Chiddingstone

Chiddingstone is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of South Malling.  The church is named for St. Mary with registers commencing 1565.

Chiddingstone, or Chydingstone, a village and a parish in Sevenoaks district, Kent.  The village stands in the Weald, on the river Eden, 1-1/2 mile southwest of Penshurst rail station, and 6 west-south-west of Tunbridge;  contains interesting specimens of old gabled timbered houses;  and has a post office under Edenbridge.  The parish includes also the hamlet of Little Chiddingstone.  Acres, 5,975.  Real property in 1860, £6,263.  Population in 1861, 1,200.  Houses, 230.  The property is divided among a few.

The manor belonged once to the Burghs and the Cobhams;  and has belonged, since the time of Henry VIII, to the Streatfields.  The ancient manor house was called High Street House;  and the present one is modern and castellated.  The Chiding Stone, figured by Grose, and the subject of curious tradition, is a weather worn mass of sandstone, about 18 feet high, on the edge of the path behind the village.  Wild boars anciently haunted the surrounding tract;  and are commemorated here in the names of Boar Place and Boreshill.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £650 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The church has a fine perpendicular English tower, but includes some portions of decorated date;  and it contains many monuments of the Streatfields.

There is a national school.

Chiddingstone Hoath and Little Chiddingston, - two localities in Chiddingstone parish, Kent.  The former is a mile from Chiddingstone village;  and has a post office under Edenbridge. ¹

¹  John Marius Wilson, comp.  The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

Chiddingstone Bibliography

-- various. 'Archaeologia Cantiana'. Publisher: Kent, England: Kent Archaeological Society, various dates.  [Note:  The following volumes can be found on archive.org:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (1876), 11, 12, 13 (1880), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, vol. 1907 supplement.]

• General references to Chiddingstone: vol. , pp.
• Currently in revision

Location of Records

The following list of records is not intended to be exhaustive.  There are many records that are awaiting discovery in archive offices throughout Kent and England.  This list is intended only to set out those records that are available via at least two relatively easy-to-access avenues.  If you have used or discover a record that would be of benefit to other researchers, that is not on this list, please send me an email with the details of the archive - name, address and archival call number.

Census | Church of England | Non-Conformist | Parish chest | Workhouse and Poor Law | Land | Assizes and Sessions | School

Census

Church Records, Church of England

Church Records, Non-Conformist

Parish chest records

Workhouse and Poor Law Records

Land Records

Assizes and Sessions Records
(poor laws, jail terms, oaths, and other municipal and public records)

School Records