Eastling Manor House
- The oldest dwelling in the Village
The Carpenters' Arms
- the only retail outlet left
The village of Eastling is described by
Arthur Mee in "The King's England" as a
"hamlet of great delight in the high country of the
North Downs". It is situated towards the northern extremity
of the North Downs approximately halfway between Faversham
and Lenham, and the road network connecting them provided
routes between the radial arteries known as A2 and the A20
connecting London and the Channel Ports.
The parish has an area of some 3 square
miles, and stretches from New York Larches in the east,
and land adjoining Frith Farm in the west, and between North
Eastling Hill in the north, and Pettfield Hill Lane below
Huntingfield in the south. The major landowner is the Belmont
Estate, which farms about 1,000 acres within the confines
of the parish. The major industry within the area has traditionally
been agriculture, particularly sheep rearing followed by
fruit farming. Most of the cherry orchards dating from the
mid 19th Century have been grubbed out, and converted to
arable or other uses or replanted with the more modern miniature
varieties of trees.
Historically the present village stands
on the site of much older community. Its flint beds and
chalk would have been a source of raw materials in Neolithic
times, and artefacts have been discovered, indicating that
there was some form of human activity here then. A trade
route seems to have passed nearby, and historians have indicated
that a permanent settlement was first built in the area
in the 5th Century. By the time of the Norman Conquest it
was well established. The "Domesday Book" of 1086
shows that the village was in the possession of Odo, Bishop
of Bayeux, and that there were four manors within the parish
- Arnold's Oak, Divan Court, Huntingfield and North Eastling.
In the 16th Century King
Henry VIII appears to have been the driving force behind the
introduction of orchards into Kent. Being concerned about
the constant importation of produce from the Continent, he
decided upon a serious "grow your own" project based
at nearby Teynham. One of the end results of this policy was
that Eastling was for years a provider of many of what are
now considered to be traditional Kentish fruits:- Apples,
Cherries and Hops. Fruit growing was the major business of
the landowners, or tenant farmers in the vicinity. There were
a number of ancillary concerns - blacksmiths, livestock farmers
and retailers. Again Arthur Mee described the church spire
surrounded by cherry blossom in May as "standing like
a ship's mast rising from a sea of foam".
Since the end of World War II, most of
the orchards have been grubbed out. Many of the old tenant
farmers have gone, and the bulk of the land has reverted
to the Belmont Estate. This is, at present, mainly an arable
holding growing a variety of crops, largely cereal and oil-seed
rape. Much of its acreage is made up of ancient woodland,
which harbours an abundance of indigenous wild life, and
is also used to rear game birds for the local sporting guns.
The blacksmith and the retail outlets, which had survived
until the 1990's, have closed. The public house remains.
The present trend towards agricultural
mechanisation has greatly reduced the number of people who
work on the Estate. The population of the Parish appears
to have fluctuated considerably over the years. In 1569
it appears that there were 24 householders and 87 communicants.
This number recorded by the Census had increased to 481
by 1881. Of the 263 people who appear on the 2003 electoral
roll, probably less than 20 work in the parish. Of the 100
children in the village primary school, only 37 live within
the parish. Apart from the Estate, there are very few actual
employers who operate within the confines of the parish.
None could be considered to be a major employer of labour.
They can be listed
as follows:-
The Estate
Eastling Primary School
The Carpenters' Arms
Churchfields Farm
BT Exchange
The Water Pumping Station
Newnham Lane Business park
Belmont Timber Services
Eastling is largely a dormitory village,
from which people commute out to work and return to sleep.
