Eccles, Kent
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Eccles is a village in the English county of
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 ...
, part of the parish of
Aylesford Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone. Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a villa ...
, and in the valley of the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
. It is between
Aylesford Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone. Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a villa ...
village and
Burham Burham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,251, decreasing to 1,195 at the 2011 Census. The village is near the Medway towns. The histor ...
, both a mile away. Shelter from 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 ...
provides a favourable micro-climate for the village's vineyards.


History

The nearby Eccles Roman Villa and pottery kiln were excavated between 1962 and 1976. The villa was occupied soon after the
Roman invasion of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain was the Roman Empire's conquest of most of the island of Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half o ...
until they departed. It underwent at least four phases of construction, latterly comprised at least 37 rooms and may have had workshops, stores and
wharves A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( ...
along the River Medway. Beneath the villa complex are traces of an
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
farmstead. A
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
cemetery was discovered at the villa containing at least 200 graves aligned east–west, some with a likely mid-seventh century date. Several skeletons had fatal weapon injuries, possibly from a single hostile event. Signs of reuse during the medieval period include cesspits and areas of rough
cobblestones Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct from a ...
. There is reference to a Common Park at Aylesford, dating to 1597, which has been interpreted as a deer park, although it could refer to
common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...
. The park lay to the South of Eccles village, west of Bull Lane, and in 1805 was about . Eccles was mostly farmland until
Thomas Cubitt Thomas Cubitt (25 February 1788 – 20 December 1855) was a British master builder, notable for his employment in developing many of the historic streets and squares of London, especially in Belgravia, Pimlico and Bloomsbury. Background The s ...
bought two farms near the river and built a
steam powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
brickyard and cement works. It could produce up to 30 million bricks a year. Buildings were positioned along
tramway track Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. As with standard rail tracks, tram tracks have two parallel steel rails, the distance between the heads of the rails being the track gauge. When there is no need for pedestrians or ...
on the gently sloping site so that material moved by gravity, with each stage of manufacture, closer to the
quayside The Quayside is an area along the banks (quay) of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne (the north bank) and Gateshead (south bank) in Tyne and Wear, North East England, United Kingdom. History The area was once an industrial area and busy c ...
. Three miles of tram and
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
connected the works buildings with the extraction pits and the wharf. Piped water was provided from a large reservoir. By 1900 the business had merged with others and was producing Blue Circle branded cement. At its peak, almost a thousand men and boys were employed making
portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...
and Burham bricks from the
Gault clay The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...
, but the site closed in 1941. Local farmer Thomas Abbot built a terrace of 22 cottages on Bull Lane to house some of these workers, and the population soon increased to 300. One account traces the settlement's present name back to 1208 and suggests that it derived from the 10th-century 'Aecclesse', meaning the 'meadow of the oak'. The
Domesday Book 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
of 1086 records Eccles as ‘Aiglessa’. At that time, it had a population of 22 households, putting it in the largest 40% of recorded settlements. It has also been suggested that the name 'Eccles' comes from the Latin word 'ecclesia' meaning 'church', implying that a post-Roman Christian community existed in the area, although there is no evidence for this. In 1798, Eccles was a manor of the parish of Aylesford, "which was of some note in the time of the Conqueror, being then part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the book of Domesday". The site of the original manor of Eccles was lost to public knowledge by the 18th century, but it was surmised to be somewhere at the eastern extremity of the parish, near Boxley Hill.


Amenities

There is a church, a convenience store with post office services, and a doctors’ surgery. The church hall on Cork Street is the village pre-school and over 50s drop-in centre. At the centre of the village is a large park (‘the Rec’) with a
skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, quarter pipe ...
, children's play facilities and exercise equipment for adults. On weekends there are junior football games. Nearby, there is a sports field which has been used by Eccles Football Club since the 19th century. Outline planning permission has now been granted for housing development on this field. As of 2017, there is one pub in Eccles, the grade II listed Red Bull. The Walnut Tree was demolished in 2012 and redeveloped as housing. St Mark’s School is a small, mixed-year group, Church of England Primary School. It was rebuilt in 2002 close to the
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
building it replaced but is now scheduled for demolition for housing development. A new school will be built on the outskirts of the village. A library bus visits every Tuesday afternoon. A
farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...
is held on every third Sunday of the month at Aylesford Priory which is within walking distance of the village.


Transport

Eccles is three miles from junctions 5 and 6 of the
M20 motorway The M20 is a Controlled-access highway, motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 road (England), A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25 motorway, M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports a ...
, and the same distance from junction 3 of the M2 motorway.
Maidstone East railway station Maidstone East is one of three railway stations in the town of Maidstone, in Kent, England, but currently the only one with a regular all-day direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone line, from , and is served by trains operat ...
is miles away. The village also has road access to communities on the west bank of the River Medway by way of Peter's Bridge which was opened in September 2016. There is a network of footpaths around the village providing access to the surrounding countryside, vineyards and the River Medway. There are all-weather footways south to Aylesford Priory and north to the Pilgrims' Way and thence to Burham. Beyond Burham, there is a combined footpath and cycle way down to the Riverside Walk at Peter's Village. The Pilgrims' Way,
North Downs Way The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in South East England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover in Kent, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, through the Surrey Hills National Lan ...
and Medway Valley Walk pass within a mile of the village.


In popular culture

The
2007 Tour de France The 2007 Tour de France the 94th running of Tour de France, the race, took place from 7 to 29 July. The Tour began with a prologue in London, and ended with the traditional finish in Paris. Along the way, the route also passed through Belgium and ...
through Kent included a section of the
Pilgrims' Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such a ...
close to the village.


Kit’s Coty

Chapel Down planted a
vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
adjacent to Eccles village on land they acquired in 2007 and named it after Kit's Coty House ancient monument on the slope of the North Downs immediately above. Local conditions are reputed to be similar to those of the
Champagne region The wine region within the historical province of Champagne in the northeast of France is best known for the production of champagne, the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name. EU law and the laws of most countries reserve the term ...
in France. The of vineyard are planted with
Chardonnay Chardonnay (, ; ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...
,
Pinot Noir Pinot noir (), also known as Pinot nero, is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name also refers to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words fo ...
and
Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...
grapes. The site had previously been identified for a station on the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link High Speed 1 (HS1), officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of the line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Euro ...
but after opposition the rail route went through a tunnel under Blue Bell Hill, alongside the M2. Among those claiming credit for the change were a
coven A coven () is a group or gathering of Witchcraft, witches. The word "coven" (from Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman ''covent, cuvent'', from Old French ''covent'', from Latin ''conventum'' = convention) remained largely unused in English lan ...
of
white witch Jadis is a fictional character and the main antagonist of '' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1950) and '' The Magician's Nephew'' (1955) in C. S. Lewis's series, ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. She is commonly referred to as the White Witc ...
es from
Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...
who performed a ritual at
Little Kit's Coty House Little Kit's Coty House, also known as Lower Kit's Coty House and the Countless Stones, is a chambered long barrow located near to the village of Aylesford, Kent, Aylesford in the southeastern English county of Kent. Constructed ''circa'' 4000 B ...
on the stones to protect them from any disturbance by the railway. The 'Ancient sites of Aylesford' walk includes Eccles, Kit's Coty House and Little Kit's Coty House.


Notable people

* Sharon Bennett, Illustrator, designer, artist and author * Charlie Marks, Football player


References


External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent Tonbridge and Malling