Plaxtol

Plaxtol is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The village is located around 5 miles (8 km) north of Tonbridge and the same distance east of Sevenoaks. In the 2011 Census, the parish had a population of 1,117.

Plaxtol

Plaxtol Parish Church
Plaxtol
Location within Kent
Population1,117 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceTQ603535
Civil parish
  • Plaxtol
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSEVENOAKS
Postcode districtTN15
Dialling code01732
PoliceKent
FireKent
AmbulanceSouth East Coast
UK Parliament

The name Plaxtol is believed to be derived from Old English words meaning "play area";[2] there used to be a large green in the middle of the village where children would play after attending church on a Sunday.

The River Bourne flows through the parish, and formerly powered three watermills in Plaxtol – Winfield Mill (corn), Longmill (corn) and Roughway Paper Mill. The village has a primary school, a Cromwellian church, a grocer, a florist and a pub; it also once had a bakery & a butcher.

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.[3][4]

There is a cricket club in Plaxtol, 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.

Notable residents
  • Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley was born in Plaxtol in 1891. His father was a paper manufacturer in the village.[5]
  • The teacher and theatre director Richard Tomlinson lived in the village in the 1990s.[6]
  • Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges died in Plaxtol in 2007.[7]
  • 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 Attwood, although no longer living in the village still visits occasionally and in 2004 financed the renovation of the local church clock tower.

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  2. Mills, A. D. (2011). A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1996-0908-6.
  3. "The billionaires" Archived 2013-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, Fortune magazine, 10 September 1990. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  4. Britten, Nick. "'Little village bumpkins’ defeat Saudi prince in fight for Shipbourne footpath rights", The Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  5. 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
  6. Kate Dorney, ‘Tomlinson, (Philip) Richard Henry (1943–2006)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2010 accessed 8 July 2013
  7. Lawrence Goldman, ‘Hodges, Sir Lewis Macdonald [Bob] (1918–2007)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2011 accessed 8 July 2013
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