombe and natural amphitheatre directly north of Wye Crown, and as the crow flies from Wye village. Flat racing took place annually on Oak Leaf Day, 29 May coinciding with Wye Fair.

By 1878, Wye's racing had moved to the National Hunt course on Harville Road. Steeplechase meetings were held in September, January, March, and May until 1974, and the course closed permanently by June 1975. , both former courses are farmland.

Wye Court

As early as the 6th century Wye was a royal vill, and the royal court would have resided in the vicinity of Wye Court for part of the year. In the 13th century it was a Royal Manor whose Liberty extended as far as Hawkhurst. The Palace complex by then was at Wye Court.

Wye was important for being the first ford over the River Stour that travellers could cross on their route from the West Country to Dover.

In 1307, King Edward II spent Christmas at Wye Court between the death of his father King Edward I, and his own coronation the following February. The father had received his Seal from the Officer of State there. Young King Henry VI visited Wye Court in 1428 when Cardinal Kempe of Olantigh was his Lord Chancellor.

The Manor House at Wye Court was a large building, with a circular dungeon that was extant as late as the 19th century and known locally as the ''Lollard's Hole''.

Wye was not isolated from Wat Tyler's 1381 uprising or Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450. In the 15th century, church officials were ordered especially to address ''lollardy in Maidstone, Tenterden, Faverisham and Wy''. In 1553, two Protestants were executed by burning in front of Wye Church. The disturbances and associated use of the dungeons may have led to the name.

Queen Elizabeth I granted Wye Court to the Boleym related Hunsden family but by the time of King Charles I, ownership had passed to the Finches, a distant branch of the Earls of Winchilsea.

Following the 1572 lightning strike at Wye Church, yeoman farmer Roger Twysden of Wye Court provided timber for reconstruction of the tower. He became High Sheriff of Kent in 1599 but following a fire at his own home he moved from Wye Court to a family dwelling at Chelmington, and then Roydon Hall.

A 1648 Civil War skirmish involving Rich's men and cavaliers took place at the entrance to Wye Court on Olantigh Road. Accounts identify four casualties of the encounter being buried at Wye, and three others killed.

By 1732, Wye Court, along with other land near Wye at Harville, Coldharbour, Wye Downs and Naccolt had fallen into the ownership of miser, John "Vulture" Hopkins. Once his affairs had been unravelled the properties were inherited by Benjamin Bond Hopkins (1745-1794). He sold them to John Sawbridge of Olantigh whose son owned Wye Court by 1798.

Wye Court formerly extended beyond the present day farm, including land to Churchfield Way. Wye College purchased parts of Wye Court for expansion along Olantigh Road in 1925. In 1917, Wye Church agreed to purchase a parcel of Wye Court, to extend its graveyard, from Wanley Elias Sawbridge Erle-Drax, a descendant of John Sawbridge. The Long family purchased their present Wye Court farm and former racecourse on Harville Road in 1925.

In September 1940, a Spitfire of No 19 Squadron from RAF Duxford crashed at Wye Court injuring the pilot and writing the aircraft off. The crash site was excavated in 1974 by the RAF Museum.

Wye College

Wye College was founded in 1447 as a chantry by Cardinal Kempe. From 1627, a grammar and charity school operated from the premises. In 1894 it opened as the South Eastern Agricultural College, offering University of London degrees from 1898, and in 1948 incorporated as Wye College. It merged with Imperial College in 2000 but the campus was progressively closed between 2005 and 2009.

Imperial College scheme

In 2005, Imperial College promoted a controversial scheme to develop Wye College as a centre for renewable fuel research / production, and to build 4,000 house in the Kent Downs.The plan was seen as a test case for other attempts to build on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In 2006, Ashford Borough Council withdrew support, and Imperial College abandoned its plans. Campaigners hailed the decision to preserve the status of protected areas, and Wye village.

Landscape

Wye stands in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the Great Stour at the point where it cuts through the North Downs between Ashford and Canterbury. The village is overlooked by the Wye Downs, an area of chalk downland and woodland within the Wye and Crundale Downs SSSI that includes the Devil's Kneading Trough and other coombes formed by periglacial action.

Culture and community

Wye Farmers Market

A farmers' market, founded by former Wye College student and environmentalist Richard Boden, is held by The Green in Wye on the first and third Saturday of every month. There are typically 15 vendors. During COVID-19 restrictions the market operated a virtual shop.

Wye Village Hall

Wye Village Hall on Bridge Street was extensively refurbished between 2014 and 2019. There are three function rooms of which the largest can accommodate 180 people.

Wye Library

Wye Library is at the top of Bridge Street.

Wye Church

The present Anglican Church of Saint Gregory and Saint Martin at the junction of High Street, Church Street and Churchfield Way is grade I listed. Its original dedication was solely to Pope Gregory the Great. Saint Martin was added , possibly to recognise the role of Battle Abbey which was itself dedicated to Saint Martin and owned the Manor of Wye, and to be consistent with Wye College.

