Cranbrook, Kent

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Cranbrook
Cranbrook, Kent (Kent)
Cranbrook, Kent

Cranbrook shown within Kent
OS grid reference TQ775365
District Tunbridge Wells
Shire county Kent
Region South East
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town CRANBROOK
Postcode district TN17
Dialling code 01580
Police Kent
Fire Kent
Ambulance South East Coast
European Parliament South East England
UK Parliament Maidstone and The Weald
List of places: UK • England • Kent

Coordinates: 51°06′03″N 0°32′04″E / 51.1007, 0.5345

For other places with the same name, see Cranbrook (disambiguation).

Cranbrook is an old market town in the Tunbridge Wells borough of Kent in South East England. It is also the smallest town in Kent. It is on the Maidstone to Hastings road and five miles north of Hawkhurst. The smaller settlements of Swattenden, Colliers Green and Hartley lie within the parish.

Contents

[edit] Origin of Name

The place name Cranbrook derives from Old English cran broc, meaning Crane Marsh – marshy ground frequented by cranes (although more probably herons). The place name has evolved over the centuries from Cranebroca (c1100), by 1226 it is recorded as Cranebroc, then Cranebrok by 1610 the name had become Cranbrooke, which evolved into the current spelling.[1][2]

[edit] History

In medieval times it was a centre of the Wealden cloth industry; and iron-making was also carried on at Bedgebury. The church here, dedicated to St Dunstan, is often called the Cathedral of the Weald; its 74 feet-high tower, completed in 1425, has a wooden figure of Father Time and his scythe on its south face.

[edit] Mills

Union mill.
Union mill.

Cranbrook had a number of watermills and windmills over the centuries. There were about seventeen watermills around Cranbrook, all on tributaries of the River Beult.

There were four windmills in Cranbrook over the centuries, one of which survives today.

Windmill Hill.

This mill was marked on E Bowen's map of Kent, 1736 and also on Andrews, Drury and Herbert's map of Kent, 1769. It is thought that the mill was a smock mill, and that it was moved to Sissinghurst circa 1814. It stood ½ mile (400m) west north west of the church.[3]

Saint's Hill.

This mill was marked on Andrews, Drury and Herbert's Map of Kent, 1769. It stood 1 mile 5 furlongs (2.6 km) north east of the church.[3]

Cranbrook Common.

This was a smock mill with common sails[4] and winded[5] by hand. It was marked on the 1858-72 Ordnance Survey map. The mill was last worked in 1876, and was demolished on 9 August 1902. The mill stood 1¾ miles (2.8 km) north north east of the church.[3]

Union Mill.

One of the surviving Kent windmills: the Union Mill was built for Henry Dobell in 1814. Dobell went bankrupt in 1819 and run by a union of creditors until 1832. The Russell family ran it for the next 128 years, when it was sold to Kent County Council, who have restored it, and it's kept in working order to this day. The mill stands ¼ mile (400m) south east of the church.[3]

[edit] About Cranbrook

1906 watercolour of a cottage in Cranbrook
1906 watercolour of a cottage in Cranbrook

Cranbrook has around 7,000 residents. It is sited near the junction of the A262 (Lamberhurst – Biddenden) and the A229 (Rochester – Hawkhurst). The nearest railway station is Staplehurst, 5 miles to the north. The Cranbrook railway station was closed in 1961. Cranbrook is the smallest town in Kent[citation needed].

[edit] Education

There are two secondary schools in Cranbrook: Angley School (comprehensive, 11-18) and Cranbrook School, Kent (grammar, 13-18). Both are co-educational.

There is also a primary school in Cranbrook, known simply as Cranbrook Primary. The primary school was originally located in an old manor house, which was once visited by Queen Elizabeth I. After the original building burnt down, the school moved to a site to the north of the Church Yard and Jockey Lane. The primary school remained on this site for around a century, before growth of the town's population and the increasingly unmanageable collection of temporary classrooms and 1960's prefabs forced a move in 1985 to new brand new premises at the end of Carriers Road, where the school remains to this day. The building of the new school finally drew all the pupils together under one roof, but sadly further growth in the town's population forced the new school to buy in temporary classrooms to supplement the purpose-built ones barely three years after its opening. Almost all of the buildings of the old school were knocked down to make way for a development of sheltered accommodation for old people. The only building to resist the bulldozer was the south wing which had contained the three classrooms of infant school (the first three years). This building was internally gutted and converted to a surgery for general practice. A family planning clinic was built to the west of it on the site of Mr Leech's classroom. Sadly the old school's collection of formalin-pickled amphibians, reptiles and soft bodied sea creatures seemed to disappear (presumably it was thrown away) when the school moved to its new premises.

[edit] Entertainment

The main place for entertainment in Cranbrook is the Queens Hall Theatre. It is often host to many theatre groups including the Cambridge Footlights and the local dramatic society CODS. Each year a pantomime is performed by the Showtimers pantomime group. The theatre is part of Cranbrook School and is one that plays a very central role to the entertainment in Cranbrook.

Cranbrook is also the home of Cranbrook Town Band, which is a British style brass band. The band performs regular concerts in the Queens hall, St Dunstans church and around Kent. The history of the band goes back to the 1920s. The band rehearses on at 7.45pm on Thursday evenings at Angley school.

[edit] Art

A group of artists who called themselves "The Cranbrook Colony" were located here during the 1800s.

[edit] Other

There is a popular sports centre: the Weald Sports Centre on the northern side of the A229 next to Angley School. It has excellent indoor and outdoor facilities including four tennis courts, an indoor sports hall, a swimming pool and a dance studio.

St. Dunstan's Church (known as The Cathedral in the Weald) contains the prototype for the clock of Big Ben in London. Over 600 people attend St. Dunstan's Christingle Services on Christmas Eve; requiring the church to provide two services the same to enable everyone to come along.

The comedian Harry Hill was educated in the town, and comedian and writer Chris Langham also lives there.

[edit] Quote

“ Cranbrook is a village giving the impression of trying to remember what once made it important ”

—H.E. Bates, who knew Cranbrook well, The Darling Buds of May

[edit] Sources

  • The Place Names of Kent, Judith Glover.
  • The Origin of English Place Names, P.H.Reaney.
  • The Dictionary of British Place Names
  • Dictionary of English Place Names, A.D.Mills.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Place Names of Kent, Judith Glover ISBN 0905270 614
  2. ^ The Origin of English Place Names, P.H.Reaney ISBN 0710020104
  3. ^ a b c d Coles Finch, William (1933). Watermills and Windmills. London: C W Daniel Company, p188-91. 
  4. ^ Cloth sails spread on a lattice framework
  5. ^ Turned to face the wind

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Towns and villages in the Tunbridge Wells district of Kent, England
List of places in Kent
Languages