Bishopsbourne


Bishopsbourne is a mostly rural and wooded village and civil parish in Kent, England. It has two short developed sections of streets at the foot of the Nailbourne valley south-east of Canterbury and centred from Dover. The settlement of Pett Bottom is included in the civil parish.

Geography

High-up Goresley Wood occupies about half of the parish, which rises gradually in the south-west. A Roman Britain collective burial mound is at a point in the north-centre of this small forested area.

Amenities

A pub trades in Bishopsbourne, The Mermaid, built in 1861 and is the sole business, sustained by tourism in the summer.
Its church, St Mary's is one of the Church of England, with 14th-century wall paintings. It is listed in the highest grading of the national system at Grade I.

History

In 1844 an excavation at Bourne Park in the civil parish revealed Iron Age remains. Mozart visited Bourne Park House in 1765 when it was owned by Sir Horatio Mann. Mann was a cricket patron and a number of top-class cricket matches were held at Bourne Paddock, a ground he built in the park. 10 buildings in the village are listed in the National Heritage List for England and a wall.
On 30 August 1940, a Spitfire piloted by Sgt J I Johnson was shot down and crashed near Bishopsbourne. He was killed in the crash.

Transport

Bishopsbourne had a station on the Elham Valley Railway until traffic stopped in 1947, the station building is now a private residence.

Notable residents

was the Rector from 1595 to 1600. Hooker played a significant part in the development of Anglicanism, championing a 'middle way' between Puritanism and Catholicism. His 8-volume work The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity was partly written in the Rectory at Bishopsbourne. After his death, he was buried in the chancel of the church, and a memorial to him was provided by William Cowper.
"Oswalds", the house of author Joseph Conrad, still stands and the village hall is called "Conrad Hall" in his honour. The author Jocelyn Brooke lived in a house called "Forge House", just opposite the village hall. Photographic pioneer Joseph Bancroft Reade was rector from 1863 until his death in 1870, and is buried at St Mary's.
A. E. Waite spent most of his later life in Bishopsbourne and was buried in the churchyard at Bishopsbourne in Kent.