Addington, Kent

Addington is a village in the English county of Kent. It is close to the M20 motorway, and between the villages of Wrotham Heath and West Malling. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is called Eddintune. The meaning of the village's name is "Æddi's (or Eadda's) estate".[2] The village is notable for the long barrows, Neolithic chamber tombs. Its parish covers a little under 700 acres (2.8 km2), containing 291 houses. Addington Brook runs through the parish.

Not to be confused with Addington, London.

Addington
Addington is located in Kent
Addington
Addington
Location within Kent
Population769 (2011 Census)[1]
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWest Malling
Postcode districtME19
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament

History

Addington has been continuously inhabited for over 5,000 years. Many Neolithic artifacts have been extracted from the village, but much archaeological evidence has been lost to mechanical digging. Some sites were excavated during the building of the motorway. It had two mills at the time of the Domesday survey.[3] There was a watermill powered by the Addington Brook (TQ 656 587 51°18′12″N 0°22′36″E), demolished in the nineteenth century; the site now lies within West Malling Golf Course.[4][5] The remains of an old structure named the Addington Place were visible until the early 21st century, now beneath a golf course and stables.

Features

There is one pub, the Angel. There are rumours of a tunnel from the basement to the church 750 m (820 yd) away. No school is in the village, so children attend schools in nearby villages. Addington is completely divided by the M20 and M26 motorways. It is scarred on both sides of the motorways with sandpits and quarries, which are now almost entirely worked out.

The village is home to Addington Village Cricket Club, which has two Saturday teams and a 1st XI in Division 2 of the Kent League (1st XI).

St Margaret's Church

The parish church is dedicated to St. Margaret, and dates back to 1403.[6] It is part of a combined benefice with All Saints Birling, St. Martin Ryarsh and St. Peter & St. Paul Trottiscliffe.[7]

Traces of the former gardens of Addington Park can still be seen. Rockeries, ponds and old tennis courts are easily discernible in the private grounds of the Seekers Trust between a church and the golf course.

Long barrows

Chestnuts

The Chestnuts long barrow is the better preserved of the two long barrows. It was excavated in 1957, and artifacts from the dig are displayed in Maidstone Museum. It is believed to be on a Ley line.

Addington

Addington long barrow is not well-preserved. Its area has been plundered throughout the history of the village, and there is a road that goes through it.

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  2. "Kent place names". BBC. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  3. Coles Finch, William (1933). Watermills & Windmills. London: C W Daniel Company.
  4. Fuller & Spain (1986). Watermills (Kent and the Borders of Sussex). Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society. ISBN 0-906746-08-6.
  5. "Watermills list". The Mills Archive. Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  6. Bristow, W. "Parishes: Addington Pages 542-548 The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4". British History Online. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  7. "BART Group of Churches". BART Combined Benefice. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
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