Little Chart is a village and civil parish, situated 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Ashford in Kent, South East England. The parish lies south of the M20 motorway.
| Little Chart | |
|---|---|
 The replacement St Mary the Virgin Church | |
  Little Chart Location within Kent | |
| Area | 6.01 km2 (2.32 sq mi) |
| Population | 234 (Civil Parish 2011)[1] |
| • Density | 39/km2 (100/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ943459 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Ashford |
| Postcode district | TN27 |
| Dialling code | 01233 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
Geography
editWithin the parish boundaries is the linear settlement village centre by the old water mill and two smaller neighbourhoods less than 500m east:
- Little Chart Forstal (the term forstal means the land in front of a farm and farmyard; cp Painters Forstal[2]). Colloquially known as The Forstal, it is home to Little Chart Cricket Club.[3]
- Rooting Street
The river flowing eastwards, passing a long mill pond and mill on its way, is the West Stour.
History
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The secular property that would have had the highest grading of listed building in the parish, Surrenden Park,[4] half in Pluckley, was owned by the Dering family for over 400 years; the family estate covered about four square miles of Kent. Part of their property was Calehill Park,[5] to the north. Neither property now exists: Surrenden succumbed to fire in 1952; Calehill was demolished in 1951.
Transport
editLittle Chart is situated close to the M20 motorway. The closest railway station is Charing.
Amenities
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The original village church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and the Holy Rood, was wrecked in 1944 by a V-1 flying bomb during World War II;[6] it stood on a site further upstream from the village, near Chart Court. The new church is now within the village.[7]
The Ford Paper Mill, named after the one-time ford over the Great Stour, has a long history, and is still in operation dealing in salvaged paper.[8]
The Stour Valley Walk, which follows the Great Stour river, and the Greensand Way, from north to south, are both routed through the village. The village has a large pub, The Swan Inn.[9]
Past residents
editJonathan Bates, the Oscar-nominated sound engineer and youngest son of acclaimed writer H. E. Bates, was born in the village.[10]
Australian-born current affairs and sports journalist and broadcaster Jeffrey Thomas owned and lived in the Grade II listed Forstal Farmhouse with his family in the 1970s,[11] where he was instrumental in the formation of the Little Chart Cricket Club in the Kent Village Cricket League.[3]
References
edit- ^ Key Statistics; Quick Statistics: Population Density United Kingdom Census 2011 Office for National Statistics Retrieved 10 May 2014
- ^ "Painters Forstal".
- ^ a b "Little Chart CC". littlechartcc.play-cricket.com. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
- ^ The Surrenden Estate Archived 2 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Geograph:: Entrance to Calehill Park, Little Chart © David Kemp". www.geograph.org.uk.
- ^ "Little Chart old church". Archived from the original on 11 October 2007.
- ^ "Little Chart new church". Archived from the original on 11 October 2007.
- ^ Ford Paper Mill history Archived 2 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Swan Inn, Ashford". www.theswaninnlittlechart.co.uk.
- ^ Monks, Mick (3 December 2008). "Obituary: Jonathan Bates". guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
- ^ "FORSTAL FARMHOUSE, Little Chart - 1320570 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2019.
External links
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Media related to Little Chart at Wikimedia Commons