Crockham Hill

Crockham Hill is a village in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. It is about 3 miles (5 km) south of Westerham, and Chartwell is nearby. The village has a population of around 270 people.[1] It contains a 19th-century pub, the Royal Oak, and Holy Trinity church.

Not to be confused with Crockenhill.

Crockham Hill
Royal Oak Cottages, Crockham Hill
Crockham Hill Location within Kent
OS grid reference	TQ442505
District	Sevenoaks
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Edenbridge
Postcode district	TN8
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Sevenoaks

Etymology

Crockham Hill comes from the Old English 'crundel' meaning a 'chalk-pit, quarry' with 'ham' as a 'village, homestead' and 'hyll' for 'hill'; therefore, the 'quarry village on the hill'.[2]

History

The village street is on the line of a Roman road, the London to Lewes Way.[3]

Initially a cider house and inn, the buildings of the Royal Oak pub are thought to be at least 500 years old. The Inn had a 35-foot well, which was used by pilgrims on their way to Thomas Becket's tomb in Canterbury and, in the 1950s, was recorded as a possible safe supply of drinking water in the event of atomic warfare.[4]

Crockham Hill Church of England Primary School was built below Holy Trinity Church in 1867 at a cost of £1,252. The school was enlarged and modernised after the First World War, and again in 1922 when a new classroom and cloakroom were added.[5]

In 1872, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales gave the follow description of the village:

Crockham-Hill, a chapelry in Westerham parish, Kent: at the boundary with Surrey, 2 miles N of Eden-bridge r. station, and 2¼ S of Westerham. It was constituted in 1842. Post town, Edenbridge. Rated property, £1, 930. Pop., 542. Houses, 108. The property is subdivided. A hill which gives name to the chapelry commands an extensive panoramic view. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £105.* Patron, Mrs. W. St. John Mildmay. The church is good.[6]

Notable residents

Octavia Hill, a social reformer, philanthropist, artist, writer and co-founder of the National Trust, also lived in the village. Her remains are buried in the churchyard of the village church, Holy Trinity.[7]

Constance Garnett, translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature, lived and died in the village. In addition to producing the first English language translations of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov, Garnett translated the complete works of Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol, and the major works of Leo Tolstoy.[8]

Eric M. Rogers, author and physics educator, grew up in Crockham Hill.[9]

References

1. "Street Check: Area Information for Crockham Hill, Edenbridge, TN8 6RP". 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
2. "History of Crockham Hill". Kent Past. 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
3. I D Margary, Roman Ways in the Weald 1965 Phoenix House
4. "The Royal Oak". Retrieved 10 March 2019.
5. "HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, CROCKHAM HILL". Retrieved 10 March 2019.
6. "Vision of Britain". Retrieved 10 March 2019.
7. "A historic walk over Octavia Hill, Kent". London: Guardian. 12 May 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
8. "Encyclopedia Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. 15 December 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
9. Fuller, Keith (1994). "Eric Rogers 1902–1990". In Jennison, Brenda; Ogborn, Jon (eds.). Wonder and Delight: Essays in Science Education in honour of the life and work of Eric Rogers 1902–1990. Bristol and Philadelphia: Institute of Physics. p. 203.

External links

Media related to Crockham Hill at Wikimedia Commons