Place:Cobham, Kent, England

Watchers
NameCobham
Alt namesSole Streetsource: hamlet in parish
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates51.4°N 0.417°E
Located inKent, England
See alsoHoo Hundred, Kent, Englandancient county division in which it was located
Strood Rural, Kent, Englandrural district of which it was a part 1894-1974
Gravesham District, Kent, Englandunitary authority covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Cobham is a village and civil parish in the Gravesham District of Kent, England. It is located south of Watling Street, the old road from Dover to London, and six miles southeast of Gravesend. The hamlet of Sole Street lies within the parish, which covers an area of 1,240 ha and has a population of 1,328 at the 2001 UK census, increasing to 1,469 at the 2011 census.

The parish church is 13th century and is dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, and has brasses which are reputedly the finest in England. The church in Luddesdowne, part of the ecclesiastical parish, is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. Next to the church in the village is Cobham College, a one-time home for secular priests, and now acting as almshouses.

Cobham Hall was the former 17th-century home of the Earls of Darnley: its gardens were designed by Humphry Repton and the surrounding woods contain the Darnley Mausoleum, a Grade I listed building now undergoing restoration.

Cobham has strong links with Charles Dickens, who used to walk out to the village: he set part of The Pickwick Papers there.

Cobham was a civil parish in Strood Rural District from 1894 until 1974 and since 1974 has been part of the Gravesham unitary authority.

Research Tips

  • Kent County Council Archive, Local Studies and Museums Service. James Whatman Way, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1LQ. This incorporates the Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone and the East Kent Archives Centre near Dover.
  • Canterbury Cathedral Archives see the Archives web pages on the Canterbury Catherdral site.
  • For information on the area around the Medway Towns, have a look at Medway Council's CityArk site.
  • Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Kent illustrates the parish boundaries of Kent when rural districts were still in existence and before Greater London came into being. The map publication year is 1931. An earlier map of 1900 may also be useful. The maps blow up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
  • Census records for Kent are available on FamilySearch, Ancestry and FindMyPast. The first site is free; the other two are pay sites but have access to microfilmed images. Steve Archer produced a very useful round-up of the available sources, but this information may not be up to date.
  • Registration Districts in Kent for the period 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.
  • England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911 The full database from Kent Archives Office, Maidstone, has been available online from FamilySearch since June 2016.
  • Kent had five family history societies (now only four):
  • Volume 2 of the Victoria County History of Kent (published 1926) is available online through the auspices of British History Online. It includes accounts of the early history of Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals, and of several sites now within the conurbation of London.
  • Volume 3 of the Victoria County History of Kent (published 1932) This includes the text of, and the index to, the Kent Domesday survey. It has been provided by the Kent Archaeological Society.
  • In place of the other volumes of the Victoria County History, British History Online has transcriptions of the numerous volumes of The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent by Edward Hasted (originally published 1797)
  • English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, is particularly helpful in locating parishes in large ancient towns and cities like Canterbury.
  • Kent Probate Records Numerous links provided by Maureen Rawson
  • GENUKI lists other possible sources, however, it does not serve Kent so well as it does some other counties.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Cobham, Kent. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.