Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CRANBROOK

CRANBROOK, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred in Kent. The town stands in the Weald, on the river Crane, 5 miles S by W of Staplehurst r. station, and 14 S by E of Maidstone; consists chiefly of one long street; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place; and has a post office‡ under Staplehurst, a banking office, two chief inns, a market-house, a parish church, five dissenting chapels, a free grammar-school, and a workhouse. The church is chiefly decorated and perpendicular English; has a western square embattled tower; was partly rebuilt in 1722; and contains monuments of the Robertses of Glastonbury and the Bakers of Sissinghurst. The grammar school was founded, in 1574, by-Sir Simon Lynch; and has £135 from endowment. Other charities have £91. Markets are held on Wednesdays; and fairs on 30 May and 29 Sep. A broad-cloth manufactory was introduced in the time of Edward III.; flourished for ages so greatly as to give its masters and patrons high influence in county affairs; ceased about the beginning of the present century; and has left traces of itself in picturesque remains of old factories. The parish includes also the hamlet of Milkhouse-street. Acres, 9, 862. Real property, £17, 025. Pop., 4, 128. Houses, 800. The surface presents all the characteristics of the Weald. Sissinghurst House was a stately mansion, of the time of Edward VI., belonging to the Bakers; became, toward the end of last century, a place of confinement for French prisoners; and now survives only in some picturesque fragments. There are mineral springs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £163.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The vicarage of Sissinghurst is a separate benefice. Sir R. Baker, the author of the "English Chronicle, " and Huntingdon the S. S. were natives. -The sub-district comprises the parishes of Cranbrook, Frittenden, and Benenden. Acres, 19, 688. Pop., 6, 724. Houses, 1, 321. -The district comprehends also the sub-district of Hawkhurst, containing the parishes of Hawkhurst, Goudhurst, and Sandhurst. Acres, 40, 249. Poor-rates, in 1862, £8, 068. Pop. in 1841, 13, 163; in 1861, 13, 412. Houses, 2, 606. Marriages, in 1860, 81; births,-425, -of which 32 were illegitimate; deaths, 207, -of which 76 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 892; births, 4, 388; deaths, 2, 242. The places of worship in 1851 were 8 of the Church of England, with 4, 752 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 1, 056 s.; 3 of Baptists, with 608 s.; 5 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 654 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 40 s.; 1 of Bible Christians, with 40 s.; and 3 undefined, with 287 s. The schools were 14 public day schools, with 999 scholars; 26 private day schools, with 656 s.; and 18 Sunday schools, with 1, 642 s. The hundred is in the lathe of Scray; and contains Cranbrook and Frittenden parishes, and parts of Gondhurst and Staplehurst. Acres, 13, 180. Pop., 4, 928. Houses, 909.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Cranbrook AP/CP       Cranbrook Hundred       Cranbrook SubD       Cranbrook RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Cranbrook

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