Ightham

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Ightham
Image:dot4gb.svg
Statistics
Population:
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference: TQ595565
Administration
District: Tonbridge & Malling
Shire county: Kent
Region: South East England
Constituent country: England
Sovereign state: United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county: Kent
Historic county: Kent
Services
Police force: Kent Police
Fire and rescue: {{{Fire}}}
Ambulance: South East Coast
Post office and telephone
Post town: SEVENOAKS
Postal district: TN15
Dialling code: 01732 88
Politics
UK Parliament: Tonbridge & Malling
European Parliament: South East England

Ightham (pron. Ite-um) is a village in Kent, England, located approximately four miles east of Sevenoaks and six miles north of Tonbridge.

It is most famous for the nearby medieval manor of Ightham Mote (National Trust) although the village itself is of even greater antiquity. Ightham is not mentioned in Domesday Book but place name evidence implies the name is derived from the Saxon 'Ehtaham'. 'Ehta' is a Jutish personal name, while 'ham' means settlement.

The parish church dates from the 12th century and in 1336 Edward II granted a request for permission to hold an annual fair in the village.

Ightham was famous for growing Kentish cob nuts. These seem to have been cultivated first by a Mr James Usherwood who lived at Cob Tree Cottage, which was until recently the Cob Tree Inn. There are still a number of cob trees in and around the village, but the work of pruning them and picking the nuts is labour intensive and the industry has fallen into decline.

One of the great village characters was Benjamin Harrison, who lived from 1837 to 1921. He was a grocer by trade, but an archaeologist by inclination. He won international recognition as a pioneer in the subject. He found flints in the pre-glacial drift on the North Downs near Ash, which he contended were artefacts, thus vastly antedating the antiquity of man.

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The local government district of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, South East England
with its suburbs, villages, towns and parishes:

AddingtonAylesford • Beltring • BirlingBlue Bell HillBorough GreenBurhamDittonEast MallingEast Malling and LarkfieldEast PeckhamEcclesGolden GreenHadlowHildenboroughIghthamKings HillLarkfieldLenhamLeybourne • Mereworth • Offham • Platt • Plaxtol • Ryarsh • ShipbourneSnodlandStanstedTonbridgeTrottiscliffeWalderslade • Wateringbury • West Malling • West Peckham • WrothamWrotham Heath

The borough of Tonbridge and Malling
List of places in Kent


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