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Eccles, Kent

Coordinates: 51°19′08″N 0°28′48″E / 51.318900°N 0.480010°E / 51.318900; 0.480010
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Eccles
Eccles from Blue Bell Hill
Eccles is located in Kent
Eccles
Eccles
Location within Kent
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townAylesford
Postcode districtME20
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Kent
51°19′08″N 0°28′48″E / 51.318900°N 0.480010°E / 51.318900; 0.480010

Eccles is a village in the English county of Kent, part of the parish of Aylesford, and in the valley of the River Medway.

It is between Aylesford village and Burham, both a mile away. Shelter from the North Downs provides a favourable micro-climate for the village's vineyards.[1]

History

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The nearby Eccles Roman Villa and pottery kiln were excavated between 1962 and 1976. The villa was occupied soon after the Roman invasion of Britain until they departed.[2] It underwent at least four phases of construction,[3] latterly comprised at least 37 rooms and may have had workshops, stores and wharves along the River Medway.[4] Beneath the villa complex are traces of an Iron Age farmstead.[5]

A Saxon cemetery was discovered at the villa containing at least 200 graves aligned east–west, some with a likely mid-seventh century date. Several skeletons had fatal weapon injuries, possibly from a single hostile event. Signs of reuse during the medieval period include cesspits and areas of rough cobblestones.[6]

There is reference to a Common Park at Aylesford, dating to 1597, which has been interpreted as a deer park, although it could refer to common land. The park lay to the South of Eccles village, west of Bull Lane, and in 1805 was about 269 acres (109 ha).[citation needed]

Eccles was mostly farmland[7] until Thomas Cubitt bought two farms near the river and built a steam powered brickyard and cement works.[8] It could produce up to 30 million bricks a year. Buildings were positioned along tramway track on the gently sloping site so that material moved by gravity, with each stage of manufacture, closer to the quayside.[9] Three miles of tram and railway connected the works buildings with the extraction pits and the wharf. Piped water was provided from a large reservoir. By 1900 the business had merged with others and was producing Blue Circle branded cement. At its peak, almost a thousand men and boys[10] were employed making portland cement and Burham bricks from the Gault clay, but the site closed in 1941.[11][12]

Local farmer Thomas Abbot built a terrace of 22 cottages on Bull Lane to house some of these workers, and the population soon increased to 300.[13]

One account traces the settlement's present name back to 1208 and suggests that it derived from the 10th-century 'Aecclesse', meaning the 'meadow of the oak'.[14] The Domesday Book of 1086 records Eccles as ‘Aiglessa’.[15] At that time, it had a population of 22 households, putting it in the largest 40% of recorded settlements.[16] It has also been suggested that the name 'Eccles' comes from the Latin word 'ecclesia' meaning 'church', implying that a post-Roman Christian community existed in the area, although there is no evidence for this.[17] In 1798, Eccles was a manor of the parish of Aylesford, "which was of some note in the time of the Conqueror, being then part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, the king's half brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the book of Domesday".[18] The site of the original manor of Eccles was lost to public knowledge by the 18th Century, but it was surmised to be somewhere at the eastern extremity of the parish, near Boxley Hill.[citation needed]

Amenities

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There is a church,[19] a convenience store with post office services,[20] and a doctors’ surgery.[21] The church hall on Cork Street is the village pre-school and over 50s drop-in centre.[citation needed]

At the centre of the village is a large park (‘the Rec’) with a skate park, children's play facilities and exercise equipment for adults. On weekends there are junior football games. Nearby, there is a sports field which has been used by Eccles Football Club since the 19th century.[citation needed]

As of 2017, there is one pub in Eccles, the grade II listed Red Bull.[22][23] The Walnut Tree was demolished in 2012 and redeveloped as housing.[24]

St Mark’s School[25] is a small, mixed-year group, Church of England Primary School. It was rebuilt in 2002 close to the Victorian building it replaced.[26]

A library bus visits every Tuesday afternoon.[27]

A farmers' market is held on every third Sunday of the month[28] at Aylesford Priory which is within walking distance of the village.

Transport

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Eccles is three miles from junctions 5 and 6 of the M20 motorway, and the same distance from junction 3 of the M2 motorway. Maidstone East railway station is 4+1⁄2 miles away. The village also has road access to communities on the west bank of the River Medway by way of Peter's Bridge which was opened in September 2016.[29]

There is a network of footpaths around the village providing access to the surrounding countryside, vineyards and the River Medway. There are all-weather footways south to Aylesford Priory and north to the Pilgrims' Way and thence to Burham. Beyond Burham, there is a combined footpath and cycle way down to the Riverside Walk at Peter's Village.[citation needed]

The Pilgrims' Way, North Downs Way and Medway Valley Walk pass within a mile of the village.[citation needed]

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The 2007 Tour de France through Kent included a section of the Pilgrims' Way close to the village.[30][31]

Kit’s Coty

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Chapel Down planted a vineyard adjacent to Eccles village on land they acquired in 2007[1] and named it after Kit's Coty House ancient monument on the slope of the North Downs immediately above.[32] Local conditions are reputed to be similar to those of the Champagne region in France.[33]

The 95 acres (38 ha) of vineyard are planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Bacchus grapes.[34]

The site had previously been identified for a station on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link[35][36] but after opposition[37] the rail route went through a tunnel under Blue Bell Hill, alongside the M2.[38] Among those claiming credit for the change were a coven of white witches from Hastings who performed a ritual at Little Kit's Coty House on the stones to protect them from any disturbance by the railway.[39]

The 'Ancient sites of Aylesford' walk includes Eccles, Kit's Coty House and Little Kit's Coty House.[40]

Notable people

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See also

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  • Detsicas, Alec (1983). The Cantiaci (First ed.). Gloucester: Sutton. ISBN 9780862991173.

