BOURNE PARK ROAD
BRIDGE HILL
THE CLOSE

HIGH STREET

HIGHAM LANEOFF)
MILL LANE

PETT BOTTOM ROAD
PETT HILL
PRIMROSE ROW

UNION ROAD

THE PARISH OF BRIDGE

Bridge Place

Flats 1, 2 and 3 (East Bridge House), Netherbury.
See Union Road

2 (Sunnyside), 8, 10, 12, 14 (Beresford Lodge), 16, 16a,
18(Wayside), 22 and 24 (Rosedale Villas), 30 (Gordon
Mouse), 32, 34, Alexandra House, 40 and 42 (Formerly listed
as 1-4 Primrose Row), 48 (Dover Lodge), 52 (Watling House),
82 (Riverdale House), 84 (Kent Mouse), The Plough and
Harrow Public House, 88-96 (even), Church Cottage, Church
of St Peter, Wall to the Churchyard of Church of St Peter, 13
(Wych Elm), 15, 17, 19 (Albany), 21 (Albany House), 33
(Bartters), 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 45a, 49 (Lime Cottage now
known as The Old Forge), The White Horse Inn, 61, 63
(Ty-Guyn), 65, River House, 69 (Ann's House formerly listed
as Ann's Pantry), 73, 75 (The Red Lion Public House), Lynton
House.

Bridge Hill House.

Bridgeford House, Little Bridge Place.

Middle Pett Farmhouse, Barn to Middle Pett Farmhouse.
Great Pett Farmhouse.

See High Street.

The Close.

Page I ofl - LISTED.WPD - 20 November 1998


Dering Road

Dering Road in Bridge commemorates Colonel Cholmeley Dering, a younger brother
of Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden Dering, the seventh baronet. He is well known in
Kentish annals as commander of the New Romney Fencible Cavalry (Duke of York's
Own), which he raised in East Kent in 1794 and with which he served in Ireland for
three years, receiving the thanks of the Lord Lieutenant and both Houses of
Parliament in that country for his eminent services during the rebellion of 1798. The
regiment was disbanded in October. 1800, on its return from Ireland. One year before,
probably in anticipation of the event. Colonel Dering had bought Howletts [in
Ickham] ('2) from its builder, Isaac Baugh, and was in consequence the second owner
of that most distinguished house, one of the best of its size and style in England. On
the death of his elder brother in 1811 he became guardian of the infant eighth Dering
baronet and had to remove to Surrenden from Howletts, which he sold about 1816 to
George Gipps Esq., son and heir of one of the founders of the Canterbury Bank. In
1817 he was returned as MP for New Romney. He died in 1836 and was buried at
Pluckley. Howletts remained in the Gipps family until about forty years ago.

Another local Irish connection!

Howletts (or Owlets, as it was formerly called) was formerly the inheritance of Isaac
family, but they lost it before the reign of Elizabeth I. In 1558 it belonged to John
Dorante ( a benefactor to Littlebourne) whose descendants alienated it to Sir Hemy
Palmer who resided here and died in 1611, and by his will gave it to Sir Isaac Sidley,
his son-in-law, who conveyed his right to his brother-in-law Sir Henry Palmer, and he
about 1620 alienated it to Sir Charles Hales of Thanington, but afterwards of
Howletts, who died in 1623. His grandson Sir Robert Hales was created baronet 1660
during the time of whose grandson Sir Thomas this seat fell down and the family
removed to another house nearer the church in this parish (Bekesbourne), where they
afterwards resided. At length his descendant Sir Philip Hales in 1787 alienated the
scite of it, with the gardens and offices remaining, and belonging to it, to Isaac Baugh
who. .. has lately built for his residence a mansion on these grounds at a small
distance north-westward from the scite of the ancient house. . . (Ed. Hasted, vol 3 p
716)

OKW
<bJ—/101*» C‘7~v~~ ),


BRIDGE: Items in Canterbury Library Local Studies Room

Extracted from Z Cozens History of Kent, 2 vols. c.1798
p.199 Bridge, which once constituted the Deanery Town, is now but a small village of

about twenty houses, situated in a narrow valley, through which runs the small stream
called the Little Stour, over which there is a handsome stone bridge of one arch.

Document for Reference

Bridge as portrayed in Historical Sources prior to 1939:

S214: Aspects of the Economic and Social History of Kent. Group Research
Project 1978

University of Kent at Canterbury


Old England's Hole

This is most probably an old quarry, cut into the side of the old road to Dover out of
Bridge at about the lowest practicable point of the hill where chalk is available. It is
however also a source of much romantic speculation. The theory that it is the site of
an encounter between Britons and Romans is of relatively recent (early 19"‘ century)
origin. The following account is almost wholly fanciful (Caesar died of course in 44
BC. His second British expedition was in 54 BC. Nero was Emperor in AD 56).

‘At the summit of the. .. rise out of Bridge, the road, running exactly on the site of the
Roman Watling Street, comes to that bleak and elevated table-land known as Barham
Downs, the scene of Caesar's great battle with the Britons on July 23'‘', AD 56.
Twenty-seven thousand Roman soldiers, horse and foot, met the wild rush of the
Britons, who, with the usual undisciplined and untaught courage of uncivilised races,
flung themselves upon the invaders and were thrown back by the impenetrable wall of
the serried phalanxes. Recoiling dismayed from this reception, they were instantly
pursued by the Roman cavalry and cut up into isolated bands, who fought
courageously all that fatal day in the dense woodlands. Protected by mounds and
trenches defended with palisades of stakes cunningly interwoven with brushwood,
they prolonged the hopeless contest until nightfall, and then fell back. Caesar,
describing these woodland forts as oppida, gives especial attention to one troublesome
stronghold. "Being repulsed," he writes, "they withdrew themselves into the woods
and reached a place which they had prepared before, having closed all approaches to
it by felled timber." This retreat was captured by soldiers of the Seventh Legion, who,
throwing up a mound against it, advanced, holding their shields over their heads in the
military formation known as "the tortoise," and drove out the defenders at the sword's
point.

This, the last place to hold out, is, despite the eighteen and a half centuries that have
passed, still to be seen in Bourne Park, on the summit of Bridge Hill, and is familiarly
known in the neighbourhood as "Old England's Hole." "Never forget," the old
countryfolk have been wont to impress their children - "never forget that this is Old
England's Hole, and that on this spot a last stand for freedom was made by your
British forefathers."

-Every one in the neighbourhood knows Old England's Hole. It is seen beside the road,
on the right hand, just where the cutting through the crest of the hill, made in 1829, to
ease the pull-up for the coach-horses, begins. At that same time the course of the road
was very slightly diverted, and, instead of actually impinging on this ancient historic
landmark, as before, was made to run a few feet away. Now the spot is seen across the
fence of the park, the old course of the road still traceable beside it as a slightly
depressed green track, plentifully dotted with thistles. The stronghold consists of a
crater—like hollow, encircled by earthen banks. still high and steep. A great number of
ash-trees and thorns, some very old. gnarled and decayed. grow on these banks, and
cast a dense shade upon the interior.‘

(CG Harper: The Ingoldsby Country.l904, pp63-6)

In 1846, during excavation for a lake in Bourne Park, Samian pottery and other
articles were found at a depth of 10-13ft. Also, nearby, Roman interments, including a
large urn containing ashes at the same depth. Also three skeletons with large nails
near the shoulders, hands and feet. A few Roman coins. Faussett in 1771 mentions
over 100 tumuli on Hanging Hill, in front of and between Bourne Place,
Bishopsbourne and the Roman road; others had been ploughed down. These were
Saxon. (Wright).