A BRIEF HISTORY OF SISSINGHURST

The line of the Old Roman Road that ran from Rochester to Bodiam cuts through the village by the side of The Bull. It is probable that from those early times a small community grew and formed the beginnings of Sissinghurst as we know it today.

12000 - 4000 BC
Flint working tools of the Mesolithic period found at Golford indicate very early settlement in the area.

AD 46 - 410
Roman occupation.

449
Jutes from across the North Sea occupy Kent

843
Purchase by the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Dene of Little Chart which included the Denes of Cadaca or Karckeregge (an early name for the area)

1200
Saxenhurst (or Saxinghurst) Manor had come into being on the site of the present Sissinghurst Castle

1241
Plea rolls mentions the Dene of Karckeregge

1305
King Edward I spent a night at Milkhus on 1st July en route to Chichester (first record of the village changing its name to Milkhouse or Mylkehouse Street)

1331
Flemish craftsmen came to England establishing weaving as a local industry

1401
Archbishop Arundel granted the use of a Chapel of the Holy Trinity at Milkhouse

1548
Trinity Chapel was suppressed under the Chantries Act and fell into disuse.

1573
Queen Elizabeth I spent three days as a guest of Sir Richard Baker at Sissinghurst Manor (Castle)

1760
Sissinghurst Manor renamed Sissinghurst Castle by the French Prisoners of War held there from the Seven Years War with France.

1838
Church built at a cost of £1900 and ecclesiastical parish formed consisting of Milkhouse Street, Golford, Three Chimneys, the Common and a few other scattered areas.

1841
The School was built at a cost of £352

1851
Milkhouse Street renamed Sissinghurstbecause of the notorious reputation it had gained in the areas of "smuggling, cockfighting, outrage and robbery freely committed by rogues who infest this corner of the road"

1880
Mylkhouse Thread ceased production. It was a stiff waxed twine used in the sewing of hop pockets and was made in the present Mace shop.

1908
Lake Chad was given its name to commemorate the mapping of the lake in Africa by Boyd Alexander, son of the owner. It was previously known as the Mill Pond as a water mill had been situated at the Chapel Lane end.

1930
Purchase of Sissinghurst Castle by Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-West - creators of the famous garden.

2000
On 28th May the Great Durmask Oak tree at Sissinghurst place collapsed. Born between 1300 and 1500 it had grown to be the largest of its kind in the South East of England. Having been around for so many centuries it is perhaps fitting that it just made it to the new Millennium.

FOR MORE HISTORY OF SISSINGHURST READ: "Sissinghurst an unfinished history" by Adam Nicolson. Available from good bookshops

Thanks to the makers of the Sissinghurst Map.