Wittersham

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Village in Kent, England

title: "Wittersham" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["villages-in-kent", "villages-in-the-borough-of-ashford", "civil-parishes-in-ashford,-kent"] description: "Village in Kent, England" topic_path: "general/villages-in-kent" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittersham" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Village in Kent, England ::

::data[format=table title="infobox UK place"]

FieldValue
countryEngland
official_nameWittersham
static_imageStocks Mill.jpg
static_image_width280px
static_image_captionStocks Mill
coordinates
civil_parishWittersham
population1173
area_total_km214.66
population_ref(Civil Parish 2021)
shire_districtAshford
shire_countyKent
regionSouth East England
constituency_westminsterWeald of Kent
post_townTENTERDEN
postcode_districtTN30
postcode_areaTN
dial_code01797
os_grid_referenceTQ899274
websiteWittersham Parish Council
::

|country = England |official_name= Wittersham |static_image=Stocks Mill.jpg |static_image_width=280px |static_image_caption=Stocks Mill |coordinates = |civil_parish= Wittersham |population=1173 |area_total_km2=14.66 |population_ref=(Civil Parish 2021) |shire_district= Ashford |shire_county= Kent |region= South East England |constituency_westminster= Weald of Kent |post_town= TENTERDEN |postcode_district = TN30 |postcode_area= TN |dial_code= 01797 |os_grid_reference= TQ899274 |website= Wittersham Parish Council

Wittersham is a small village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It is part of the Isle of Oxney and is situated within 2 miles of the East Sussex border.

History

The Domesday Book of 1086 does not mention Wittersham, but it does assign the manor of Palstre to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Palstre was only one of four places in the Weald, apparently, that had a church. The Domesday Book entry reads:- "In Oxenai hundred, Osbern Paisforiere holds Palestrei, from the Bishop. It is taxed at three yokes. Arable land for two ploughs. In demesne, nine smallholders have half a plough. There is a church, 2 servants, 10 acre of meadow, 5 fisheries at twelve pence, woodland for the pannage of 10 hogs. In the time of Edward the Confessor, it was worth forty shillings, now sixty shillings. Edwy the priest held it for King Edward."

An early variation of the village name may be Wyghtresham.

Manor

Early in the 18th century, the manor came into the ownership of Thomas Brodnax or May of Godmersham Park, Kent. May changed his name to Knight after inheriting estates from the Knight family in 1738 and, on his death in 1781, Owley passed to his son Thomas. The younger Thomas Knight died childless in 1794, and Owley passed to his widow Catherine, later of White Friars, Canterbury. Mrs Knight was lady of the manor in 1799, when Hasted wrote. When she died in 1812, her husband's estates passed to his adopted son, Edward Austen Knight, brother of novelist Jane Austen, and owner of Chawton House in Hampshire.

Some time later, Edward Knight appears to have sold Owley to William Levett of Bodiam. When he died in 1842, Levett owned both the manors of Palstre (where he lived) and Owley. He left Paltre to his elder daughter Sabina and Owley to his younger daughter Emily. His Will devised to Emily "my freeholds, messuages, buildings, farm lands, containing altogether, by estimation, one hundred and seventy-two acres, more or less, situate lying and being in the Parish of Wittersham aforesaid, commonly called or known by the name of Owley Farm, with the apportionments thereto belonging". Emily Levett married Samuel Rutley, and the Rutley family continued to own the manor until the end of the 19th century.

At the turn of the 20th century, by which time holding the manor had ceased to be equivalent with ownership of most land and property, the Body family held Wittersham, Colonel Heyworth held Palstre, and Mrs Samuel Rutley owned Owley.

Amenities

The village has a Public House, The Swan, and a restored white weatherboarded post mill, Stocks Mill.

Wittersham housed a key listening post for downed pilots over the channel during the Second World War; all that is left now is a small concrete house and a few craters dotted around from attacks by the Luftwaffe and several doodlebug (V1) strikes.

Notable residents (past and present)

References

References

  1. [https://citypopulation.de/en/uk/southeastengland/admin/E07000105__ashford/ Key Statistics; Quick Statistics: Population Density] [[United Kingdom Census 2021]] ''[[Office for National Statistics]]''
  2. "Location of Weald of Kent".
  3. "AALT Page". Aalt.law.uh.edu.
  4. "The Brann Family at Wittersham". roger-williams.net.
  5. Debrett's Distinguished People of Today (2007) {{ISBN. 978-1-870520-90-4 {{Page needed. (December 2013)
  6. "George Digweed Sporting Agency | Clay Pigeon Shooting". Georgedigweed.com.
  7. (18 December 1996). "Obituary: Norman Hackforth". The Independent.
  8. (24 August 2009). "Sir Donald Sinden - People - Kent". Kent.greatbritishlife.co.uk.
  9. (6 March 2009). "Marc Sinden: former Mrs McCartney is 'the most misquoted lady I've ever met'". Liverpool Daily Post.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

villages-in-kentvillages-in-the-borough-of-ashfordcivil-parishes-in-ashford,-kent