Burham is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the borough of

Tonbridge and Malling Tonbridge and Malling is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Kent, England. The council is based at Kings Hill. The borough also includes the towns of Tonbridge an ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,251, decreasing to 1,195 at the 2011 Census. The village is near the

Medway Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...

towns.

The history of Burham can be traced to Roman times. AD43 saw the

Battle of the Medway The Battle of the Medway took place in 43 AD, probably on the River Medway in the lands of the Iron Age tribe of the Cantiaci, now the English county of Kent. Other locations for the battle have been suggested but are less likely. This was ...

at the crossing point on the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

, where Burham is now, when the invading Roman legions, advancing west across Kent, were confronted by a massed army of the ancient British tribes. The Roman victory altered the course of history in Britain, and the remains of Roman buildings have been found in Burham and the neighbouring village of Eccles. There has been a Settlement in Burham since Saxon times, "ham" being the Saxon word for "settlement" — the "Bur" part of the name comes from "burgh", or borough, referring to the borough of Rochester. The name "Burham" means "the village near the borough". In the 11th century Burham belonged to

Leofwine Godwinson Leofwine Godwinson (c. 1035 – 14 October 1066) was a younger brother of King Harold Godwinson, the fifth son of Earl Godwin. When the Godwin family was exiled from England in 1051 he went with Harold to Ireland, where they were sheltered an ...

, brother of King Harold. He was killed along with his brother at the

Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place appr ...

in 1066. It is listed as having six sulings (about 240 acres) of land. There were two major farms, 15 "villeins" each farming and 20 "borderers" each farming about . There was a church and a mill with woodland sufficient to support 20 hogs. The medieval church of St Mary is now redundant and stands on the riverbank to the west of the village. It is now cared for by the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

having been saved from dereliction by the Friends of Friendless Churches in the 1950s. About 1830 Burham became a "cement village" on the Medway with the establishment of the local cement industry, after the discovery of the manufacturing technique for

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...

(so called because of its resemblance to Portland stone). By 1841 the village's population had grown to 380 and increased to a maximum of 1,725 in 1901. By 2021 it was about 1,300.

Helicopter crash

On the 26 July 1998, the air ambulance, a Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirrel, registration G-MASK, crashed in good weather after colliding with power cables near Burham while returning to Rochester Airport following an aborted call to attend a road accident. All three crew – the pilot, Graham Budden, and two paramedics, Tony Richardson and Mark Darby – were killed as the helicopter burst into flames on impact. Initial investigation established no cause for the crash, due to the fireball produced on impact. Initially the pilot's employers, Police Aviation Services, denied liability. On 19 February 2004, following a civil case brought by the pilot's widow to the High Court in Manchester, it was ruled that the crash was caused by mechanical failure not, as had been suggested, flying low for fun, and ordered compensation to be paid. A memorial to the crew is located at the

Blue Bell Hill Blue Bell Hill is a chalk hill between Maidstone and Rochester in the English county of Kent. It overlooks the River Medway and is part of the North Downs. Settlements on the hill include the Walderslade suburb of Chatham and the villages o ...

picnic site, close to the scene of the crash.

References

{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent Aviation accidents and incidents in Kent Aviation accidents and incidents locations in England