A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Brenchley is:  VACANT.  

Brenchley is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of South Malling.  The church is named All Saints with registers commencing 1560.

Brenchley, a village, a parish, a sub-district and a hundred in Kent.  The village stands 2-1/2 miles south-by-east of Paddock Wood rail station, and 7 miles east-north-east of Tunbridge Wells;  and has a post office under Staplehurst with a savings banks and a money order office.  Some good old timbered houses are in it;  and a clump of trees, on high grounds near it, figures conspicuously over many miles.  The parish includes also the hamlets of Matfield Green, Colts Hill, Mascalls Pound, Henlys, Piersons Green and Pettridge.  Acres, 7,780.  Real property in 1860, £11,518.  Population in 1861, 2,844.  Houses, 560.  The property is much subdivided.  There are mineral waters similar to those of Tunbridge.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £749 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, G. C. Courthope, Esq..  The church is old, cruciform, and good;  and has a lofty tower.

Paddock Wood vicarage is a separate benefice.  There are a Baptist chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and charities £17.

The sub-district contains two other parishes, and is in the district of Tunbridge.  Acres, 15,778.  Population in 1861, 5,486.  Houses, 1,086.

The hundred bears the name of Brenchley and Horsemonden;  consists of these two parishes and part of Lamberhurst;  and is in the lathe of Aylesford.  Acres, 15,887.  Population in 1861, 4,479.  Houses, 815.

Colts Hill – a hamlet in Brenchley parish, Kent;  6-1/2 miles southeast of Tunbridge.

Henlys – a hamlet in Brenchley parish, Kent;  6-1/2 miles northwest of Cranbrook.

Mascalls Pound, or Maskall’s Pound – a hamlet in Brenchley parish, Kent;  4-1/4 miles east-south-east of Tunbridge.

Matfield Green - a hamlet in Brenchley parish, Kent;  4-1/4 miles southeast of Tunbridge.  It contains a neat Baptist chapel, and several genteel residences.

Pettridge – a hamlet in Brenchley parish, Kent;  6-1/2 miles southeast of Tunbridge.

Piersons Green – a hamlet in Brenchley parish, Kent;  6-1/2 miles southeast of Tunbridge.^1
1John Marius Wilson, comp. The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales.  (London, England:  A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

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• Pigot's Directory of Kent, 1824
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• History, Gazetteer & Directory of Kent, Vol. II, 1847
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 1: Counties & Localities]
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• Melville & Co.'s Directory of Kent, 1858
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• Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891. [Part 2. Kent: Court & Trade Directories]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1903. [Part 1: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1903. [Part 2: Private Resident & Trade Directories]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1913. [Part 1: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1913. [Part 2: Private Resident & Trade Directories]

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