Plaxtol

Plaxtol
Plaxtol Church, Kent
Plaxtol  Plaxtol shown within Kent
OS grid reference	TQ603535
District	Tonbridge and Malling
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Sevenoaks
Postcode district	TN15
Dialling code	01732
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
List of places UK England Kent

Coordinates: 51°15′33″N 0°17′41″E / 51.259220°N 0.294850°EPlaxtol is a small village of about 1,000 residents in Kent. The River Bourne flows through the parish, and formerly powered three watermills in Plaxtol - Winfield Mill (corn), Longmill (corn) and Roughway Paper Mill.

Although there is no longer a bakery in the village, there is a primary school, a Cromwellian church, a grocer, a butcher and a pub.

The name Plaxtol is rumoured to be derived from "Plax" meaning 'play' and "tol" meaning 'area'; there used to be a large green in the middle of the village where children would play after attending church on a Sunday.

The 1,000-acre Fairlawne Estate adjoining the village of Shipbourne was owned by Sir Henry Vane the Elder, in the 17th century, and was owned by the Cazalet family in the 19th century. Major Peter Cazalet was a trainer of horses owned by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother who was an occasional guest. The estate is currently owned by the Saudi Arabian horse-breeder Prince Khalid ibn Abdullah.^[1][2]

There is a Plaxtol cricket club, who play in the Kent County Village League against other local teams, as well as friendly matches on Sundays. The club has a thriving junior section as well as an active social scene.

Surrounding villages are Hadlow, Shipbourne, and Borough Green. The nearest towns are Tonbridge and Sevenoaks.

Yopps Green to the north is sometimes referred to as a hamlet in its own right is just by Boot Wood, on the way to Sheet Hill.

Notable residents

• Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley was born in Plaxtol in 1891. His father was a paper manufacturer in the village.^[3]
• The teacher and theatre director Richard Tomlinson lived in the village in the 1990s.^[4]
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges died in Plaxtol in 2007.^[5]

•The Weeks family are the longest surviving family still living in the village to the present day having had no less than five generations working on the land and the local paper mills.

•The Broad family have also frequented the area since the 1700s, most notably Lord Lawrence Broad the first (1712-1789) who is reported to have owned the largest Chicken farm in west Kent up until his death where his widow Lady Alison; sold the estate. Currently, Lady Natalie Broad, although no longer living in the village still visits occasionally and in 2004 financed the renovation of the local church clock tower.

References

1. "The billionaires", Fortune magazine, 10 September 1990. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
2. Britten, Nick. "'Little village bumpkins’ defeat Saudi prince in fight for Shipbourne footpath rights", The Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
3. Martin Pugh, ‘Monckton, Walter Turner, first Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (1891–1965)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 8 July 2013
4. Kate Dorney, ‘Tomlinson, (Philip) Richard Henry (1943–2006)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2010 accessed 8 July 2013
5. Lawrence Goldman, ‘Hodges, Sir Lewis Macdonald [Bob] (1918–2007)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2011 accessed 8 July 2013

External links

• Plaxtol village website