Brook is a small 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

borough of Ashford The Borough of Ashford is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Kent, England. It is named after its largest town, Ashford, Kent, Ashford, where the council is based. Th ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England, centred east-northeast of the town of Ashford.

Geography

Brook is in a gently rolling valley top immediately south of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

. The brook referred to rises here and flows east to join the combined East and West Stour, that is, the River Great Stour. The south-east fifth of the parish is woodland. Brook has a small village museum. The human population of this area rose by 3 during the 10 years to the

United Kingdom Census 2011 A Census in the United Kingdom, census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Inter ...

History

The 11th century

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

parish church is dedicated to St Mary. There is also a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

chapel. The church of St. Mary, erected about 1075, is of stone, in the Early Norman style, and has a tower containing 3 bells: the tower was struck by lightning in 1896, and the northwest corner destroyed, but was restored in 1899: there are 160 sittings. John Betjeman described the church as "unaltered early Norman church ... a massive church which carries its longevity more convincingly than many older and tidier churches".Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) ''Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the South''. London: Collins; p. 247

References

External links

Brook Parish Council

Brook St Mary's church

{{authority control Villages in Kent Villages in the Borough of Ashford Civil parishes in Ashford, Kent