Headcorn BusinessAbout the Village
Location
Facilities
History
Transport
Churches
Headcorn Airfield
Headcorn today is one of the more attractive of Kent's large villages, with a main street flanked by several nice half-timbered houses, including the Old Cloth Hall to remind us that this is yet another of those Wealden communities that shared in the boom in woollens that followed the 14th century arrival of Flemish immigrants, and lasted until the industry moved north during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Location
The village is eight miles (13km) from the county town of Maidstone, on the A274 road to Tenterden.
Headcorn railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line between London and Dover. It was opened on 31 August 1842. The line here is the longest straight stretch of line in the United Kingdom.
Facilities
In addition to the Parish church, there are also churches and chapels for the Methodist, Baptist and Roman Catholic congregations
There is a small airfield located nearby, where there is an aviation museum and a parachuting centre. Headcorn Parachute Club is the only skydiving club in Kent and is home to national champions and world-record holders.
The new Community Centre uses the original school building next to the Parish Church.
In addition to the large village green and children’s play area, the village has its own tennis club and cricket ground.
An active Pre school is available and prepares your people for their entry to the local primary school which is conveniently located alongside the Library.
Scouts and Guides have their own meeting place
History
Headcorn has a varied and extensive history, which can be traced fairly distant and accurately into Kent's regional history.
A Neolithic polished flint axe was found in the stream near the present school in Headcorn, and a bronze palstave axehead dating from the Bronze Age reveal the presence of people in the area from early times. There is evidence from one site in the south of the parish for a probable farmstead that dates from the prehistoric Iron Age into the early Roman period. This was discovered by fieldwork undertaken by Neil Aldridge of the Kent Archaeological Society between 1993-95. Evidence for iron smelting and a small cemetery with Roman cremations were found. Various Roman coin finds that have been uncovered in the region over a number of years, with over thirty finds located at just one site.
Historians have tended to cite that Headcorn was most likely a "homestead" site from as early as 2500BC to the later Roman period.
As far as written history is concerned, there are actually no exact references to the village in the Domesday Book of 1086. However experts believe that the references to a church at Hedekaruna is in fact at the site of present day Headcorn.
From the mid 1200s onwards the development of Headcorn is very much shaped by the church and religious history, with the very first of the dozen houses of the religious movement "The Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives" being established at Moatenden Priory in Headcorn in 1244. In fact the famous "Headcorn Oak" which stands at the south door of the village parish was and remains a centre piece to the village landscape and history. Legend has it that the tree is actually close to 1200 years old, although it was damaged quite extensively in a fire in 1989.
The 1986 list of buildings of architectural or historic interest has 88 entries for Headcorn, including the parish church (Grade I), the former old vicarage (II*) renamed Headcorn Manor about 1960, the Cloth Hall (II*) and Shakespeare House (II). Foreman’s original store with its overhang, preserved as part of the Foreman’s Centre, marks the site of the old National School, which was in existence by 1846 and replaced in 1870 by the building in Parsonage Meadow, since known as the Church School and now Longmeadow Hall. This was used only briefly as a National School, because a Board School (now part of the Headcorn Primary School) was opened in King’s Road in 1873.
Transport
Before railways, the George Inn in Borough High Street was the hub of coach services to Kent, Surrey and Sussex. At 7am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the Tenterden Coach set out on a 10 hour journey of 55 ¼ miles, passing through Headcorn.
By 1838, the Tally Ho Coach had shortened the journey time, leaving London at 1pm and reaching Headcorn at 8.15pm and Tenterden at 9.30pm.
For 130 years (until 1915) Messrs R and J Bennett ran a horse bus service between Tentrden, Headcorn and Maidstone. An advertisement of 1750, illustrates R Hammond’s Tenterden, Staplehurst, Biddenden, Headcorn and Town Sutton stage wagon, with a team of eight horses. It went to London and back once a week, taking two days each way.
The current train service from Headcorn to London, takes about 1 hour.
On the 31 October 1904, the Headcorn, Sutton Valence and Maidstone Motor Omnibus Co Ltd opened a service using steam vehicles. This was replaced about 1912 by Reliance Motor Services. Maidstone and District Motor Services was also operating on the route by 1914 and took over Reliance two years later. Nowadays the main operator is Arriva.
The South Eastern Railway was opened in stages, reaching Tonbridge in May 1842, Headcorn in August and Ashford in December. From 1905 to 1954 the Kent and East Sussex Railway operated between Robertsbridge and Headcorn via Tenterden. A proposed extension to Maidstone was never built.
In 1940, following the evacuation from Dunkirk, many thousands of British and allied troops received their first meal in England at Headcorn Station. Local volunteers assisted the Royal Army Service Corps in providing refreshments. 100 trains per day were halted, allowing only eight minutes for each.
The Churches
The chancel of the present parish church, is believed to mark the site of the nave of its 11th century counterpart and the Lady Chapel that of the 12th century south isle. The 13th century saw the construction of a new nave, about half the length of the present one and possibly also a cell on the site of the vicar’s vestry, which dates from the early 15th century. The nave was completed in the 14th century and the present south isle in the early 15th. Late in the same century, the tower and south porch were built.
Kent’s Chantry was founded in the Lady Chapel in 1466, under licence from King Edward IV. In the south isle, just outside the Lady Chapel and in the south wall, is an altar-tomb bearing the Culpeper arms, which also figure over the west door. The font dates from about 1450.
The Baptist community in Headcorn dates from around 1675, the first chapel having been at Bounty Farm in Love Lane. The present building in Station Road, was opened in 1819 and renovated and extended in 1978, following the addition of a hall in 1971.
The exact date of the first Methodist Society in Headcorn is not certain, but it built its first chapel for worship separate from the parish church in 1805. It was replaced by a second in 1854. The present building cost £800 when it was put up in 1867. Headcorn’s Roman Catholics have had their own building since 1968, when the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury was erected in Station Road. The cedar building of 1968 has been replaced by a brick one, dedicated by Bishop John Jukes on 25 June 1990.
Headcorn Airfield
Just outside the village, at Lashenden, is an airfield of considerable importance during World War Two, since it was used as a landing ground for both Canadian and American aircraft.
It reverted to private ownership when the war was over and in 1972 and air warfare museum was opened there. The airfield is still used for private flying, parachute jump training, and by air cadets of 500 Squadron, which carries on the tradition begun by the famous 500 (County of Kent) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force of 1930.
Also the site of the Air Warfare Museum or Lashenden Air Museum. The Museum houses a number of genuine WWII aircraft relics and is a major attraction for both local residents and tourists alike