Hadlow - History

History

Evidence of settlement in the Hadlow area dates back to the Stone Age implements, which have been found near the village. The Domesday entry for the village reads:-

Richard de Tonebridge holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Haslow. It was taxed at six sulings. The arable land is twelve carucates. In demesne there are three, and forty-seven villeins, with fifteen borderers, having fifteen carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and two mills of eleven shillings, and twelve fisheries of seven shillings and six-pence, and twelve acres of meadow, Wood for the pannage of sixty hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, and now, it was and is worth thirty pounds. Eddeva held it of king Edward.

During the Middle Ages the manor of Hadlow was owned by the Knights Hospitallers, then the Earls of Gloucester, followed by the Earls of Stafford, who were elevated to the Dukes of Buckingham in 1444. The third Duke of Buckingham was executed in 1521, and the manor went through a series of ownership changes. Sir Henry Guildford being granted the manor by Henry VIII, and the manor passed back to the Crown on his death, it was then granted to the Duke of Northumberland, and again returned to the Crown. in 1558, Henry Carey, the first Baron Hunsdon, received it from Elizabeth I, later passing to his two sons, one of whom Sir George Carey, owned the manor in 1586 The manor house was called Court Lodge at this time.

Early in the 17th century, it was sold to James Faircloth, a London Physician. He sold it to George Rivers, second son of Sir George Rivers of Chafford. A new manor house, Hadlow Court Lodge was built c.1635. The Rivers family also owned Fish Hall, Tonbridge, which was in the possession of the Fane family during the time of Henry VIII but was later bought by the Rivers. In 1657 the manor was the property of Sir Thomas Rivers. but it was sold, along with Fish Hall, during the reign of Charles II to Jeffrey Amherst. He sold the manor and Fish Hall to John France in 1700. John France had two daughters, Sarah (baptised 1700) and Elizabeth (baptised 1703). They shared the estate upon the death of their father, Elizabeth taking Fish Hall, and Sarah taking Hadlow manor. Sarah married Walter Barton. Their first son, John, was born deaf, blind and dumb. Their second son, Walter, inherited a large fortune from his uncle Richard May in 1763, on condition that he took the surname May. Walter May married Elizabeth Stanford of Strettit Place, East Peckham in 1775. He inherited Hadlow Court Lodge in 1786 and immediately set to work demolishing Hadlow Court Lodge and building Hadlow Castle.

His son Walter Barton May added a 153 feet (47 m) high folly in 1835. The folly was damaged in the Great Storm of 1987 and, despite being Grade 1 Listed and previously being included in the 1998 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund, it has yet to be repaired. The owner of the folly was issued with a Compulsory Purchase Order by Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council in July 2006.

The main village street is brick-paved and there are several old houses and two Tudor inns. The River Bourne flows through the parish, and formerly powered a watermill in the village (Bourne mill), which has been the home of Carr & Westley since they moved from London during the blitz and two in Golden Green (Goldhill Mill and Pierce Mill). A set of Hopper huts from North Frith Farm has been dismantled and re-erected at the Museum of Kent Life, Sandling.