Sutton-at-Hone is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley is a civil parish within the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It lies to the south of the urban part of the Borough, and consists of the two settlements named, both to the west of the River Darent, one of the pari ...

in the

Borough of Dartford The Borough of Dartford is a local government district in the north-west of the county of Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Dartford. It is part of the contiguous London urban area. It borders the borough of Gravesham to the e ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is located 3.5 miles south of

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock ...

& 3.6 miles north east of

Swanley Swanley is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2011 census was 16,226. Histor ...

History

The place-name 'Sutton-at-Hone' is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086, where it appears as ''Sudtone''. The place is called ''Suttone atte hone'' in a charter of 1281 at one time in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. The name means 'southern town or settlement near a stone', probably a boundary stone, from the Old English ''hān'' meaning 'stone'. Sutton-at-Hone has a long history. A

commandery In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem was established in Sutton-at-Hone in 1199, and is now the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

property

St John's Jerusalem St John's Jerusalem or Sutton-at-Hone Preceptory is a National Trust property at Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, England which includes the 13th century chapel of the Knights Hospitaller and a garden moated by the River Darent. The chapel and garden are op ...

. The property is partly open to the public (on Wednesday afternoons, April–October), including the 13th-century chapel of the Knights Hospitallers and a garden moated by the

River Darent The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford, as illustrated by the adjacent photograph, snapped at high tide. 'Darenth' is frequen ...

. The church of St John the Baptist was in existence by 1077. It was rebuilt in the 14th century, and substantially rebuilt after a fire in 1615, reputedly caused by a gun being fired at a bird. The parish of Sutton at Hone belonged to

Axstane Hundred Axstane was a hundred in the county of Kent, England. The Hundred of Axstane lay south-east of Dartford and Wilmington Hundred. It is called Achestan in Domesday Book, but by the reign of Edward I it was called Axstane. Its name has been interp ...

and its successor

Dartford Rural District Dartford Rural District was a rural district with an area of in the county of Kent, England. In 1971 it had a population of 64,561 and an electorate of 43,911. At dissolution it was the most populous rural district council in Kent, but had o ...

. The

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the com ...

of Swanley in the parish was formed into a separate parish of Swanley in 1955.

Sport

Sutton Athletic F.C. Sutton Athletic F.C. is an English football club in Sutton-at-Hone, near Dartford in Kent. The club plays in the . Sutton Athletic has been playing football at a county level in Kent since the 1960s, winning leagues and cups in the Kent County ...

is an association football team based in Sutton-at-Hone, that competes in the

Southern Counties East Football League The Southern Counties East Football League is an English football league established in 1966, which has teams based in Kent and Southeast London. Until 2013, it was known as the Kent League. There was a previous Kent League, that existed from ...

and play at The London Hire Stadium, Lower road.Sutton Athletic official website – History
Retrieved 13 January 2012. Sutton-at-Hone Primary school, also has a very successful girls football team, who were crowned Kent schools champions in 2021, winning the tournament with an unbeaten record, they will also be competing in the southern counties cup in 2022, representing Dartford.

Lathe of Sutton at Hone

The

Lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to ...

of Sutton-at-Hone included a large part of Kent and a lot of present-day South East

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

including the present-day boroughs of

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Cha ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwic ...

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one o ...

, and

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the tradition ...

. The Lathe of Sutton consisted of the following Hundreds:See The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 1, author:Edward Hasted, publ. 1797 * Blackheath * Bromley And Beckenham *

Ruxley Ruxley is a small settlement in southeast London, England, with no present formal boundaries. It is located southeast by east of Charing Cross,Nicholson Greater London Street Atlas Comprehensive Edition p.186 (2003) shows borough district ...

* Little And Lesnes * Dartford and Wilmington *

Axstane Axstane was a hundred in the county of Kent, England. The Hundred of Axstane lay south-east of Dartford and Wilmington Hundred. It is called Achestan in Domesday Book, but by the reign of Edward I it was called Axstane. Its name has been int ...

Codsheath Codsheath was a hundred, a historical land division, in the county of Kent, England. It occupied the eastern part of the Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone,An Historical Atlas of Kent, edited by Terence Lawrence & David Killingray (2004) - Maps front co ...

* Westerham and Edenbridge *

Somerden Somerden was a hundred, a historical land division, in the county of Kent, England. It occupied the southwest corner of Kent, in the southern part of the Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone,An Historical Atlas of Kent, edited by Terence Lawrence & David ...

The village of Sutton at Hone is in

. The lathe was the most westerly of the lathes into which Kent was divided. The former boundary of the Lathe with the rest of Kent is now, with minor deviations, the boundaries of Dartford and Sevenoaks with the rest of Kent. Although not formally abolished, hundreds and lathes had fallen out of use by the end of the 19th century, although the Lathe of Sutton was mentioned in the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

'' as late as 1899.

Transport

Rail

Sutton-at-Hone is served by Farningham Road railway station with

Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions— north, east, south, and west—eac ...

services to

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

via Bromley South and to Dover Priory via Chatham & Canterbury East.Farningham Road
National Rail

Buses

Sutton-at-Hone is served by

Arriva Kent Thameside Arriva Kent Thameside is a bus operator based in North-West Kent, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva. The company operates services in Northfleet, Gravesend & Dartford as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division from their Northfleet de ...

route 414, connecting it with Dartford. The Sutton Dynamo team bus can also be spotted at Parsonage Lane, when their under 16's side park the bus on a 6–0 score line at half time, using all their tactical nous to snatch defeat from the jaws of defeat.

Notes

External links

Parish Council websiteSt. John's Jerusalem page on the National Trust website
{{authority control Villages in Kent Borough of Dartford