Lynsted is a village in Lynsted with Kingsdown

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 Swale borough 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. The village is situated south of the A2 road 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

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in the Swale district of Kent, southeast England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The town stands next to th ...

and the nearest M2 junction is

three miles east. Lynsted is in many respects an

archetypal The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, History of psychology#Emergence of German experimental psychology, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a stat ...

old English village with

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, churchyard with an ancient yew, pub (the Black Lion) and a duck pond. The village is locally referred to as Lovely, Lovely Lynsted and various songs have been written about it.

Geography

The parish's southern part is on the north slope of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

; Bluetown, Kingsdown is at 104 m above mean sea level and Erriottwood at 67 m. Its extent stretches from, in the north, the Roman road

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England, running from Dover and London in the southeast, via St Albans to Wroxeter. The road crosses the River Thames at London and was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the M ...

, later named Greenstreet and now named London Road, where the hamlets south of it are Cellarhill or Cellar Hill and Claxfield (that borders across the road Teynham) to, in the south, Erriottwood. Bogle in the north-centre and Tickham in the east are the two other hamlets, within mile of the centre. The land drains well with chalks of the

History

Lyndsted is not featured 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086; the closest featured location is Milton Regis to the north-west. There is a church to St Peter and St Paul with the highest, grade I, architectural listing status. It is a 14th-century broach-spired church, with 13th-century features and its

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

is 16th century. The monuments include the south Roper chapel to Sir John Roper, 1st Baron Teynham, d.1618, containing a brass chandelier dated 1686. There are brasses to Elizabeth Roper, d.1567, to John Worley, d.1621, with 2 foot figures, and a painted alabaster effigy of a stiff recumbent knight with his lady on a marble sarcophagus, whilst a son and two daughters kneel on a panel to the rear in a coffered niche, with an architectural surround with corinthian capitals, a dentil cornice,

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

s and a

cartouche upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom., Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh KV17.html" ;"title="Seti I, from KV17">Seti I, from KV17 at the ...

. There is an effigy of Lord Christopher Roper, d.1622, signed by sculptor Epiphanius Evesham subtitled 'Me fecit', with plaster figures of a reclining and dying knight draped with his ermine cloak, with his kneeling and mourning wife behind him. He lies on a sarcophagus with a central inscription, flanked by carved panels of 2 sons, their backs turned to their hounds and hawks, and 5 daughters and granddaughters. The north Huggeson chapel contains a memorial to Catherine Drurye (née Finche) d.1601, an alabaster hanging monument with a kneeling couple facing each other, their children behind, with bracketed base; also there are monuments to John Huggeson d.1634; Josiah Huggeson, d.1639; James Huggeson, d.1646 (a recumbent man and wife on bolection-moulded sarcophagus); Rudolph Weckerlin, d.1667; Anne Delaune, d.1719; Martha Huggeson, d.1753; and William Huggeson, d.1774. From this it can be seen that the Huggeson and Roper families were among the wealthiest landowners from at least the 16th century; they developed their dedicated chapels with artistically acclaimed monuments. The village centre is a

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

containing 24

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Notable people

* Mary Lovel was prob. born here as Jane Roper, (1564–1628), founder of Antwerp convent * Frances C. Fairman (1839–1923), artist.

Governance

Lynsted in elections every four years elects two representatives to

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...

who are currently: Lynsted elects two representatives to Swale Borough Council, they are currently:

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent