Hadlow

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Infobox England place Hadlow is a village in the Medway valley of Tonbridge, Kent; it is in the Tonbridge and Malling district. The Saxon name for the settlement was Haeselholte (in the Textus Roffensis). The Domesday Book records it as Haslow and in the Middle Ages it became Hadloe and then Hadlow.

The area has always been settled: Stone Age implements have bee found nearby. From the Middle Ages Hadlow was owned by the Knights Hospitallers until the Reformation. It came into the possession of the May family in 1647. In Victorian times Walter May built Hadlow Castle to which his son added a folly.

The church celebrated 1000 years in 1975, although it was rebuilt in the 12th century, with its tower dating from 1568. The main door of the church has the date 1636 on it. This is often misread as 1036 due to most of the upper part of the first 6 being missing. In the churchyard is a 19th century memorial to the drowning locally of 30 hop-pickers.

The main village street is brick-paved and there are several old houses and two Tudor inns.

Hadlow College is concerned with agricultural and horticultural training.

Reference

The Kent Village Book Alan Bignell (Countryside Books, 1986)

External links

• Further notes concerning Hadlow
  • note error: The Castle was built by Walter May, not his son, who only built the folly

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