Eynsford
Encyclopedia
Eynsford is a village
and civil parish in the Sevenoaks
District of Kent
, England
. It is located on the River Darent
, south of Dartford
in Kent
.
In the centre of the village, which is six miles (10 km) south of Dartford, is a ford over the river, with a picturesque hump-back bridge
alongside. There are many old buildings including the 16th century Plough Inn and the Old Mill. The church is dedicated to St Martin
. In about 1163, Thomas Becket
is reputed to have excommunicated William de Eynsford, the owner of Eynsford castle. The excommunication was cancelled by King Henry II
and the issue became part of the quarrel that led to Becket's murder in 1170.
John Wesley
is thought to have preached here: he was a friend of the then vicar of Shoreham
, the next village along the valley. The Wesley Stone by the bridge commemorates the spot.
The railway station
is situated on the Swanley
to Sevenoaks
railway line, opened on 2 June 1862.
It was near Eynsford village (Austin Lodge) that Percy Pilcher
constructed and flew successful lightweight gliders. On 30 September 1899, having completed his triplane, he had intended to demonstrate it to a group of onlookers and potential sponsors in a field near Stanford Hall. However, days before, the engine crankshaft had broken and, so as not to disappoint his guests, he decided to fly the Hawk instead. The weather was stormy and rainy, but by 4pm Pilcher decided the weather was good enough to fly[3]. Whilst flying, the tail snapped and Pilcher plunged 10 metres (30 ft) to the ground: he died two days later from his injuries with his triplane having never been publicly flown.[4]
Another famous resident was Arthur Mee
who built and lived in Eynsford Hill, a grand house overlooking the village. Mee edited both the weekly Children's Newspaper and the Children's Encyclopaedia, in which the design and construction of Eynsford Hill was chronicled. Whether the name of Eliza Doolittle's husband Freddy Eynsford-Hill in George Bernard Shaw
's Pygmalion
is connected to the house is a matter of conjecture.
The village was scandalized in the 1920s by the antics of composers E.J. Moeran
and Peter Warlock
who rented a house there; Warlock's habit of riding his motorbike round the village naked was matched by his housemate's singing sea shanties on a Sunday morning to try and drown out the congregation in the Baptist chapel next door. Although the time spent in Eynsford was productive for Warlock, Moeran never really recovered.
Graham Sutherland
lived for many years in the 17th century Willow Cottage opposite the old village school.
Within the village are three impressive sites: Eynsford Castle, Lullingstone Castle and the Roman villa.
Dating from 1088, Eynsford Castle
is one of the most complete Norman
castles in England. Ransacked in the 14th Century it fell into decay and is now in the care of English Heritage
and open to the public. For years it was used as dog kennels by the Hart-Dyke family of nearby Lullingstone Castle.
Not a true castle, but a manor house
, built in the 15th century and substantially rebuilt in the 18th Century by Sir Percyvall Hart in honour of Queen Anne, who often stayed there. In 1875 Sir William Hart-Dyke and two of his friends framed the rules of lawn tennis at Lullingstone and first played the game there, using a ladder supported on two barrels for a net. It was here that the silk farm
was situated which supplied Queen Elizabeth II
with silk for her wedding dress, though by the time the Lullingstone Silk Farm provided Lady Diana Spencer
with silk for hers, it had moved to Dorset.
In 2004 the current heir to the estate, Tom Hart Dyke
, created the World Garden of Plants in the grounds from a design made in 2000 while he was held captive by rebels in Colombia
. The 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) walled garden is laid out like a map of the world, containing some 10 000 species planted to create the shapes of their areas of origin. Both house and garden are open to the public, and the garden in 2005 won the British Guild of Travel Writers
' 'Best UK Tourism Project' award.
Also in the grounds is the parish church of Saint Botolph
, recently restored and containing some of the oldest stained glass in England.
Lullingstone Roman villa
was discovered in 1939, and contains some of the finest excavated remains of a Roman
villa
in Britain, including a Romano-Christian chapel.
2008 - The Fox and Hounds Public House wins the prestigious Destination Pub of the year award
Mountainbike Trials
Team M.A.D the largest Mountainbike Stunt Team in Europe were formed in Eynsford in 1996. Giles Wolfe Team Director currently lives in the village.
'Beach Volley Ball'
Jake Sheaf, British Champion and International athlete. No 1 hopeful for the 2012 Olympics lives in Eynsford and trains in and around the local area.
region, although the first three episodes were later repeated on Channel 4
.
Save Lullingstone Castle was a six-part series by Keo Films, aired between April 4 and May 9, 2006, on BBC2. It followed the fortunes of Tom Hart Dyke as he developed the World Map of Plants and attempted to thereby turn the fortunes of the estate. A second series, Return to Lullingstone Castle aired between March 19 and April 23, 2007.
