BRIDGE VILLAGE

The village of Bridge, if you have time and inclination, is worth
further study. A small distance to the south of the church is the house
built by Sir Arnold Braems of which only the wing remains of the original
structure; recently drawings of the original house were discovered in
Amsterdam museum and after Chilham Castle it was the largest country
house in East Kent in the 17th century and had a large deer park and
aviary. At a later date it belonged to the Reverend Edward Taylor of
Bifrons who was a friend of Geroge IV and Jane Austen. Much of the house
is built with hand—made Dutch brick which was brought over from Holland
and landed at Sandwich. A little further up the road from the church
towards Dover lies "Englands Old Hole" which is reputed to be the place
where the seventh Roman legion captured and slew the Britons in their
last attempt to stem off the Roman invasion. In 1829 when excavations
were made, a number of Roman arms and skulls were discovered at a depth
of five feet. The circular earthwork of the redoult still remains in
very good preservation after a lapse of more than 1900 years. The
village main street has not changed a great deal since the middle of the
19th century. There is a fine example of a Tudor cottage in the middle
and the White Horse public house is the scene of the famous brawl of
Christopher Applegate, a friend of Christoper Marlowe who became famous
in the English army in the early 16th century. This incident is mentioned
in the Canterbury Court records of 1598. Further up the street at the
post office is the place where Field Marshal Lord Kitchener sent his first
despatches at the beginning of the First hbrld War. A little further up
the road is Dering Road named after Colonel Dering who raised the Duke

of York's own Regiment in 179&. He subsequently bought Howletts, a fine
palladian villa between Bridge and Littlebourne which was sold in 1816 to
George Gipps a founder of the Canterbury Bank. In Union Road is an old
workhouse founded in 1835 now maintained by the Kent County Council as

an old age home. In 1793 Zechariah Cozens wrote: "the parish of Bridge
is but small and the soil in general is but chalky and barren, producing
a several places heath and coppice wood, though throughout the whole
extent of the parish there is a beautiful variety of hill and dale.

From the woods around Bridge we have a most delightful view of the Vales
which are adorned with many gentleman's seats" and in 1815 Mr. Haddy James
Assistant Surgeon to the lst Life Guards returning from the Battle of
Waterloo wrote that "The neatness of the farms and the mode of

agriculture much impressed him between Dover and Canterbury".

The Dover Road Charles H. Harper
Canterbury under the Angevin Kings.

Kent Marcus Crouch

History of Kent 1793 Zechariah Cozens
Topographical Survey of Kent 1792 Hasted
England Arthur Mee 1936
Surgeon James Journal 1815

Chapman & Hall 1885
Dr.W.Urry Cathedral Archivist

Joan Vasittart

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