Milstead is a village and civil parish in the borough of Swale in

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 is surrounded by the villages of

Frinsted Frinsted or FrinsteadYoungs, F., Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271 is a small village and civil parish in the ecclesiastical parish of Wormshill and in the Maidstone District of Kent, ...

Wichling Wichling (otherwise Wychling) is a village and civil parish within the local government district of Maidstone, in England. The parish lies approximately to the east of Maidstone. It lies near the top of the ridge of the North Downs and consis ...

, Doddington and

Lynsted Lynsted is a village in Lynsted with Kingsdown civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The village is situated south of the A2 road between Faversham and Sittingbourne and the nearest M2 junction is Faversham three miles east. L ...

in Kent, England. It is the southernmost parish in the

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 ...

area, and is approximately from Sittingbourne town centre, just south of the M2 motorway. Milstead Village Sign on Village Hall - geograph

According to

Edward Hasted Edward Hasted (20 December 1732 OS (31 December 1732 NS) – 14 January 1812) was an English antiquarian and pioneering historian of his ancestral home county of Kent. As such, he was the author of a major county history, ''The History and ...

in 1798, "the parish is but small, containing about of land, of which about acres are woodland." He refers to it as 'Milsted'. The parish was under the dominion of the Manor of

Milton Regis Milton Regis is a village in the district of Swale in Kent, England. Former names include Milton-next-Sittingbourne, Milton Royal, Middleton, Midletun and Middletune. It has a population of about 5,000. Today it is a suburb of Sittingbourne, alt ...

in the reign of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

. In 1870-72, according to

John Marius Wilson John Marius Wilson (c. 1805–1885) was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazetteers. The '' Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (published 1870–1872), was a substantial topographical dictionary in six volumes. It was ...

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes h ...

, the parish comprised . Its population was 245 and it had 43 houses. Within the village is the

Grade II listed 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, H ...

Church of St Mary and the Holy Cross, within the diocese of

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 ...

, and deanery of Sittingborne. The village now contains around 80 houses and cottages of which nine are listed buildings, including 'Milstead Manor'. On 27 September 1940 at 12.25pm, during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

, a

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

from 242 Squadron RAF, piloted by Flying Officer Michael Homer, crashed into a

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

cottage in the village, after being badly damaged by a

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...

. Flying Officer Homer flew with 242 Squadron based at

RAF Duxford Duxford is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, about south of Cambridge. It is part of the Hundred Parishes area. History The village formed on the banks of the River Cam, a little below its emergence from the hills of north Essex. One of t ...

, commanded by

Douglas Bader Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, (; 21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982) was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared ...

. Homer's body was taken from the wreck and buried in Godlingston Cemetery,

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester. In the Unit ...

, Dorset. His family planted a tree and mounted a plaque in his memory at the crash site. A memorial near Simel House, Minching Wood, which was unveiled in November 2007, is included as part of annual

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces me ...

services in the village. The village has a reasonably large village hall which holds meetings for many clubs, such as woodturning and yoga, and also a monthly market. There is a village pub, the Red Lion, and a village school, 'Milstead and Frinsted Church of England Primary School'. The village once had a small post office, but it was closed and became a private house.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent