Little Chart is a village and

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 ...

, situated north-west of

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia * Ashford, New South Wales * Ashford, South Australia * Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland * Ashford, County Wicklow * Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom *Ashford, Kent, a tow ...

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 ...

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

. The parish lies south of the

M20 motorway The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is long. Although not signposted in England, ...

Geography

Within the parish boundaries is the

linear settlement A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical r ...

village centre by the old

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the productio ...

and two smaller neighbourhoods less than 500m east: *Little Chart Forstal (the term ''forstal'' means the land in front of a farm and farmyard; cp Painters Forstal). Colloquially known as The Forstal, it is home to Little Chart Cricket Club. *Rooting Street The river flowing eastwards, passing a long mill pond and mill on its way, is the West Stour.

History

The secular property that would have had the highest grading of

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in the parish, Surrenden Park, half in Pluckley, was owned by the Dering family for over 400 years; the family estate covered about four square miles of Kent. Part of their property was Calehill Park, to the north. Neither property now exists: Surrenden succumbed to fire in 1952; Calehill was demolished in 1951.

Transport

Little Chart is situated close to the

. The closest railway station is

Charing Charing is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, in south-east England. It includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is located at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment. Th ...

Amenities

The original village church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and the Holy Rood, was wrecked in 1944 by a

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

; it stood on a site further upstream from the village, near Chart Court. The new church is now within the village. The Ford Paper Mill, named after the one-time ford over the Great Stour, has a long history, and is still in operation dealing in salvaged paper. The

Stour Valley Walk The Stour Valley Walk is a recreational walking route that follows the River Stour, through the ''Low Weald'' and ''Kent Downs,'' from its source at Lenham to its estuary at Pegwell Bay. The walk passes through some of Kent's finest landscap ...

, which follows the Great Stour river, and the

Greensand Way The Greensand Way is a long-distance path of in southeast England, from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet in Kent. It follows the Greensand Ridge along the Surrey Hills and Chart Hills. The route is mostly rural, passing through woods, and ...

, from north to south, are both routed through the village. The village has a large

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, ''The Swan Inn''.

Past residents

Jonathan Bates Jonathan Bates (1 November 1939 – 31 October 2008) was an English Sound editor (filmmaking), sound editor. He was nominated for an Academy Awards, Academy Award in the category of Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound for the f ...

, the Oscar-nominated sound engineer and youngest son of acclaimed writer H. E. Bates, was born in the village. Australian-born current affairs and sports journalist and broadcaster Jeffrey Thomas owned and lived in the Grade II listed Forstal Farmhouse with his family in the 1970s, where he was instrumental in the formation of the Little Chart Cricket Club in the Kent Village Cricket League.

References

External links

Little Chart Parish Council pagesStatistical civil parish overview - map
*https://www.calehill-westwell.uk/cornerstone {{authority control Villages in Kent Villages in the Borough of Ashford Civil parishes in Ashford, Kent