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 Kemsing is a small village situated at the foot of the North Downs - about 5 miles from the centre of Sevenoaks. It is an attractive village with a friendly atmosphere and a variety of housing. It has a primary school, a small number of shops, several pubs, a recreation and playground for children, a sports pavilion, a Youth Hostel and a church. The village also owns a large a stretch of the North Downs above it, now kept as a nature reserve. The History Situated beneath the Downs, Kemsing is one of the villages that developed on the spring line of the Holmsdale Valley, where the chalk meets the clay. The name derives from 'Cymesa's ing', meaning 'Cymesa's people'. Kemsing was first mentioned in a document of 822.  Kemsing Well by A.M. Parkin The well is associated with St Edith (illegitimate daughter of King Edgar) who was born in the village in 961. The well stood in the grounds of a convent where St Edith was born. She left the village as a child, became Abbess of Wilton Abbey and was canonised after her early death. A shrine to St Edith was later erected in the churchyard to which gifts were brought. Kemsing church was originally Saxon, the wooden church being replaced by stone around 1060. Seal church is an offshoot of Kemsing, although it later became more important than its mother church and for centuries the vicars were based at Seal. A castle was built in Kemsing in the 12th century during the struggles between King Stephen and the barons. Only the mound on which it stood remains today  Simon de Montfort's wife Eleanor is associated with Kemsing and probably lived there. She owned the manor in the 13th century. The ownership passed through many hands - Sir Geoffrey Bullen (Anne Boleyn's grandfather) holding it in the 15th century. Eventually Kemsing came to the Sackville family at Knole and they remained Lords of the Manor until this century. Two other families associated with Kemsing were the Bunces, staunch Royalists, and the Fremlyns at West House. For most of its history Kemsing has been a small, self-contained farming village. Although the Pilgrims Way runs above it, the village itself was slightly off the beaten track, physically and historically. In the late 19th century, with the re-acquisition of a resident vicar and some incoming gentry, major improvements were made to the church and the tone of line improved. Local landowners like Barclay Field, a wealthy brewer looked after the welfare of the villagers he employed. After the First World War, with the break up of estates like that of Barclay Field, building development began and accelerated rapidly after WWII. The population has risen during this century from 641 in 1901 to well over 4000 today. Housing estates now cover many of the old ploughlands. The American aviator, John Moisant, the first pilot to fly from Paris to London, and the first to cross the channel with a passenger, crashed at Kemsing in 1910. Perhaps this is not such a great distinction as Moisant crashed with great regularity across all of North Kent. |
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