Chilham, Kent Family History Guide
Chilham is an Ancient Parish in the county of Kent. Molash is a chapelry of Chilham.
Alternative names: Chilleham
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1558
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1563
Nonconformists include: Wesleyan Methodist
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Molash
- Selling
- Chartham
- Wye
- Sheldwich
- Godmersham
- Petham with Waltham
- Dunkirk
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
CHILHAM, a village and a parish in East Ashford district, Kent.
The village stands near the river Stour and the Ramsgate and Hastings railway, 6 ½ 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, by C., Hardy, 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 p. curacy 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.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Maps
Vision of Britain historical maps
Administration
- Civil Registration District: East Ashford
- Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Canterbury
- Diocese: Canterbury
- Rural Deanery: Pre-1873 – Bridge, Post-1872 – West Bridge
- Poor Law Union: East Ashford
- Hundred: Felborough
- Province: Canterbury