A View of the Parish
Your Online Parish Clerk for Horsmonden is:
Sue George.
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Census records: 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891.
Horsmonden 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. Margaret with registers commencing 1558.
Horsmonden or Horsemonden, is a village and a parish in Tunbridge district, and a hundred joined to Brenchley, in Kent. The village stands near an affluent of the river Medway, 3 miles northeast of Lamberhurst, and 3-1/2 miles southeast-by-south of Paddock Wood rail station; and has a post office under Staplehurst with a savings bank and money order office, and a fair on 26 July.
The parish includes also Rams Hill, Caple Cross and Sherenden. Acres, 4,517. Real property in 1860, £7,066. Population in 1851, 1,226; in 1861, 1,385. Houses, 261. The increase of population arose from the increased cultivation of hops, and increased capital in possession of the farmers.
J. F. Austen, Esq., G. Courthope, Esq., and the Rev. H. F. W. Marriott are the chief landowners; and the first has a very fine recent mansion. The Grovehurst family, long resident at Grovehurst here, became extinct in the male line in the time of Richard II. Lewisheath manor here belonged to Bayham abbey. A handsome tower, erected in 1856, in honour of Sir Walter Scott, stands on an eminence, and contains most of Sir Walter’s works.
The parochial surface is part of the Weald; has an undulating contour; abounds in fine sylvan scenery; and has a very fertile soil, largely productive of hops and fruit. Bricks are made.
The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £1,000 with a habitable glebe house. Patron, not reported. The church is chiefly early decorated English; has, at the east end of the nave, a beautiful Norman arch; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a tower; and contains monuments of the Austens, and a very fine brass of 1330.
There are a large national school, and charities £184.
Rams Hill is a hamlet in Horsemonden parish, Kent; 8-1/2 miles southeast of Tunbridge.
Sherenden is a hamlet in Horsemonden parish, Kent; 8-1/2 miles southeast of Tunbridge.
Caple Cross is a hamlet in Horsemonden parish, Kent; 7-1/2 miles east-by-south of Tunbridge Wells.1
1John Marius Wilson, comp. The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).
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