A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Cowden is:  VACANT.  

Cowden is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of South Malling.  The church is named for St. Mary Magdalen with registers commencing 1566.

Cowden, a parish in Sevenoaks district, Kent;  on a headstream of the Medway river, at the boundary with Sussex, 4-1/2 miles south-south-east of Edenbridge rail station, and 7-1/2 miles west of Tunbridge Wells.  It has a post office under Edenbridge, and a fair on 2 August.  Acres, 3,232.  Real property in 1860, £3,694.  Population in 1861, 771.  Houses, 131.  The property is much subdivided.  Iron ore occurs.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £347 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Rev. T. Harvey.  The church is old but good, and has a shingled spire.  The perpetual curacy of Mark Beech is a separate benefice.

There are five alms houses.

Mark Beech – a chapelry in Cowden and Hever parishes, Kent;  2-1/2 miles northeast of the meeting point with Surrey and Sussex, and 4 miles south-south-east of Edenbridge rail station.  It was constituted in 1852;  and it has a post office under Edenbridge.  Rated property in 1859, £590.  Population in 1861, 289.  Houses, 46.  Population of the Cowden portion, 207;  Houses, 34.  The property is divided chiefly among four.  The higher grounds command extensive views.

The living [of Mark Beech] is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £65 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Hon. Mrs. Talbot.  The church was built in 1852;  consists of nave and chancel, with small tower and shingle spire;  and has some painted windows.  There are schools and a parochial library and reading room.^1
1John Marius Wilson, comp. The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales.  (London, England:  A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

• Monumental Inscriptions
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• Pigot's Directory of Kent, 1824
• Illustrated Guide to the London and Dover Railway, 1846
• History, Gazetteer & Directory of Kent, Vol. II, 1847
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 1: Counties & Localities]
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 2: Court & Trade Directories]
• Melville & Co.'s Directory of Kent, 1858
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1882
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891. [Part 1. Kent: County & Localities]
• 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]

• Parish Map
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