The
earliest record of the village shop
is in
a deed of 1453.
In 1517 it was bought,as the Manor House
of Chiddingstone,
by Ann Boleyn's father.
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Chiddingstone
Chiddingstone Village
The
unique row of timbered Tudor houses is known as Chiddingstone,
comprising a village shop, a lovely church, an antique shop,
flourishing village school and, in one corner in the lea
of Chiddingstone
Castle, the Castle Inn.
The
first reference to the ancient village occurs in 814AD,
as land granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury. A successor,
Archbishop Lanfranc held it almost intact 250 years later,
and there is a connection with the See of Canterbury to
this day. Katherine Parr's first husband, Sir Edward de
Burgh, occupied part of the village at one time.
The
Streatfeild family enters the picture from the middle of
the 16th century. The first Richard Streatfeild made his
fortune as an Elizabethan ironmaster and, as squires and
patrons of the village, the family retained an intimate
association for 450 years. That is, until 1939 when the
family sold the village to the National Trust.
The
village street remains exceptionally unspoilt, each house
an attractive example of 16th and 17th domestic architecture.
