Warehorne 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 ...

in the south of the Ashford 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. It is a scattered community centred on the

Hamstreet Hamstreet is a village in Kent, in South East England. The village is located 6 miles (10 km) south of Ashford on the A2070, the main road between Ashford and Hastings. The majority of the village is in the parish of Orlestone, named ...

Tenterden Tenterden is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The 2021 census published the population of the parish to be 8,186. Geography Tenterden is connected to Kent's county town of Maidstone by the A262 road an ...

road (B2067) around seven miles SSW 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 town **B ...

. The

Royal Military Canal The Royal Military Canal is a canal running for between Seabrook near Folkestone and Cliff End near Hastings, following the old cliff line bordering Romney Marsh, which was constructed as part of British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–0 ...

passes through the south of the civil parish. The first recorded mention of Warehorne is in an

Anglo-Saxon charter Anglo-Saxon charters are documents from the History of Anglo-Saxon England, early medieval period in England which typically made a grant of Real Estate, land or recorded a Privilege (legal ethics), privilege. The earliest surviving charters were ...

Ecgberht, King of Wessex Ecgberht (died 839), also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court ...

of 820 AD, where it is called ''Werehornas''. 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 mentions Warehorne by name and states that a church existed there. The present church (St Matthew's) shows no sign of Saxon or of Norman work. Warehorne was also where Reverend

Richard Harris Barham Richard Harris Barham (6 December 1788 – 17 June 1845) was an English cleric of the Church of England, a novelist and a humorous poet. He was known generally by his pseudonym Thomas Ingoldsby and as the author of ''The Ingoldsby Legends''. ...

, the author of ''

The Ingoldsby Legends ''The Ingoldsby Legends'' (full title: ''The Ingoldsby Legends, or Mirth and Marvels'') is a collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poems written supposedly by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of an English c ...

'', resided for a short while.

Geography

The settlement is in four main parts: *The main part of Warehorne is near the central village green. The

grade I 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, Hi ...

St Matthew's ChurchBritish listed buildings
retrieved 20 July 2013 and The Woolpack Inn are linked by a tunnel built by smugglers. *A second part of the village is known as the Leacon. This is sited at the crossroads on the B2067 and contains the former schoolhouse and now abandoned cricket field. *The remainder of mostly forested Warehorne (one third of the area and all in the northern half) contains the former World's Wonder pub and borders on the village of

Kenardington Kenardington is a small nucleated village, clustered village and the centre of a relatively small rural civil parish of the same name, in the Ashford (borough), Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is centred southwest of Ashford, Ken ...

. *Part of the larger village of

falls within Warehorne's parish boundaries, enabling the village to have sufficient population to retain its own civil parish council. The

Saxon Shore Way The Saxon Shore Way is a long-distance footpath in England. It starts at Gravesend, Kent, Gravesend, Kent, and traces the coast of South-East England as it was in Roman Empire, Roman times as far as Hastings, East Sussex, in total. This mean ...

links Warehorne with Hamstreet where the nearest shops and railway station can be found.

References

External links

Warehorne Parish Council

Warehorne History Resources

Parish church

Statistical civil parish overview - map

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Warehorne, in Ashford and Kent , Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

Rev. Richard Barham
* Ricard Barham Wikipedia *

Villages in Kent Villages in the Borough of Ashford Civil parishes in Ashford, Kent {{Kent-geo-stub