A View of the Parish

Orlestone, is a hamlet and a parish in East Ashford district, Kent.  The hamlet lies 3/4 of a mile north of Ham Street rail station, 2 north of the Grand Military canal, and 5 south-by-west of Ashford;  and has a cattle fair on the last Thursday of August.  The parish contains also the village of Ham Street, which has a post office under Ashford.  Real property in 1860, £2,114.  Population in 1861, 390.  Houses, 77.  The property is divided among a few.

The manor and much of the land belong to T. Thornhill, Esq..  There are brickfields and extensive woods.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £165.  Patron, T. Thornhill, Esq.  The church is tolerable;  and there is a Wesleyan chapel.¹

ORLESTONE (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of East Ashford, partly in the liberty of Romney-Marsh, and partly in the hundred of Ham, lathe of Shepway, W. division of Kent, 6-1/2 miles (S. by W.) from Ashford;  containing 316 inhabitants.  It comprises 1825a. 4p., of which about 700 acres are woodland, and the remainder arable and pasture;  the soil is fertile, producing excellent wheat, and the scenery is richly diversified.  The Royal Military canal passes within a short distance of the village.  The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £4.15.9., and in the gift of T. Thornhill, Esq.:  the tithes have been commuted for £157.18., and the glebe consists of 48 acres.  The church is a neat edifice.  There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.  Some chalybeate springs rise here.²

Ham Street

The centre of the parish is Hamstreet village, 6 miles south of Ashford, originally known simply as Ham.  The name is Saxon, signifying an enclosure on the road. The original settlement in the parish was at the village of Orlestone, about 1 miles northwest of Ham Street.  Much of the population moved to Hamstreet with the opening of the Ashford-to-Hastings railway in 1853.  There was also a better source of water in a fresh spring at Ham Street.  Part of Hamstreet village falls partly within the parish of Warehorne due to the ancient parish boundary.  Hamstreet is bypassed by the A2070 road, six miles south of Ashford.

Today, the name Orlestone lives on in the Orlestone Forest (a large area of public woodland), and a number of buildings like Orlestone Grange and Orlestone Riding Centre (near Shadoxhurst).  Orlestone proper is now nothing more than a small hamlet with a handful of houses and the medieval parish church of St. Mary the Virgin, parts of which date to the 11th century.

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

²Samuel Lewis, comp. 'Orby - Ormskirk', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 479-483.

Orlestone Bibliography

-- various. 'Archaeologia Cantiana'. Publisher: Kent, England: Kent Archaeological Society, various dates. Volumes 1 through 139 are available to view free on the Kent Archaeological Society website.  . [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 Orlestone: vol. 11, p. 367; vol. 13, p. 187; vol. 14, pp. 358 & 249, 275, 280; vol. 49, pp. 102 & 107; vol. 102, p. 172
• notes from parish reigsters vol. 2, p. 89
• manor vol. 10, p. 126
• inventory of parish church goods, vol. 10, p. 286
• fines of lands in vol. 13, pp. 295, 318
• Orlandstone (Orlaston), William de, Knight of the Shire, vol. 21, pp. 208, 210.
• Orwaldstone, vol. 28, 31.
• Hamstreet, turnpike trust, vol. 100, pp. 349, 359, 368
• overseers accounts vol. 101, p. 335

--. 'ORLESTONE : MIs : Medway series of monumental inscriptions', vol. 8. [Microfiche.] Published: Waterlooville, The Parish Register Transcription Society, n.d.

Cooper, Robert M., contr.. 'The Literary Guide & Companion to Southern England'. Publisher: Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1998.

>Glencross, Reginald Morshead. 'Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury …, Vol. 1. 1559-1571'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Ordnance Office. 'Ordnance Plan of the Parishes of Warehorne, Ruckinge, Orlestone and Snave, with Warchorne Ph det., Nos. 1 to 7, Orlestone Ph det., Nos. 1 to 8, Snave Ph det., Nos. 1 and 2, and Kenardington Ph det., No. 2.'Publisher:  Southampton, [1872]

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward II, Vol. 1. 1307-1313'Each volume has own index. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward II, Vol. 4 Great Britain. Public Record Office Great Britain - Public records - Inventories, registers, catalogs; Great Britain - History - Plantagenets, 1154-1399 - Sources; Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the close rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward III, Vol. 4. 1337-1339'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward IV, A.D. 1461-1467'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the close rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Henry VI, Vol. 5. 1447-1454'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Philip and Mary, Vol. 2. 1554-1555. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Philip and Mary', Vol. 3. 1555-1557. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Inquisitions and assessments relating to feudal aids : with other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, A. D. 1284-1431', Vol. 3. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Great Britain, Exchequer. 'The book of fees commonly called testa de nevill, pt. 3'. The Book of fees contains information about the holdings of feudal tenants. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Hall, Hubert, 1857-1944. 'The Red book of the Exchequer - Liber rubeus de Scaccario, Vol. 3'. The Red book of the Exchequer was a register intended to preserve important documents comprising charters, statutes of the realm, public acts (Placita), private deeds and ordinances, correspondence. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Ham Street History Society. 'Hamstreet and Orlestone : a photographic history to celebrate 2000AD.' Publisher: Hamstreet, Kent: Ham Street History Society, 2000. ISBN 0953917606.

Hasted, Edward. 'The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent; Containing the antient and present state of it, civil and ecclesiastical; collected from public records, and other authorities: illustrated with maps, views, antiquities, etc. The second edition, improved, corrected, and continued to the present time'. 12 volumes. Publisher: Canterbury: Printed by W. Bristow, 1797-1801. URL: British History Online.

Holt, Anne D.. 'History of Parliament ... 1439-1509 Wedgwood, Josiah Clement, Baron, 1872-1943. Publisher: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch

Hussey, Arthur. 'Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, mentioned in Domesday book, and those of more recent date'. Publisher: London J.R. Smith,(1852).

Letters, Dr. Samantha. 'Kent', Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (2005).  URL: British History Online.

Mackie, S. J. 'A Descriptive and Historical Account of Folkestone and its Neighbourhood with Gleanings from the Municipal Records', P. 219. Reprinted from the "Folkestone Express". 2nd edition. Folkestone, Kent, England: Printed and Published by J. English, 1883.

Muriel, L. A.  'ORLESTONE : M 1754-1812 : Kent registers vol. 20'. Published 2005.

Page, William, 1861-1934, ed.. 'The Victoria history of the county of Kent'. Publisher: London: Constable (1908).  URL: British History Online.

Rickard, Gillian.  'Kent Communicants Lists 1565-1567: v.1: Appledore, Brookland, Burmarsh, Dymchurch, Ebony, Fairfield, Lympne, New Romney, Orlestone, Saltwood, Stone in Oxney, Tenterden, West Wythe, Woodchurch. Publisher: --.

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward I, File 39', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 2: Edward I. Published:(1906), pp. 315-323.  URL: British History Online.

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry III, File 45', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 1: Henry III. Published:(1904), pp. 296-302.  URL: British History Online.

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