Eynsford

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude=51.367680
longitude= 0.211250
official_name= Eynsford
population = 1,800 (2005) [cite web | title = 2005 Ward Level Population Estimates | publisher = Kent County Council | url = http://www.kent.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/E503169D-C06B-498F-BD0A-678EE22B4D37/6841/sae108.pdf |month=September | year=2006| accessdate = 2007-08-20 |format=PDF]
shire_district= Sevenoaks
shire_county = Kent
region= South East England
constituency_westminster=
post_town= Dartford
postcode_area= DA
postcode_district= DA4
dial_code= 01322
os_grid_reference= TQ535655

Eynsford (pronounced "Ainsford") is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located on the River Darent, south of Dartford in Kent.

Eynsford is first mentioned in writing in 864, as Egenes homme. The derivation is unclear, but one possibility is that it represents ‘Ægen’s river-meadow’, from the Old English hamm ‘river-meadow, enclosure’. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/places/names/index.shtml#a "Kent place names"] Spelling of placenames in Kent from BBC website.] In 1801 the village had the highest population in the Dartford area at 841 persons.

The village

In the centre of the village, which is six miles (10km) south of Dartford, is a ford over the river, with a picturesque hump-back bridge alongside. There are many old buildings including the 16th century "Plough Inn" and the "Old Mill". The church is dedicated to St Martin. In about 1163, Thomas Becket is reputed to have excommunicated William de Eynsford, the owner of Eynsford castle. The excommunication was cancelled by King Henry II and the issue became part of the quarrel that led to Becket's murder in 1170.

John Wesley is thought to have preached here: he was a friend of the then vicar of Shoreham, the next village along the valley. The Wesley Stone by the bridge commemorates the spot.

The railway station is situated on the Swanley to Sevenoaks railway line, opened on 2 June 1862.

It was near Eynsford village (Austin Lodge) that Percy Pilcher constructed and flew successful lightweight gliders, but tragically in 1899 he was killed minutes before he was able to demonstrate what might have been the world's first powered flying machine.

Another famous resident was Arthur Mee who built and lived in Eynsford Hill, a grand house overlooking the village. Mee edited both the weekly Children's Newspaper and the Children's Encyclopaedia, in which the design and construction of Eynsford Hill was chronicled. Whether the name of Eliza Doolittle's husband Freddy Eynsford-Hill in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is connected to the house is a matter of conjecture.

The village was scandalized in the 1920s by the antics of composers E.J. Moeran and Peter Warlock who rented a house there; Warlock's habit of riding his motorbike round the village naked was matched by his housemate's singing sea shanties on a Sunday morning to try and drown out the congregation in the Baptist chapel next door. Although the time spent in Eynsford was productive for Warlock, Moeran never really recovered.

Graham Sutherland lived for many years in the 17th century Willow Cottage opposite the old village school.

Within the village are three impressive sites: "Eynsford Castle", "Lullingstone Castle" and the Roman villa.

Eynsford Castle

(coord|51|22|14|N|0|12|48|E|)

Dating from 1088, Eynsford Castle is one of the most complete Norman castles in England. Ransacked in the 14th Century it fell into decay and is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public. For years it was used as dog kennels by the Hart-Dyke family of nearby Lullingstone Castle.

Lullingstone Castle

Not a true castle, but a manor house, built in the 15th century and substantially rebuilt in the 18th Century by Sir Percyvall Hart in honour of Queen Anne, who often stayed there. In 1875 Sir William Hart-Dyke and two of his friends framed the rules of lawn tennis at Lullingstone and first played the game there, using a ladder supported on two barrels for a net. It was here that the silk farm was situated which supplied Queen Elizabeth II with silk for her wedding dress, though by the time the Lullingstone Silk Farm provided Lady Diana Spencer with silk for hers, it had moved to Dorset.

In 2004 the current heir to the estate, Tom Hart Dyke, created the World Garden of Plants in the grounds from a design made in 2000 while he was held captive by rebels in Colombia. [cite news
title = Jungle captive's garden designs
publisher = BBC News
date = 2004-10-12
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3736646.stm
accessdate = 2006-10-04] . The two-acre walled garden is laid out like a map of the world, [ [http://www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk/ World Garden Aerial Views] ] containing some 10 000 species planted to create the shapes of their areas of origin. Both house and garden are open to the public, and the garden in 2005 won the British Guild of Travel Writers 'Best UK Tourism Project' award. [cite news
title = Award for jungle captive's garden
publisher = BBC News
date = 2005-11-14
url = http://212.58.226.50/1/hi/england/kent/4435042.stm
accessdate = 2006-10-04]

Also in the grounds is the parish church of Saint Botolph, recently restored and containing some of the oldest stained glass in England.

Lullingstone Roman Villa

Lullingstone Roman villa was discovered in 1939, and contains some of the finest excavated remains of a Roman villa in Britain, including a Romano-Christian chapel.

Awards

2006 – Kent Village of the Year.

2008 - [http://www.foxnhounds.co.uk The Fox and Hounds Public House] wins the prestigious Destination Pub of the year award

Eynsford on television

"20 Miles from Piccadilly Circus" consisted of six half-hour episodes about various aspects of life in the village, including footage of one of its inhabitants getting caught by the police for speeding. The show was released in 1994 and initially aired only in the Carlton Television region, although the first three episodes were later repeated on Channel 4.

"Save Lullingstone Castle" was a six-part series by Keo Films, aired between April 4 and May 9 2006, on BBC2. It followed the fortunes of Tom Hart Dyke as he developed the World Map of Plants and attempted to thereby turn the fortunes of the estate. A second series, "Return to Lullingstone Castle" aired between March 19 and April 23 2007.

In the movie "Love Actually", the vicar at Eynsford church at the time played the vicar that married Juliet and Peter.

Eynsford Baptist Church

In 1775, A Baptist Preacher, Mr. J. Morris opened his house in Eynsford for the preaching of the Gospel. This was the beginning of a Baptist Community, which grew despite opposition from the Established Church. In 1802, it is recorded in the history of the Church that when Mr. Rogers came to be Pastor "great difficulty was experienced in obtaining lodgings for the young Minister, that at one time the prejudice against a Baptist Minister was so strong that the people with whom he lodged had notice to quit their house unless he left, and it was with the greatest difficulty he secured a house when he married."

The first building was completed in 1806, giving way to the present enlarged building in 1906.The work has continued to flourish, and the Church still supports its own full time Minister, even in the years where the local Established Church now has a Minister who is shared by three Parishes.

References

* [http://www.lullingstonecastle.co.uk/ Lullingstone Castle]
*"Eynsford – A Story Through The Ages", by W.I. Curnow. First published by the Eynsford Village Society in 1953.

Further reading

Various publications are available from the [http://www.felhs.org.uk/ Farningham & Eynsford Local History Society] .

External links

* [http://www.activeoutdoors.info/village Farningham and Eynsford Community Website]
* [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConProperty.184 Eynsford Castle]
* [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConProperty.195 Lullingstone Roman Villa]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040404045303/http://www.riversideplayers.co.uk/Eynshist.htm History of Eynsford]
* [http://pages.ukonline.co.uk/eynsfordbaptist/index.htm Eynsford Baptist Church]