Petham

Petham is a rural village and civil parish in the North Downs, five miles south of Canterbury in Kent, South East England.

Petham
Garlinge Green, the village green with old style telephone box Petham village hall
Petham is located in Kent
Petham
Petham
Location within Kent
Area13.61 km2 (5.25 sq mi)
Population708 (Civil Parish 2011)[1]
• Density52/km2 (130/sq mi)
OS grid referenceTR127515
Civil parish
  • Petham
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCANTERBURY
Postcode districtCT4
Dialling code01227
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament

The village church is All Saints, Petham and is Grade I listed.[2] It was built in the 13th century but suffered from a fire in 1922 and had to be reconstructed. The village hall was rebuilt in the early 21st century next to Marble pond on relatively low meadows deemed unsuitable for housing and insurance.

Petham has rolling hills within its bounds, including ancient forested slopes and thatched medieval and Tudor period cottages.

It now incorporates Swarling to the north, which had "33.5" households in the Domesday Book,[3] and is one of the type sites for British Iron Age Aylesford-Swarling pottery. The excavation, by J. P. Bushe-Fox, to publication took place in 1921–1925.[4]

History

Similar to other comparable villages, Petham once featured multiple facilities such as a baker, cobbler, post office and garage.[5] Today, none of these facilities remains and the only public buildings are the Petham Pint, a small tavern that was opened during COVID times to try and increase morale, and the All Saints church and graveyard. This decline began in the 1940s and can be attributed to increasing household car ownership (in the early 1940s 90% of households did not own a car).[6] Increasing car ownership allowed easier travel between Petham and Canterbury, enabling residents to access services in the city.

  • Petham Village Hall on Church Lane
    Petham Village Hall on Church Lane
  • All Saints Petham Graveyard
    All Saints Petham Graveyard

References
The church of All Saints
  1. Key Statistics; Quick Statistics: Population Density United Kingdom Census 2011 Office for National Statistics Retrieved 21 November 2013
  2. "Church of All Saints, Petham, Kent". Britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  3. "Swarling | Domesday Book". domesdaymap.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 September 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  4. Cunliffe, Barry W., Iron Age Communities in Britain, Fourth Edition: An Account of England, Scotland and Wales from the Seventh Century BC, Until the Roman Conquest, near Figure 1.4, 2012 (4th edition), Routledge, google preview, with no page numbers
  5. "Village Amenities - (1)". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  6. "Car ownership in Great Britain" (PDF). Racfoundation.org. Retrieved 1 November 2017.

Media related to Petham at Wikimedia Commons


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