East Peckham

East Peckham is a village and civil parish in Kent, England on the River Medway. The parish covers the main village as well as Hale Street and Beltring.

East Peckham

St Michael's Church:
East Peckham
Location within Kent
Area12.88 km2 (4.97 sq mi) [1]
Population3,306 (2011 Census)[2]
• Density257/km2 (670/sq mi)
OS grid referenceTQ662482
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townTonbridge
Postcode districtTN12
Dialling code01622
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament

History

The Domesday entry for East and West Peckham reads:-

The Archbishop himself holds Pecheham, In the time of King Edward the Confessor it was taxed at six sulungs, and now six sulungs and one yoke. The arable land is ten carucates. In demesne there are two, and sixteen villeins, with fourteen borderers, having four carucates and a half. There is a church, and ten servants, and one mill, and six acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of six hogs.[3]
Of the land of this manor, one of the archbishop's tenants holds half a sulung, and was taxed with these six sulungs in the time of King Edward the Confessor, although it could not belong to the manor, except in the scotting, because it was free land.[3]
Richard de Tonebridge holds of the same favour two sulungs and one yoke, and has there twenty-seven villeins, having seven carucates, and wood for the pannage of ten hogs. The whole value being four pounds. In the time of King Edward the Confessor, the manor was worth twelve pounds, when the Archbishop received it eight pounds, and now what he has is worth eight pounds.[3]

Part of the manor of East Farleigh lay within what is now East Peckham.

Ralph Fitz Turold holds of the bishop (of Baieux) half a sulung in Estockingeberge. In the time of King Edward the Confessor, two Freemen held it, and then like now, and it is valued at twenty shillings.[4]

There is a persistent myth that the village was originally around the far northern border with Mereworth. Sheet 80 of the First Edition One-Inch Ordnance Survey map published on 1 January 1819 shows the village as being two miles north east as St Michael's church stands on high ground there, now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust and open daily. In the mid-nineteenth century the new parish church of the Holy Trinity was built in what had for centuries been, and likely since the first multi-family settlement arose, the parish population centre. The architects were Whichcord and Walker of Maidstone,[5] and the foundation stone was laid on 24 October 1840.[6]

The River Bourne joins the Medway in the south of the parish and powered a watermill, Little Mill. Another watermill on the River Medway stood at Branbridges. Large, populated parts used to flood with unusual frequency among parishes along the Medway. The East Peckham Flood Relief partnership was formed in 2003. A dam since 2005 exists on the Coult Stream at Bullen Farm.[7][8] It is 160 metres (170 yd) long and 4 metres (13 ft) high and has the capacity to hold 80,000 cubic metres (18,000,000 imp gal) of floodwater. The scheme cost just over £1 million.[7]

In 2012, a local amateur theatre group, The Russett Players, was formed in the village.[9]

Settlement and amenities

East Peckham developed from nine hamlets (Roydon, Hale Street, Beltring, Little Mill, The Pound, Snoll Hatch, The Bush, Goose Green and Chidley Cross).[10] These straddle the River Medway.[11] It was economically focussed on hop growing and other agriculture, in which sector plant growing remains economically important, including two garden centres. Beltring includes The Hop Farm Country Park, including outdoor cinema, escape room and two restaurants and the world's largest collection of Oast Houses. Hale Street is another residential area to the east of the main village.

Pound Road has most of the village's amenities including the primary school, Co-op convenience store, local shops and the Merry Boys pub.

Transport

East Peckham is bypassed by the A228 road which is the closest major road to the village.

The village is served by the Arriva Southern Counties routes 6 & 6A which provide connections to Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone as well as the Go Coach route 208 to Tonbridge.[12][13]

Beltring railway station on the Medway Valley Line is the closest rail station to East Peckham and is served by hourly Southeastern train services to Tonbridge, Maidstone and Strood.[14][15]

Notable people

On 28 January 1896 Walter Arnold, of the Arnold (automobile) company of East Peckham, was summonsed for travelling at 8 mph (13 km/h) in a motorised vehicle, thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit for towns of 2 mph (3.2 km/h). He had been caught by a policeman who had given chase on a bicycle. He was fined 1 shilling plus costs, the first speeding fine in England, thus he achieved the sobriquet the first person to be convicted of speeding in the UK. [16][17][18]

Twinning

East Peckham is twinned with Chéreng, Nord, France.[19]

References
  1. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/localarea?compare=E04005096
  2. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  3. Hasted, Edward (1798). The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent. V. Canterbury: W Bristow. p. 93.
  4. Hasted, Edward (1798). The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent. V. Canterbury: W Bristow. p. 102.
  5. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1070728)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  6. Rose, Hugh James; Maitland, Samuel Roffey (1840). "Kent". The British magazine and monthly register of religious and ecclesiastical information. J. Petheram: 709. Retrieved 30 May 2011. trinity east peckham.
  7. "Dam delights East Peckham residents" (PDF). Tonbridge & Malling District Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  8. "East Peckham Flood Relief Partnership" (PDF). Tonbridge & Malling District Council. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
  9. http://therussettplayers.weebly.com/
  10. Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, East Peckham Character Areas - Supplementary Planning Document https://www.tmbc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/13581/Adopted_East_Peckham_CAA.pdf
  11. https://www.achurchnearyou.com/search/?lat=51.21&lon=0.38
  12. "Routes 6/6A: Tunbridge Wells to East Peckham and Maidstone". Arriva Southern Counties, June 2020.
  13. "Route 208: Pembury to East Peckham". Go Coach, June 2020.
  14. "Beltring station information". Southeastern, May 2020.
  15. "Timetable 3: Maidstone East and Medway Valley Lines" (PDF). Southeastern, May 2020.
  16. National Motoring Museum – Motoring firsts
  17. BBC Radio 4, The Eureka Years, by Adam Hart Davis
  18. US History, Criminal Justice, The first speeding ticket. Archived 3 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  19. "French exchange group battle with motorway repairs". Kent and Sussex Courier (Paddock Wood edition) (17 June 2011). p. 25.
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