BETHERSDEN

 Bethersden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England, 5 miles west of the town of Ashford. Located on the main road, A28, between Tenterden and Ashford. The suffix 'den' means a woodland pasture, and in this case, was one belonging to Beaduric.

Entering Bethersden from the A28, along Forge Hill, the first building to strike you is this one - formed from two oast houses and a barn.  Currently the offices of Stratford's Property Management Services., these buildings were once part of the Thorne Estate.

The Thorne Estate is owned by the Peter Adams Trust. 

Peter Eric Adams was an enthusiastic educationalist both as a learner and teacher who was liked and admired by his pupils. His interests also included Conservation and travel.
Following the death of his Mother he inherited The Thorne Estate, Bethersden.

Peter was the last of the line and by his Will left his net estate on Charitable Trust.
His wishes are reflected in the Grants offered by The Peter Adams Trust for Conservation, Personal Improvement, Community Benefit and anything else (including towards Transport costs) which is for the individual or common good.

Next, you come to this monument, on the corner where a road goes off towards Pluckley. I've been past it many times, and always assumed it was some sort of war memorial, or marker for some notable being. Nope, it's all to do with Bethersden Marble and the monarchy. 

Bethersden has long been associated with the material known as Bethersden Marble which was quarried until the 19th century and used in many of Kent's churches and cathedrals. Large slabs of it also came into use  laid across the sticky Wealden clay to provide decent causeways for the pack horses laden with woollen goods that made Bethersden a household name for over 400 years. The name 'marble' is misleading because it is a limestone packed with fossilized gastropod shells which polish well, hence the use of the term.

Originally erected in 1935 to commemorate the 25th. year of the reign of King George V, it was updated and refurbished in 2012, to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Continuing along The Street, you find this is the original part of the village, which has grown considerably since World War II, and there are many old, and beautiful houses, both large and small, with the main part of The Street, culminating at the war memorial by St. Margaret's church.

The memorial, of course, is crafted from Bethersden marble, as is the south porch of the church. It's a typical Kentish parish church, a style I always find very attractive, with a large clock on the side of the tower facing the oldest part of the village.

Right, the interior: I'm going to leave the connection to Richard Lovelace to the end of this article, as I've got quite a lot of information about him to sift through. But meantime, we'll take a look at the varied and beautiful stained glass here. 

The east window seems a little too small for the size of the wall. It is by C E Kempe and Co and dates from 1914. It shows the Crucifixion with St Augustine and St Margaret.

To the north is the Frid Chapel - owned by the house of the same name whilst the south chapel is the Lovelace chapel built as a chantry chapel in 1460. Its east window has a fine 1960s window of Our Lady and Child with local farming scenes. It is signed by Wippell`s of London. The Frid family are still reflected locally in Frid Cottages (formerly a farmhouse), Frid Wood, and Frid Farm. 

The chapel belonged to the owners of Frid Manor; in that case it may have been built by the Darells of Calehill. In the late sixteenth century Frid came to the prominent Bethersden family of Gibbon one of whom, Lidia, married in 1608 Edward Chute of Old Surrenden. For the next century the North Chapel was the Chute Chapel, and Old Surrenden was known as Surrenden Chute to distinguish it from Surrenden Dering.

Lidia died in 1631, aged 46, and a small brass on the wall of the Frid Chapel commemorates her “the dearely belooved wife of Edward Clint of Bethersden Esq.” Edward was the grandson of Henry VIII’s standard bearer, Philip Chute, who acquired Old Surrenden in 1553. Edward Chute (or Choute) was in his time described as a “right worthy gentleman”; he took a prominent place in Kentish affairs, in 1635-6 was High Sheriff of the county and died in 1640.
The Bethersden Choutes became extinct with the death in 1721/2 of Sir George Choute, whom Charles II had made a Baronet in 1684. 

In the south aisle is the MacMichael window showing Christ surrounded by hop bines.  This commemorates Arthur William MacMichael M.A., 1885-1960 Canon Emeritus of Canterbury Cathedral, his wife Elizabeth Helen Royale (nee Newboult) M.B., B.S., 1899-1983, and their son Nicholas Hugh F.S.A., 1933-1985, Keeper of the Muniments of Westminster Abbey.

The Millennium window by the John Corley Studios - a wavy green tree beneath medieval fragments.  

Today, the village is best known for the rocking horse makers, Stevenson Brothers. They make all their horses (and other animals) by hand, and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is known to have bought several for her grandchildren etc.

You can't miss the works - just look up to the roof!

And so to the Lovelace Chantry - the small south chapel. Here's a couple of monuments from the chapel that require a little more investigation on my part.:

The Lovelaces are Bethersden’s most famous family; William Luvelaz is the earliest recorded member and occurs as witness to a Bethersden deed not later than 1247. The family prospered in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in industry and commerce in the City of London and by marriage.

In Elizabeth I's reign the head of the Bethersden branch was William Lovelace, Serjeant-at-Law, who bought the ancient site of the Grey Friars in Canterbury. A highly successful lawyer, Serjeant Lovelace (died 1576/7) was a well-known figure in Kent and to him was dedicated the earliest printed treatise on growing hops: A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden (1574). Sir William Lovelace, the heir of Serjeant Lovelace, lived partly in Canterbury and partly in Bethersden where he was buried in 1629. 

Sir William outlived his only son, also Sir William, who had been killed in Holland in 1627.
The younger Sir William’s eldest son was Richard Lovelace the Cavalier poet, courtier and soldier. At the end of April 1642 Lovelace, “reputed the handsomest man in England”, in company with Sir William Boteler of Teston near Maidstone, presented to Parliament the ‘Kentish Petition” for the restoration of the Anglican Liturgy, the maintenance of the bench of Bishops and ‘a good understanding between King and Parliament.’ As a similar petition by Sir Edward Dering (of Surrenden Dering) and the learned Sir Roger Twysden had three weeks before been declared seditious, and had then been burnt by the Common Hangman, Boteler was committed by the House of Commons to the Fleet Prison, and Lovelace to the Gatehouse Prison, Westminster. 

Lovelace petitioned the Commons for his liberty, and late in June 1642 was released on personal bail of £IO,000. Unable, without forfeiting his bail, to fight for Charles I, he instead supplied his brothers with money. Lovelace is known to have been at Bethersden at various dates between 1642 and 1647, when he was selling his property there piece by piece to Richard Hulse of Great Chart (see memorial above, to his daughter). In 1645 and 1646 he was in the Low Countries, serving apparently as a Colonel in the French army, and was wounded at Dunkirk in 1646. After his return to England, he was among the Royalists defeated and captured by Fairfax at Maidstone in 1648. Once again he was imprisoned in London; where he died, aged less than 40 in 1657. He is buried in the  churchyard of St Bride’s, Fleet Street. But you won’t find a memorial for him here.  The church was destroyed in the Fire of London, a few years after Lovelace’s burial. 

The heat had been so intense that it effaced many of the headstones, and the handful that survived were used as foundation slabs for the new building work, or placed in the churchyard. A few remain outside – perhaps one is Lovelace's

Whilst in prison, he wrote his most famous poem - "To Althea From Prison"

When Love with unconfinèd wings

Hovers within my Gates,

And my divine Althea brings

To whisper at the Grates;

When I lie tangled in her hair,

And fettered to her eye,

The Gods that wanton in the Air,

Know no such Liberty.

When flowing Cups run swiftly round

With no allaying Thames,

Our careless heads with Roses bound,

Our hearts with Loyal Flames;

When thirsty grief in Wine we steep,

When Healths and draughts go free,

Fishes that tipple in the Deep

Know no such Liberty.

When (like committed linnets) I

With shriller throat shall sing

The sweetness, Mercy, Majesty,

And glories of my King;

When I shall voice aloud how good

He is, how Great should be,

Enlargèd Winds, that curl the Flood,

Know no such Liberty.

Stone Walls do not a Prison make,

Nor Iron bars a Cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for an Hermitage.

If I have freedom in my Love,

And in my soul am free,

Angels alone that soar above,

Enjoy such Liberty.

During the Commonwealth the poet’s three surviving brothers - William having been killed at Carmarthen - Capt. Thomas, Col. Francis and Capt. Dudley Posthumus Lovelace went to America, and after the Restoration Francis Lovelace was Governor of New York 1669-72.
The new owner of Lovelace Place, Richard Hulse (or ‘Captain Hulse’ as the Parish Records call him), in his youth travelled extensively (and perhaps fought) on the Continent. He settled in Kent and married first Clara Toke of Godinton and secondly Mary daughter of Sir William Clerke of Wrotham, one of the sureties for Richard Lovelace in 1642 (Clerke was eventually killed, together with Sir William Boteler, at Cropredy Bridge in 1644.) 

Nearby Ashford's motto: 'With Stronger Faith' is taken from his 1649 poem 'To Lucasta, Going To the Warres'.

Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,

         That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind

         To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,

         The first foe in the field;

And with stronger faith embrace

         A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such

         As you too shall adore;

I could not love thee (Dear) so much,

         Lov’d I not Honour more.