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Rolvenden,
Kent
Rolvenden, a small village in Kent, 3 miles West South-West of Tenterden and 4 miles north-west of Wittersham, on the verge of Romney Marshes.
Here once rolled the sea, for Rolvenden is on the edge of Romney marshes. A whale has been found here, and an old boat thought to have been wrecked in the 13th century, with the skull of a man and the skeleton of a child in it. A vase found in the boat is in the Maidstone Museum.
Rolvenden
is a delightful village with green verges along it's wide street. It consists of two hamlets nearly a mile apart - the Streyte and the
Layne. The Streyte, except for the church, pub and some ancient
farms, was burnt down during the Great Plague and the inhabitants
moved to the common land of the Layne, later returning to rebuild
the Streyte.
It gets its
name from a chieftan Hropwulf - den or pasture of Hropwulf's people. Den is the jutish word for swinepastures which became cultivated land with accompanying hamlets and isolated farmsteads, occasionally evolving into villiages.
The town is mentioned in the Domesday Monarchorum as De Ruluindaenne,
then in the Domesday book as Rovindene. This was changed to Riolvinden
in the reign of Edward III. Then changed again to Rounden in the
late 17th century.
Many individuals
left the parish between 1830 and 1850, during and after the "Swing
Riots", this is because the Rolvenden parish made a conscious
decision to provide 'the poor' with money for their assisted passages
to the colonies rather than having to pay out large amounts on an
ongoing basis for parish relief.
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The main
feature of the village is the St. Mary the Virgin Church,
the 13th and 14th century church is light and spacious and stands on a low mound at the southern end of the
village. A wooden version of the existing church predates
the Norman Conquest. The earliest surviving part of the church
is to be seen in the chancel and dates from circa 1210. The
present structure is mainly 14th and 15th century and is structurally
as it was in 1470. The features include an excellent 14th century font and 17th century pulpit.
The village
also features a very old post mill dating from late 1500s
- it operated until 1885, and Great Maytham Hall - a fine old house at the entrance to the village, designed by Lutyens - which contains the "Secret Garden" that
inspired the well known children's novel.
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There are many charming peeps in Rolvenden. There is a lovely black and white gabled house with an oriel window where John Wesley preached. At Halden Place, long before it became a farmhouse, lived Lady Jane Grey, the first Queen of England, Queen for 9 days. She must have known the Hold Park, which has grown up about the ancient hold well – it's Elizabeth house, greatly added to last century, stands among 260 acres of timber.
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