Ide Hill is a village within the

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 ...

of Sundridge with Ide Hill, in the

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

District of

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 stands on one of the highest points of the

Greensand Ridge The Greensand Ridge, also known as the Wealden Greensand, is an extensive, prominent, often wooded, mixed greensand/sandstone escarpment in south-east England. Forming part of the Weald, a former dense forest in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, it ...

about three miles south-west of

. Its name first appears on record in 1250 as Edythehelle. It is an eponymic denoting 'Edith's hill', from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

hyll 'hill'. The village lies within the

Kent Downs The Kent Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in Kent, England. They are the eastern half of the North Downs and stretch from the London/Surrey borders to the White Cliffs of Dover, including a small section of the London Boroug ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

. The church is relatively modern. The village had an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

chapel in 1806, built by

Beilby Porteus Beilby Porteus (or Porteous; 8 May 1731 – 13 May 1809), successively Bishop of Chester and of Bishop of London, London, was a Church of England reform movement, reformer and a leading Abolitionism#Great Britain, abolitionist in England. He w ...

Bishop of London The bishop of London is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers of 17 boroughs o ...

, who lived in nearby Sundridge; St Mary's church was built in 1865 and "has the distinction of being the highest church in Kent" at above sea level. There are several old buildings round the sloping

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

, including the 18th-century Cock Inn and the Ide Hill Village School, built in 1856 it is the second home of the school which unusually for a church school predates the church building as the school was formed in 1809.
Ide Hill Football Club
who have teams in the Kent County League, the Sevenoaks & District League and the Crowborough & District Junior League, play their home games on the Ide Hill Recreation Ground (behind the Cock Inn). As per the church, the football pitch "has the distinction of being the highest in Kent". Two of Kent's places of interest are near Ide Hill:

Bough Beech Reservoir Bough Beech Reservoir is a nature reserve in Bough Beech, south-west of Sevenoaks in Kent. It was managed by the Kent Wildlife Trust until July 2020. It is in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This nature reserve covers the ...

and Emmetts Garden. Bough Beech Reservoir was completed in 1969. A large area round it is leased to the Kent Trust for Nature Conservation as a nature reserve. Emmetts Garden is in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. It was laid out in the late 19th century. There is a stone seat near the village church to commemorate

Octavia Hill Octavia Hill (3December 183813August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer and founder of the National Trust. Her main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteent ...

, one of the Trust's founders. In his 1933 memoir ''

Down and Out in Paris and London ''Down and Out in Paris and London'' is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell, published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. Its target audience was the middle- and upper-cla ...

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

reports that Ide Hill was notorious for being the worst “spike” (a casual ward or homeless shelter) in all of England. Although in a footnote he confesses to finding it 'not so bad'.

Goathurst Common

Goathurst Common is a hamlet within the

of Sundridge with Ide Hill. It lies to the east of Ide Hill. Its road, Bessels Green Road, leads through Whitley Forest to the village of

Bessels Green Bessels Green is a village now incorporated into the built-up area of Sevenoaks in Kent, England. It is on the north-western outskirts of Sevenoaks, in the parish of Chevening Chevening House () is a large country house in the parish of C ...

, near Sevenoaks to the south. There is no current chapel or church. The hamlet did have two but they have been converted into houses. It is a mainly residential area consisting of about sixty houses built since the early 1920s. Goathurst Common is separated from Ide Hill by Stubbs Wood. The playing field in Goathurst Common plays host every August Bank Holiday to the Annual Goat Hurling World Championships. This is a modern invocation of an ancient past time that may have given the Hamlet its name . The event was revived to celebrate Queen Elizabeth the Second's Golden Jubilee on the 2nd of June 2002 and has been held every August Bank Holiday since. Unlike its ancient predecessor, a plush toy goat is hurled across a 30m marked playing area. No goats are harmed during the event. Goat Hurling in Goathurst Common

The woodlands around Goathurst Common were devastated during the Great Storm of 1987, when many trees were brought down by very high winds.

Nearest settlements

References

External links

The Parish Churches and Community InformationIde Hill Conservation Area Appraisal
{{authority control Villages in Kent