In the movie Love Actually
, the vicar at Eynsford church at the time played the vicar that married Juliet and Peter.
The first building was completed in 1806, giving way to the present enlarged building in 1906.
The work has continued to flourish, and the Church still supports its own full time Minister, even in the years where the local Established Church now has a Minister who is shared by three Parishes.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
and civil parish in the Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks (district)
Sevenoaks is a local government district covering the western most part of Kent in England. Its council is based in the town of Sevenoaks. It was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the Sevenoaks Urban District, Sevenoaks Rural District and part of Dartford...
District of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is located on the River Darent
River Darent
The River Darent or River Darenth is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames in England. Its name is believed to be from a Celtic word meaning 'river where oak-trees grow'...
, south of Dartford
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, east south-east of central London....
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
The village
Eynsford is first mentioned in writing in 864, as Egenes homme. The derivation is unclear, but one possibility is that it represents ‘Ægen’s river-meadow’, from the Old English hamm ‘river-meadow, enclosure’. In 1801 the village had the highest population in the Dartford area at 841 persons.In the centre of the village, which is six miles (10 km) south of Dartford, is a ford over the river, with a picturesque hump-back bridge
Arch bridge
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side...
alongside. There are many old buildings including the 16th century Plough Inn and the Old Mill. The church is dedicated to St Martin
Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...
. In about 1163, Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
is reputed to have excommunicated William de Eynsford, the owner of Eynsford castle. The excommunication was cancelled by King Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
and the issue became part of the quarrel that led to Becket's murder in 1170.
John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
is thought to have preached here: he was a friend of the then vicar of Shoreham
Shoreham, Kent
Shoreham is a village and civil parish in the valley of the River Darent six miles north of Sevenoaks in Kent: it is in the District of Sevenoaks. The parish includes the settlements of Badgers Mount and Well Hill....
, the next village along the valley. The Wesley Stone by the bridge commemorates the spot.
The railway station
Eynsford railway station
Eynsford railway station serves Eynsford in Kent. Train services are provided by Southeastern.The ticket office, on the 'down' side, is situated in the substantial station building...
is situated on the Swanley
Swanley
Swanley is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located on the south-eastern outskirts of London, north of Sevenoaks town. The town boundaries encompass the settlements of Swanley itself, Hextable and Swanley Village...
to Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
railway line, opened on 2 June 1862.
It was near Eynsford village (Austin Lodge) that Percy Pilcher
Percy Pilcher
Percy Sinclair Pilcher was a British inventor and pioneer aviator who was his country's foremost experimenter in unpowered flight at the end of the 19th Century...
constructed and flew successful lightweight gliders. On 30 September 1899, having completed his triplane, he had intended to demonstrate it to a group of onlookers and potential sponsors in a field near Stanford Hall. However, days before, the engine crankshaft had broken and, so as not to disappoint his guests, he decided to fly the Hawk instead. The weather was stormy and rainy, but by 4pm Pilcher decided the weather was good enough to fly[3]. Whilst flying, the tail snapped and Pilcher plunged 10 metres (30 ft) to the ground: he died two days later from his injuries with his triplane having never been publicly flown.[4]
Another famous resident was Arthur Mee
Arthur Mee
Arthur Henry Mee was a British writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for The Harmsworth Self-Educator, The Children's Encyclopaedia, The Children's Newspaper, and The King's England...
who built and lived in Eynsford Hill, a grand house overlooking the village. Mee edited both the weekly Children's Newspaper and the Children's Encyclopaedia, in which the design and construction of Eynsford Hill was chronicled. Whether the name of Eliza Doolittle's husband Freddy Eynsford-Hill in George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
is connected to the house is a matter of conjecture.
The village was scandalized in the 1920s by the antics of composers E.J. Moeran
Ernest John Moeran
Ernest John Moeran was an English composer who had strong associations with Ireland .-Early life:...
and Peter Warlock
Peter Warlock
Peter Warlock was a pseudonym of Philip Arnold Heseltine , an Anglo-Welsh composer and music critic. He used the pseudonym when composing, and is now better known by this name....
who rented a house there; Warlock's habit of riding his motorbike round the village naked was matched by his housemate's singing sea shanties on a Sunday morning to try and drown out the congregation in the Baptist chapel next door. Although the time spent in Eynsford was productive for Warlock, Moeran never really recovered.
Graham Sutherland
Graham Sutherland
Graham Vivien Sutherland OM was an English artist.-Early life:He was born in Streatham, attending Homefield Preparatory School, Sutton. He was then educated at Epsom College, Surrey before going up to Goldsmiths, University of London...
lived for many years in the 17th century Willow Cottage opposite the old village school.
Within the village are three impressive sites: Eynsford Castle, Lullingstone Castle and the Roman villa.
