Plaxtol is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The village is located around 5 miles (8 km) north of Tonbridge and the same distance east of Sevenoaks. In the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1,117.
| Plaxtol | |
|---|---|
| Village and civil parish | |
 Plaxtol Parish Church | |
  Plaxtol Location within Kent | |
| Population | 1,117 (2011)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TQ603535 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SEVENOAKS |
| Postcode district | TN15 |
| Dialling code | 01732 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
The name Plaxtol is believed to be derived from Old English words meaning "play area";[2] there used to be a large green in the middle of the village where children would play after attending church on a Sunday.
The River Bourne flows through the parish, and formerly powered three watermills in Plaxtol – Winfield Mill (corn), Longmill (corn) and Roughway Paper Mill. The village has a primary school, a Cromwellian church, a village shop, a pottery school and a pub; it also once had a bakery and a butcher.
The 1,000-acre Fairlawne Estate adjoining the village of Shipbourne was owned by Sir Henry Vane the Elder, in the 17th century, and was owned by the Cazalet family in the 19th century. Major Peter Cazalet was a trainer of horses owned by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother who was an occasional guest. The estate was then owned by the Saudi Arabian horse-breeder Prince Khalid ibn Abdullah until his death in 2021.[3][4]
Notable residents
edit- Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley was born in Plaxtol in 1891. His father was a paper manufacturer in the village.[5]
- The teacher and theatre director Richard Tomlinson lived in the village in the 1990s.[6]
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges died in Plaxtol in 2007.[7]
References
edit- ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Mills, A. D. (2011). A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1996-0908-6.
- ^ "The billionaires" Archived 2013-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, Fortune magazine, 10 September 1990. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
- ^ Britten, Nick. "'Little village bumpkins’ defeat Saudi prince in fight for Shipbourne footpath rights", The Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
- ^ Martin Pugh, ‘Monckton, Walter Turner, first Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (1891–1965)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 8 July 2013
- ^ Kate Dorney, ‘Tomlinson, (Philip) Richard Henry (1943–2006)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2010 accessed 8 July 2013
- ^ Lawrence Goldman, ‘Hodges, Sir Lewis Macdonald [Bob] (1918–2007)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2011 accessed 8 July 2013
External links
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