References

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  1. ^ a b Donaghay-Spire, Josh. "Behind the scenes at Chapel Down, the UK's leading winery". The Week Portfolio. Archived from the original on 17 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  2. ^ Palmer, Lyn (25 January 2008). "Exploring Kent's Past - Roman Kent". Kent County Council. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  3. ^ Blanning, Elizabeth Denise. Landscape, Settlement and Materiality Aspects of Rural Life in Kent during the Roman Period Volume Two: Dwelling, Subsistence and Remembrance (PDF) (Thesis). University of Kent. p. 204. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Exploring Kent's past - Eccles Roman Villa, Eccles". Kent County Council. 25 January 2008. Archived from the original on 5 July 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Romano-British villa, Anglo-Saxon cemetery and associated remains at Eccles". Ancient Monuments. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  6. ^ Shaw, Rachel (1994). "The Anglo Saxon Cemetery at Eccles: A preliminary report" (PDF). Archaeologia Cantiana. 144: 165–188. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 July 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  7. ^ Hann, Andrew (2009). The Medway Valley: a Kent landscape transformed. Chichester: Phillimore. pp. 110–116. ISBN 978-1-86077-600-7.
  8. ^ "Towns and Villages Around Maidstone - Eccles". Visitor UK. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  9. ^ Hann, Andrew (May 2007). "Reading the Landscape of the Industrial Past" (PDF). Friends of Medway Archives (206): 17–21. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  10. ^ Barker, N. "The Geology of the Blue Bell Hill Chalk Pits" (PDF). Kent Geologists' Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  11. ^ Sallery, Dave. "English Bricks: Br to By". Old Bricks - history at your feet. Archived from the original on 28 January 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  12. ^ Moore, Dylan. "Cement Kilns: Burham". Cement Kilns. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  13. ^ "History of Eccles". Kent Past. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  14. ^ Glover, Judith (1976). The place names of Kent. London: B.T. Batsford. ISBN 978-0713430691.
  15. ^ "Eccles, Kent Folio: 7r Great Domesday Book Service". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  16. ^ Powell-Smith, Anna. "Eccles". Open Domesday. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  17. ^ Ward, Alan (2004). "Church Archaeology 410 to 597: The Problem of Continuity" (PDF). Archaeologia Cantiana. 124: 377. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  18. ^ Hasted, Edward (1798). Parishes: Aylesford', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent. Vol. 4. Canterbury: Victoria. pp. 416–447. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017 – via British History Online.
  19. ^ "Maidstone". North Kent Methodist Circuit. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  20. ^ "Opening Hours Post Office Eccles". Post Office opening hours. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  21. ^ "Doctors". Burham Parish Council. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  22. ^ "Red Bull, Eccles". Campaign for Real Ale. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  23. ^ "The Red Bull Public House, Aylesford - 1363110". Historic England. Archived from the original on 11 September 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  24. ^ "Walnut Tree, Eccles, Aylesford, Maidstone". Pubs History. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  25. ^ "St Marks CE (VC) Primary School, Eccles". St Marks CE (VC) Primary School, Eccles. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  26. ^ "St Marks Primary School". Atelier Ten. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  27. ^ "Mobile library timetable". Kent County Council. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  28. ^ "Calendar". Kent Farmers’ Market Association. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  29. ^ Smith, Alan (14 September 2016). "New £19m bridge declared open". Kent Online. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  30. ^ "Tour de France 2007: Stage One Route". BBC. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  31. ^ Atkins, Fred (2009). Tour de Kent: the day the world's biggest bike race came to the Garden of England. Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1859837382.
  32. ^ "Chapel Down Kit's Coty Estate Chardonnay 2011". Majestic Wine. Retrieved 17 August 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  33. ^ Sturt, Sarah. "7 of the best vineyard tours in Kent". Kent Life. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  34. ^ "Chapel Down's Kit's Coty Chardonnay 2013 - Product Launch". Just-Drinks. 11 April 2016. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  35. ^ Tudor, Sean (2017). The Ghosts of Blue Bell Hill & other Road Ghosts. White Ladies Press. p. 126. ISBN 9780995736313.
  36. ^ Glasspool, David. "Mid-Kent Parkway". Kent Rail. Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  37. ^ "Mid Kent Parkway". Kent Messenger. 21 September 1990. p. 8.
  38. ^ "Channel Tunnel Rail Link". Hansard. 22 March 1993. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  39. ^ Arnold, Neil (2010). Paranormal Kent. Stroud: History Press. p. 76. ISBN 9780752455907.
  40. ^ "Ancient Sites of Aylesford". Automobile Association. Archived from the original on 4 May 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
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