Elvington is a small pit village on a ridge in between

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

and

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

in the 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 ...

in Southeast England. Located near Eythorne, Elvington was mostly built in the early 20th century to serve the nearby

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

at Tilmanstone, as were other Kent Coalfield villages including Snowdown,

Aylesham Aylesham is a village and civil parish in the Dover district of Kent, England. The village is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) south-east of the cathedral city of Canterbury, and 8.5 miles (13.7 km) north-west of the town and port of Dover. Ac ...

and Betteshanger."Introduction to the project"
, Coalfields Heritage Initiative Kent website

History

The name Elvington derives from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

meaning "farmstead of someone named Ælfwine";''Oxford Dictionary of British Placenames'', A.D.Mills, Oxford University Press a manor or farm of that name reportedly once stood at what is now the bowling club. Apparently the Romans once marched through this area of Kent using the Ashey path to

Barfrestone Barfrestone is a village and (as Barfreston) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Eythorne, in the Dover district, in east Kent, England. It is between Shepherdswell, Eythorne and Nonington, close to the former pit villages of Elving ...

and the Roman Path across the downs and along what is now Roman Way, hence the name. In 1916 the East Kent Light Railway opened a station at Elvington called Elvington Halt. This served passengers until 1948, and closed entirely in 1951."Elvington"
Disused Stations, retrieved 20 September 2010 Today the site of the mine is an industrial estate between Tilmanstone and Eythorne located on the Pike Road. A new housing estate was built in the mid-1990s and has been extensively added to. The village is also on the

Miner's Way Trail The Miner's Way Trail is a long-distance circular footpath in England, starting at Sholden, Kent. Linking up the coalfield parishes of East Kent. Including; the parishes of Deal, Kent, Deal, Ash, Dover, Ash, Aylesham, Chillenden, Eastry, Eythor ...

. Using the Roman Way to head to Shepherdswell. The trail links up the coalfield parishes of East Kent.

Community

Services today include a community/learning centre, school,"Elvington Community Centre"
, Dover District Council website shop, hairdressers, and takeaway shop as well as local information centre providing access to training and employment for local residents. The post office closed in 2008. Eythorne Elvington Community Primary school serves 104 pupils from school years one to six from Elvington and Eythorne."Eythorne Elvington Community Primary website"
Recent investment from agencies such as the South East England Development Agency has led to the development of the former miners hall into a communication and learning centre. Dover District Council has earmarked land around Elvington as potential for housing development in their recent draft local plan.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent