Hernhill 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 ...

between

Faversham Faversham () is a market town in Kent, England, from Sittingbourne, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2 road (Great ...

and

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in southeast

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The parish includes the hamlets of Crockham, Dargate, The Fostall, Lamberhurst, Oakwell, Staple Street, Thread, Waterham and Wey Street.

Churches

During the Anglo-Saxon Christian period (from 600 AD) there was a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

church in Hernhill, built of wood. In 1120 this was replaced with a church built of wood and stone and dedicated to St Stephen.St Michael, Hernhill
Faversham tow
website
. Accessed 2007-05-06; also 2009-06-15

St Michael's Church

In about 1450 the church was replaced again, this time with a stone and flint church building on the same site. This 15th-century structure, dedicated to St Michael, incorporated some of the masonry from the 12th-century building. St Michael's is

perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

in style and has a square tower with a ring of eight bells. The main door and door to the bell tower are 15th century, and the

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

is 16th century. Much of the furniture dates from a restoration of the church in the 19th century, and a Lady Chapel was added in 1928. The churchyard contains a monument to parishioners killed in the nearby Battle of Bossenden Wood in 1838, said to be the last armed uprising on British soil.History of Dunkirk
Faversham tow
website
. Accessed 2009-06-15

Hamlets

Dargate

Dargate is a hamlet near

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. It consists of mainly farmland containing fruit trees and shrubs, and hops in the past. It is also on the edge of Blean Woods. It has 42 houses. In April 1999 Dargate was made into a conservation area, which means that it is protected. This means that any building or development has to be approved and must be the same as how they imagined Dargate to look historically. In the centre of the hamlet is the Dove Public House. Shepherd Neame purchased The Dove in 1884. In 1884 it was described as a beer house, that is a low rent drinking den, licensed by the Beerhouse Act 1830. It became a beer house sometime between 1830 and 1867. The old thatched house was extended in the 1890s and further extended probably in the early 1900s when the old thatched house was demolished and made over to garden/yard. The name Plumpudding Lane came from the fruit trees and the desert of the same name. When the new Thanet Way dual carriageway was built, it split the hamlets of Hernhill. Dargate had a post office which closed in 1990. There was also regular deliveries by a milk float and a weekly visit from a coal man and the Library van. All of which have now stopped. Oakleigh Manor Landscape design used to be a Motor museum and Belvedere farm (originally Dargate Farm) had a farm shop which sold amenities, fruit and vegetables as well as Easter Eggs and Christmas gifts. When Sir William Courtney came to Hernhill in 1838, he persuaded 44 people in Hernhill and Dunkirk to Revolt, which has been described as ‘The Last Rising of The Agricultural Labourers’. They killed a policeman and then six of them were then shot, including Courtney or John Tom which was his real name, in woods nearby. They are buried in Hernhill church. A lot of the rioters came from Dargate. Goodwin ran the Dove and John Spratt lived in what is now called ‘The Old Post Office.’

Waterham

Waterham is a hamlet in the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

of Swale in

, England.

In popular culture

Author Russell Hoban repurposes Dargate as "Dog Et" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel '' Riddley Walker''.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent