Tiny little village, just about 1,000 residents, lying on the Greensand Ridge, not too far from Charing. The name is derived from the Saxon Eegheard’s ton. Evidence of a Second Century Roman burial site with pottery sherds was discovered at Coldharbour Farm to the West of the village. However, the oldest structure must be the round barrow in the field to the east of the village, which is a scheduled Ancient Monument, and thought to be of Bronze Age origin (2500-701BC). However, even older archaeological finds include a Neolitthic (4000- 2201 BC) adze near Field Mill to the north of the village, a Neolithic axe at Munday Bois to the south of the village and a Late Mesolithic (10,000- 4001BC) pick at Kingsland Farm, also to the south. Being on the Ridge, gives it wonderful views over the surrounding countryside.
The village clusters around the grade I listed church of St. James, which has the oldest 36-branch chandelier in the world
The church is quite impressive, and stands in a well-kept, pretty churchyard next to the village green.
The entrance is approached through an arcade of pollarded trees, that form an archway when in full leaf
The tomb above, and the rest of the Darell Monuments (below), were brought to St. James, when their original house, the church of St. Mary in Little Chart was hit by a doodlebug in 1944 and destroyed. The Monuments have been restored as much as possible. The tomb is that of Sir John Darell (1386-1509 - they are the dates given on the script, but really - 123?) Actually, reading further, it should have been died 1438, which would have made him 52, a far more reasonable age!
I'd never heard of him before finding this tomb, but it seems he was an extremely important person, who held high offices, both secular and religious.
I'm not going to put all the details here, because there's so much, it will fill up all of my pages! However, if you do want to know more, there's a full biography of him here
There is a house which used to be the village bakery, and which still bears the sign on the wall.
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