A church on the present site was first constructed in 1290, and considerably more extensive than the present building. There was a longer nave and much larger chancel. The Steeple had a tall wooden spire clad with lead. Of this church, only the outer nave walls, built of whole flints, survive. The original door and window openings have all been replaced.

In the 15th century Cardinal Kempe constructed Wye College and rebuilt the church. New, perpendicular style door and window openings matched the college, and the walls were faced with the flat surfaces of split flints. The stronger structure supported a clerestory and fine roof.

In 1548, the Reformation dictated images of the saints be removed, and following 1549's introduction of the Anglican prayer book, newly redundant silverware was sold. The rood screen however, between the nave and chancel survived, as did extensive gilded and painted glass.

Five years later, Catholic Queen Mary
(1553-8) reinstated ornamentation and the lighting of candles, but papist resurgence did not stop there. Richard Thornden, Bishop of Dover and Nicholas Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury committed 10 Protestants to be burnt. Two of them, John Philpot of Tenterden, and Thomas Stephens of Biddenden were consumed by fire at Wye Church gate in January 1557. The next year however, cautiously Anglican Queen Elizabeth I was crowned and Protestant communion restored.

In 1572, the steeple was struck by lightning and burned, melting the lead cladding of the spire. Extensive repairs were finally paid for by 1579, but the structure was reported to be ''in much ruin and decay'' again by 1581. That may have been caused by the 1580 Dover Straits earthquake. In any event, further repairs to the steeple were carried out in 1582 and 1584.

The ''five great bells'' had been damaged by the 1572 fire and were finally, satisfactorily recast in 1593, though once raised back into place their weight would have added considerably to stresses on the steeple. In 1628, the wooden spire was replaced once again, but concerns about the state of the chancel, and risk of the steeple falling were not addressed.

On 22 March 1686, the steeple tower collapsed. Almost all the transepts; most of the chancel, and part of the nave were destroyed. The gilded and painted glass windows were gone, as were grand tombs of Cardinal Kempe and his father Thomas. Between 1700 and 1711 the church was reconstructed in its present, smaller form. Charles Finch, 4th Earl of Winchilsea, as holder of the tithes, was required to rebuild the chancel and the parish had to pay the remainder. Whilst the new chancel was finely crafted, work on the much reduced tower prioritised strength and economy. The new church was barely half the size of its predecessor.

Lady Joanna Thornhill, for whom the Lady Joanna Thornhill School is named, died during the period of reconstruction and was buried in the new building she had helped fund.

Since 2011 and , incumbent vicar of Wye, and area dean of the Wye Benefice, is Ravi Holy. He is an Old Etonian, and formerly an alcoholic; drug abuser; satanist; punk rock musician, member of a pentacostal congregation. Holy has performed an Elvis themed funeral at Wye. Participation in a ''Comedy For Clergy'' workshop led to him appearing on BBC London and BBC Breakfast. He performs in the trio ''White Collar Comedy'' whose tagline is:

Saint Ambrose Catholic Church

Saint Ambrose Catholic Church, off Oxenturn Road, is a chapel of ease built in 1954 for the Parish of Saint Teresa of Avila, Ashford. Mass was celebrated in Wye for the first time since the reformation during World War II, when Wye College's dining hall was made available to Catholic servicemen and local residents. Subsequently, and before the present building was constructed, a former stable at the Old Vicarage on Bridge Street was used as a chapel.

The pews are from E. W. Pugin's original, demolished church of St Teresa in Ashford. Two possibly 18th century benches came from the chapel at Calehill House, Little Chart, itself demolished in 1952.

Sport

Wye Cricket Club plays at Horton Meadow off Cherry Garden Lane. In 2014, it received a £2,000 grant from the Wye Children's Playing Field Charity

Wye Tennis Club's five courts, and a multi-use games area are located at the Wye Village Hall recreation ground on Bridge Street. The club began in 1971 with two locally constructed courts and use of a football club's changing room. A 1980 Portacabin was replaced in 2008 with the present purpose built clubhouse, and by 2012, there were five floodlit courts.

Wye Juniors FC plays football from the former Wye College recreation ground off Cherry Garden Lane. A fire destroyed its pavilion in 2022.

Lady Joanna Thornhill School

Lady Joanna Thornhill Primary School, on Bridge Street, is named after the daughter (1635-1708) of Sir Bevil Grenville, second wife of Richard Thornhill of Olantigh, and Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Catherine of Braganza. Thornhill's will funded a charity school for Wye in 1708. She is buried at Wye Church.

Her trust purchased part of Cardinal Kempe's chantry buildings at Wye College, and other investment property with which to endow her education institution. Sir George Wheler, who some sources claim was Lady Joanna Thornhill's nephew, acquired the buildings south of the chantry's cloister in 1713 with which he established a separate educational trust after his death in 1724.

Boys attending Lady Thornhill's charity school were taught in the Old Hall, and girls the Parlour. Their schoolmaster received £30 per annum salary and the school mistress £20, from rent on property purchased in Wye and on Romney Marsh.

Trustees of Lady Thornhill's charity school, requiring more space for girls to comply with the ''Elementary Education Act 1870'', converted outbuildings at the south east of what was by then a grammar school's garden, belonging to Sir George Wheler's Trust, for the purpose. The building with its extant exposed crown post roof consequently became known as the Wye College ''Wheelroom''.