Eynsford Castle
(51°22′14"N 0°12′48"E)Dating from 1088, Eynsford Castle
Eynsford Castle
Eynsford Castle is one of the most complete Norman castles in England, located close to the village of Eynsford. Built in 1088, ransacked in the 14th century it fell into decay and is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public...
is one of the most complete Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
castles in England. Ransacked in the 14th Century it fell into decay and is now in the care of English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and open to the public. For years it was used as dog kennels by the Hart-Dyke family of nearby Lullingstone Castle.
Lullingstone Castle
(51°21′28.87"N 0°11′45.21"E)Not a true castle, but a manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
, built in the 15th century and substantially rebuilt in the 18th Century by Sir Percyvall Hart in honour of Queen Anne, who often stayed there. In 1875 Sir William Hart-Dyke and two of his friends framed the rules of lawn tennis at Lullingstone and first played the game there, using a ladder supported on two barrels for a net. It was here that the silk farm
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
was situated which supplied Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
with silk for her wedding dress, though by the time the Lullingstone Silk Farm provided Lady Diana Spencer
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
with silk for hers, it had moved to Dorset.
In 2004 the current heir to the estate, Tom Hart Dyke
Tom Hart Dyke
-External links:*...
, created the World Garden of Plants in the grounds from a design made in 2000 while he was held captive by rebels in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. The 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) walled garden is laid out like a map of the world, containing some 10 000 species planted to create the shapes of their areas of origin. Both house and garden are open to the public, and the garden in 2005 won the British Guild of Travel Writers
British Guild of Travel Writers
The British Guild of Travel Writers was formed in 1960. It is a membership organisation that admits authors whose work focuses on travel. It also includes among its membership many other professionals who generate travel-related content for print, broadcast and online media...
' 'Best UK Tourism Project' award.
Also in the grounds is the parish church of Saint Botolph
Saint Botolph
Botwulf of Thorney was an English abbot and saint. He is the patron saint of travellers and the various aspects of farming...
, recently restored and containing some of the oldest stained glass in England.
Lullingstone Roman Villa
(51°21′51"N 0°11′47"E)Lullingstone Roman villa
Lullingstone Roman villa
Lullingstone Roman Villa is a villa built during the Roman occupation of Britain, situated near the village of Eynsford in Kent, south eastern England....
was discovered in 1939, and contains some of the finest excavated remains of a Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
in Britain, including a Romano-Christian chapel.
Awards
2006 – Kent Village of the Year.2008 - The Fox and Hounds Public House wins the prestigious Destination Pub of the year award
Sports
Eynsford Football Club play their home games at Harrow Meadow in the heart of the village. Possessing a 1st team and Reserve team consisting of a squad of 47 players the 2 teams compete in the Sevenoaks & District Football League Premier Division & Division 1 respectively. On May 3, 2010 the Reserve Team competed in the Sevenoaks Charity Junior Cup Final which they lost 4-2 to Old Boars.Mountainbike Trials
Team M.A.D the largest Mountainbike Stunt Team in Europe were formed in Eynsford in 1996. Giles Wolfe Team Director currently lives in the village.
'Beach Volley Ball'
Jake Sheaf, British Champion and International athlete. No 1 hopeful for the 2012 Olympics lives in Eynsford and trains in and around the local area.
Eynsford on television
20 Miles from Piccadilly Circus featuring Alex Kennedy consisted of six half-hour episodes about various aspects of life in the village. The show was released in 1994 and initially aired only in the Carlton TelevisionCarlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
region, although the first three episodes were later repeated on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
.
Save Lullingstone Castle was a six-part series by Keo Films, aired between April 4 and May 9, 2006, on BBC2. It followed the fortunes of Tom Hart Dyke as he developed the World Map of Plants and attempted to thereby turn the fortunes of the estate. A second series, Return to Lullingstone Castle aired between March 19 and April 23, 2007.
In the movie Love Actually
Love Actually
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress...
, the vicar at Eynsford church at the time played the vicar that married Juliet and Peter.
Eynsford Baptist Church
In 1775, A Baptist Preacher, Mr. J. Morris opened his house in Eynsford for the preaching of the Gospel. This was the beginning of a Baptist Community, which grew despite opposition from the Established Church. In 1802, it is recorded in the history of the Church that when Mr. Rogers came to be Pastor "great difficulty was experienced in obtaining lodgings for the young Minister, that at one time the prejudice against a Baptist Minister was so strong that the people with whom he lodged had notice to quit their house unless he left, and it was with the greatest difficulty he secured a house when he married."The first building was completed in 1806, giving way to the present enlarged building in 1906.
The work has continued to flourish, and the Church still supports its own full time Minister, even in the years where the local Established Church now has a Minister who is shared by three Parishes.