The Bell Tower
The tower contains a ring of 6 bells, given to the church by the Gipps family
about 100 years ago. The Gipps lived at Howletts during the 19th century
and were the largest landowners in Bekesbourne. They also gave the
communion plate in the 1840s and provided most of the money for the
church building restoration in the 1880s.
Nowadays the bells are rung on some Sundays and at festivals. The team
practises on Monday evenings.
The Sports Club
The club dates from the 1920s. Recently they have enlarged and refurbished
their pavilion on the recreation ground. They have football in winter and
cricket in the summer season.
3a The Bridge Club
3b The Short Mat Bowls Club
These are two of the activities which take place regularly in the Village Hall
at the junction of Station Road and Station Approach.
The Old Palace
ln the early 1540s Archbishop Thomas Cranmer acquired at Bekesbourne an
outstation of the Cathedral Priory, recently dissolved by Henry V111. He built
himself a vast palace on the site. It is said that Cranmer wrote much of the
B00/c of Common Prayer while living here. Most of the palace was pulled
down 100 years later in the time of the Commonwealth. What was left, the u» “-
gatehouse, porter’s lodge, domestic offices and stable range, was converted
into a “gentleman’s residence”.
It is now two private houses.
Cobham Court
Cobham Court is the private housejust below the churchyard. It is of
medieval origin and was one of the old manor houses of the village. Its name
derives from the fact that the manor was once owned by the Earls of
Cobham. The story goes that, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the then
Lord Cobham was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and, because
Bekesbourne was a limb of the Cinque Port of Hastings, he called the central
assembly of the Ports to be held in Bekesbourne....much to the annoyance of
all the portsmen who had to travel miles inland from all over Kent and East
Sussex.
The War Memorial
6b The Aerodrome
The war memorial was put up in the early 1920s to commemorate those who
died in the first world war. It was erected in an extension to the churchyard
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which was acquired at that time.
Bekesbourne aerodrome was built in the 1914-18 war. It was de-
commissioned after the war and the buildings were sold off for private
dwellings. In the 1930s the airfield was used by a flying club. It was brought
back into use by the RAF for just a few weeks in the summer of 1940 around
the time of the evacuation from Dunkirk. The old hangar was recently
demolished to make way for the new housing estate named De Havillands.
Brownies and the School
Bekesbourne has its Brownie pack which meets in the Village Hall on
Monday evenings. The younger children from the village go to Bridge and
Patrixbourne C of E Primary School in Bridge, as the old village school in
Bekesbourne itself was closed in the early 1970s.
Hops and Flowers
Hops have been grown in Bekesbourne for hundreds of years; but they are
not now for the breweries but for sale , fresh or dried, on the bine. The
visitor to Bekesbourne will also see fields of colourful flowers in the
summer, awaiting picking to be dried and sold as dried flowers at
Essentially Hops at Chalkpit Farm, where many wonderful arrangements can
be purchased.
Sheep Farming and Corn
Pasture and Corn have been the hallmarks of farming in the village centre for
many years. Those of us who live here await the bleating of the new lambs in
the earliest spring as a sign that winter will soon be over.
Marriage
Everyone is happy when the bells ring out and the newly-wed bride and
groom walk down the church path through the lych gate.
Fruit Farming
Kent, the Garden of England, is still famous for its fruit. There are two fruit
farms, Woolton Farm and Highland Court Farm, one on each side of the
village.
Howletts Wild Animal Park
Howletts is justly famed for its conservation of endangered wild animals;
African elephants, Siberian tigers and Gorillas being, perhaps, the best
known. But it also makes a marvellous day out for families to visit.
The wild animal park is situated in the parkland and gardens of a classically
styled mansion built towards the end of the 18th century, replacing a much
older house. lt was built for Isaac Baugh who sold it to one of the Dering
family of Pluckley, near Ashford. It was bought by the Gipps family who
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