Nevertheless, the situation was poor. In spite of the trust's "munificent" annual endowment income of £200, an inspector passed the facilities "but with the greatest reluctance". He observed the Old Hall used as boys' schoolroom "though a fine old room, is ill-adapted for a school and requires constant repair", and bemoaned that "as long as they are allowed to use this old room, the inhabitants of Wye will not lift a finger towards the
erection of new schools". His conclusion was that Wye "has about the worst schools in the neighbourhood".

In 1878 the Wheler / Thornhill trusts and operation of the grammar and charity school premises they owned were combined, and two years later the girls' Wheelroom was leased to Wye and Brook School Board for use as an infant school.

Fourteen years later, Kent and Surrey County Council purchased the old school premises for £1,000, in order to establish the South Eastern Agricultural College there, the school ultimately moving to its current location.

, Lady Joanna Thornhill School is operated by The Care Foundation Trust.

Wye School

Wye School is a mixed, secondary free school that opened on Olantigh Road in 2013, and expanded into new buildings in 2017. It is operated by United Learning and includes the former Wye College Kempe Centre and Department of Hop Research site.

Spring Grove School

Spring Grove School on Harville Road is an independent, fee paying nursery and preparatory school for boys and girls aged 2–11. Its site includes a forest school.

The 10 bedroom 17th century mansion was formerly home of author Joseph Conrad, politician Baroness Trumpington, and clergyman Thomas Brett.

Landmarks

Wye Bridge

The present grade II* listed bridge over the River Stour was built in 1638 to replace a wooden structure; repaired in 1684, and altered in 1881. It has five stone arches over the river, and secondary ones between the river and railway line. The stone parapet was removed in 1881 when an iron roadway was constructed to reinforce the original stone structure. A stone memorial plaque recording the 1683 construction and 1684 repairs is preserved in the Church of Saint Gregory and Saint Martin.

The weir downstream of the bridge was constructed in 1962 to replace an earlier one.

Wye Mill

The 18th century brick built mill house; timber framed mill building, and mill race are grade II listed. It was originally a water mill for grinding corn. T Denne and Sons operated the premises from 1930 for the production of animal feed, and then as an agricultural merchant's depot through to . , it is a guest house.

Wye Crown

To the east of the village, Wye Crown is a hill figure cut into the North Downs chalk, by Wye College students in 1902, to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII. It is part of the Wye and Crundale Downs Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Olantigh

Olantigh has been home to the Kempe, Thornhill, Sawbridge, Sawbridge-Erle-Drax and Loudon families.

Withersdane Hall

In 2019, Imperial College sold the former Wye College Withersdane Hall to private, for profit, Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano who intend to accommodate approximately 250, mainly Italian and French, students there.

Other listed buildings

, there are 139 separately designated listed buildings in Wye with Hinxhill Parish, including:

Transport

Railway

In 2021, Network Rail announced it intended to remove the manually operated level crossing gates at Wye railway station and replace them with automated barriers. Road closures of typically 10–12 minutes, and sometimes up to 15 minutes, for trains to pass have been reported. One resident produced a telephone app to advise residents when the barrier was closed, and help them choose when to travel.

Walking

Wye is on the southern route of the North Downs Way where it crosses the Stour Valley Walk and follows the path of the Pilgrims Way.

Cantii Way

The Cantii Way is a , circular cycling route that uses cycle paths, bridleways and quiet roads. It begins and ends in Wye where it links with National Cycle Route 18. Cycling UK inaugurated the Cantii Way in 2022, partly to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

The route also passes through Canterbury, Whitstable, Dungeness, Hythe, Tenterden, Folkestone and Dover - the former land of the Cantii for whom it is named.

People

In popular culture

''Riddley Walker''

Author Russell Hoban repurposes Wye as "How" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel ''Riddley Walker''. Withersdane becomes "Widders Dump"; The Devil's Kneading Trough, "Mr Clevvers Roaling Place", and Pet Street, "Pig Sweet".

''The Perfect Village''

In 2006, Wye featured in the BBC Television show '' The Perfect Village''.

''Cape Wrath''

2007 television drama '' Cape Wrath'' includes scenes filmed at Wye College. The Old Lecture Theatre's steeply tiered oak benches masquerade as a London academic institution.

''Gadget Man''

Richard Ayoade and Phill Jupitus look out over the Weald to Romney Marsh during Channel 4's 2014 series of '' Gadget Man''. The episode was filmed at the Devil's Kneading Trough in Wye's National Nature Reserve, as they test powered leg exoskeletons.

Female war artists

World War II British official war artists Evelyn Dunbar and Ethel Gabain also produced landscapes of the scenery around Wye.

Centennial

1978 American miniseries Centennial, and the 1974 book it is based upon, reference a fictional British aristocratic investor, Lord Venneford of Wye.

References

External links

Wye with Hinxhill Parish Council
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Villages in Kent
Market towns in Kent
Villages in the Borough of Ashford
Hill figures in England