Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CHILHAM

CHILHAM, a village and a parish in East Ashford district, Kent. The village stands near the river Stour and the Ramsgate and Hastings railway, 6½ miles SW by S of Canterbury; is the Cilleham of the Saxons; was once a market-town; and has a station on the railway, a post office under Canterbury, and a fair on 8 Nov. The parish comprises 4, 332 acres. Real property £7, 502. Pop., 1, 319. Houses, 256. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged to the Saxon kings of Kent; was given by the Conqueror to Fulbert, who assumed the name of De Dover; passed to the Badlesmeres and others; went, in the time of Edward VI., to Sir Thomas Cheney; went again, at the beginning of the 17th century, to Sir Dudley Digges; passed to the Colebrooks, the Herons, and the Wildmans; and was bought, in 1862, byHardy, Esq. A Roman castrum was here, and is said to have been the residence of Lucius, the Brito-Roman king; a castle of the Saxon kings succeeded the castrum, was renovated after the Conquest, and underwent demolition by Sir Thomas Cheney; and a mansion, in lieu of this, was built by Sir W. Digges, is still standing, and forms a fine specimen of Jacobean architecture. The castle was surrounded by a deep fosse, enclosing about 8 acres; and the remains of it include a late Norman octagonal, three-storey keep. Many Roman relics, of various kinds, have been found here; and a great barrow or artificial mound, popularly called Julaber's Grave, the subject of much dispute among antiquaries, is immediately above the railway station. the living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Molash, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £698.* Patron, Charles Hardy, Esq. The church is decorated English, with a later clerestory; was rebuilt, in the E part, in 1863; belonged anciently to Throwleigh priory, afterwards to Sion monastery; and contains monuments of the Diggeses, the Colebrooks, and the Wildmans. There are a national school, and charities £37.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Chilham AP/CP       East Ashford RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Chilham

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.