HORSMONDEN

 The village was once a thriving part of the Wealden ironworking industry, and its furnace Pond is one of the largest in Kent.

John Broune(Browne) who died in 1641 owned the forge and foundry here, and he and his 200 workers produced guns for the Army and Navy. During the English Civil War , he provided weapons for both sides in the conflict, some of which were used at the Battle of Yalding Town Bridge in 1643.

In 1625, 500 guns were made here for British ships after the outbreak of the Spanish War. In 1638 King Charles I visited the foundry to watch a cannon being cast. It was a 42 inch long, bronze four-pounder, and is now preserved in the Tower of London.
The foundry closed in 1685 when the manufacture of iron moved to the midlands with their coal fired plants.

A former resident of Horsmonden, Simon Willard, born in the village in 1605, grew up to be Major Willard, the founder of the town of Concorde in Massachusetts. He is commemorated with a framed copy of the page of the register recording his baptism, and a stained glass window in the local church of St Margaret.

Horsmonden is claimed to be the first place that the famous hop variety 'Fuggles' was grown. It was found in the garden of one George Stace, in 1861. The strain was developed commercially by Richard Fuggle of Fowle Hall, Brenchley in 1875.

In 1944 a flying bomb struck just north of the church, which destroyed much of the glass. The east and west windows were redesigned and installed in 1946 and 1948.

The church of St Margaret's lies about 3 miles to the south of the village on the Goudhurst road, and is very secluded and quiet, and surrounded by oast houses. 

The list of rectors in the church starts from 1293, but it was one Henry de Grofhurst, rector from 1311 until his death in 1361, who was really responsible for the building of St Margaret’s.It was probably the centre of the village until the iron foundry was built in the 1500's. 

On the south wall is a memorial bust to an extraordinary inventor, John Read. This nineteenth century genius invented the round oast-house, the stomach pump and a tobacco enema! Nearby is an early eighteenth century `spider` chandelier. A huge brass is situated in the centre of the chancel (with a rubbing nearby). This is to Henry Grofhurst and dates from the mid fourteenth century. 

An unusual feature of the Church of St Margaret, Horsmonden is the evidence in the south wall of the former existence of two rood staircases. Medieval churches normally had just one rood screen, an ornate partition of open tracery surmounted by a rood loft with a sculpture of the Crucifixion (rood was the Saxon word for ‘cross’). The rood screen was typically sited between the nave and chancel, where it formed a visual separation between the clergy and the laity. At the time of the Reformation, rood screens were removed and destroyed under injunctions of Edward VI in 1547. Some were restored during the reign of the catholic Queen Mary, but were removed again under Elizabeth I, and there are no medieval examples remaining in England.

The photographs show one of the sets of stairs to a rood loft. The other stairs, to the east, were blocked up, probably because of subsidence in the chancel arch pier. Rood stairs gave access to the rood loft for lighting candles to illuminate the Rood.

The cross memorial shown in this to one of the Smith-Marriotts, whose family held the incumbency at St Margaret’s for over 150 years in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A few more pictures of the church...............

Beautiful tiling surrounds the sanctuary.

There are remnants of fine carving around the sedilla.

The organ may not be huge, but it is attractive.

Finally......................the view from behind the church

It's quite a pleasant ride from the church along the narrow country lanes to the actual village centre, and when you get there, it doesn't disappoint. It centres around a nicely tended village green, framed on one side by the Gun & Spitroast Inn.

The Gun and Spitroast is renowned for its famous Spitroast meals. The original name was The Gun, first licensed in the 1570's and licensed as a forge in 1618. The Heath, now the village centre, is some 2 miles from the church, and grew up as a result of the C16/C17 iron industry, especially that belonging to the Brown family, Royal Gunfounders, their mill pond at Shirrenden surviving half a mile to the north-east.

The village green knoiwn as The Heath, is across the road.  There are a couple of very informative boards, and a metal and stone sculpture, showing the layout of the parish of Horsmonden.

All you need to know about the listed buildings in the village

Very interesting board about the now long-gone railway, The Hop-Pickers Line', that used to run through this part of the county.