Etchinghill is a village in

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, about 5 km north of Hythe, and 1 km north of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

terminal at Cheriton, near

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

. It is in the

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 ...

Lyminge Lyminge is a village and civil parish in southeast Kent, England. It lies about five miles (8 km) from Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel, on the road passing through the Elham Valley. At the 2011 Census the population of Etchinghill, Kent ...

. The village has a standard golf course noted for its hills, as well as a pub restaurant called The Gatekeeper which claims to be the closest pub to the

. Village facilities include a basketball court, two football goals, and a village hall. A large

BT Group BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

communication mast, which was used as a telecommunication relay during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, still stands in the village.

History

The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Etchinghill lies at the southern end of the Parish of Lyminge. Its original name was Tettinghelde 1240 (Tetta’s slope). A spring rises to the north side of Westfield Lane, (the road to Tolsford Hill) and the resultant stream flows across the fields to join up with the Nailbourne that rises in Well Field, Lyminge. This stream is known as the East Brook and probably in the Saxon period, when the settlement got its name of Tetinghelde, the volume of water would have been much greater. By the 15th century the hamlet’s name had altered to “Etynghyld” and “Etynghyll”. It was later known as Eachendhill or Etchinghole before settling to become Etchinghill. For centuries the hamlet remained a small farming community around the crossroads, one of which led to Dover; one going south to Hythe and north to the village of Lyminge where the church is; the track up Westfield Lane over Tolsford Hill led people to West Hythe no doubt, but the importance of this waned as the coastline altered; and a final lane (now vanished) led to Newington. Over the years the hamlet has grown with additional development on all four of the roads leading from the crossroads, the establishment of a cricket club and, more recently, the creation of a golf course spreading across the land which separates Etchinghill from Lyminge.

Railway

To the northeast of the village are the remains of the

Elham Valley Railway The Elham Valley Railway was a line connecting Folkestone and Canterbury in Kent, England. It opened between 1887 and 1889 and closed in 1947. The line was originally proposed by the independent Elham Valley Light Railway Company in the mid-19 ...

, characterised by steep-sided cuttings and tunnels. The line which ran from Canterbury to the port of Folkestone, was closed in 1947 and dismantled between 1950 and 1954. The line is crossed by Teddars Leas Road (bridge) and Badger's Bridge as well as the Golf Course. Although there was no station in Etchinghill, villagers could catch the train by travelling to the neighbouring village of Lyminge, approximately 2 miles to the north via road or one of the many public footpaths.

Transmission tower

The 210-ft concrete mast carried the

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...

transmission, across to

Fiennes, Pas-de-Calais Fiennes () is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography A farming village located south of Calais, at the junction of the D250, D232 and D151 roads. P ...

in northern France. On the 585ft Tolsford Hill, transmissions started in July 1959, over the English Channel to another tower at Fiennes. In 1972 there was a £200,000 plan to build a new tower, to provide 3,600 more circuits.. Tolsford Hill BT Tower was built by 1975.

St Mary's Hospital

Until the early 1990s, the village was dominated by St Mary's Hospital. This was constructed in 1836 by the Elham Poor Law Union as the

workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

for the surrounding area, including the towns of

and Hythe. Prior to this each parish had relieved the poor the best way they could, usually by allowing them to remain in their own homes and giving them

outdoor relief Outdoor relief, an obsolete term originating with the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601), was a programme of social welfare and poor relief. Assistance was given in the form of money, food, clothing or goods to alleviate poverty without the requirem ...

, although Elham and Newington each had a small local workhouse facility. In 1834 Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act and suggested parishes might group together and provide cross-community facilities. This led to the foundation of the Elham Poor Law Union in 1835, and the building of the workhouse at Etchinghill in 1836 at a cost of £6,500. Designed by architect Sir Francis Head, the workhouse was designed to accommodate 300 inmates. In 1841 an additional building had been erected to provide food and temporary accommodation to some of the many vagrants who wandered the countryside. Despite its large size, it was considerably extended in 1890, with the addition of new dormitory wards, an infirmary, and a chapel. Following the closure of the workhouse in 1947, the buildings passed to the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

, and were re-opened as St Mary's Hospital, specialising in geriatric care. There was also a hospital annexe providing isolation facilities for patients with highly infectious diseases. The hospital was helped by community volunteers who included hospital visitors (who befriended patients), the local

St. John Ambulance St John Ambulance is an affiliated movement of charitable organisations in mostly Commonwealth countries which provide first aid education and consumables and emergency medical services. St John organisations are primarily staffed by volunte ...

(who provided qualified auxiliary nurses for routine nursing and bed making duties throughout the 1980s), and a very active League of Friends (who raised money to provide many additional comforts for the residents), active from 1962 until the hospital's closure.Founding and winding up details a
Open Charities
directory listing. St Mary’s hospital was closed in 1990 and all the buildings, with the exception of the un-consecrated chapel, were demolished. 52 houses now occupy approximately two thirds of the land, with a new village hall and amenity land for all to enjoy taking up the remainder of the land. The hospital chapel, the last remaining physical element, has been converted into a private house.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent