Shipbourne
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Shipbourne (ponounced 'Shibbun') is located four miles north of Tonbridge in Kent, and is one of the parish councils in Tonbridge and Malling borough. The village is located at the foot of the greensand ridge in an area known as The Weald. It is a fairly scattered village, situated around Shipbourne Green, described as a 'most distinctive landscape feature ... a large domed open space in the centre of the main Conservation Area': an area equally designated as a Special Landscape Area; and with much of the village designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village also has a common, Hoad Common, which is located to the south of the village on both sides of the Tonbridge Road. Before the last war the Common was a lightly treed open space which was popular with day-trippers. The Common is in private ownership and the public have no rights of access to it. It is now slowly becoming woodland.
[edit] Famous residents
The Fairlawne Estate, which stretches into neighbouring Plaxtol was, in Stuart times owned by Sir Henry Vane, Secretary of State to Charles I: his son was to become a Governor of Massachusetts in 1635. One of the Vane family employee's sons wrote a 700 blank verse poem about hop-growing. Sir Henry Vaine, who was a Royalist and then became a roundhead, before again switching back to being a Royalist under Charles I, was executed in London after being reported to be too dangerous to live. His body lies in the crypt of Shipbourne church in a stone coffin that is noticeably shorter than all the others, due to his beheading. His ghost is said to wander the village.
The Vane family were followed by the Cazalets. In 1880, Edward Cazalet built the church, dedicated to St Giles, a public house named The Chaser, and several of the cottages which surround the Common. Major Peter Cazalet was the trainer of horses owned by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Many members of the Cazelet family are commemorated in the church.
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with its suburbs, villages, towns and parishes: |
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Addington • Aylesford • Beltring • Birling • Blue Bell Hill • Borough Green • Burham • Ditton • East Malling • East Malling and Larkfield • East Peckham • Eccles • Golden Green • Hadlow • Hildenborough • Ightham • Kings Hill • Larkfield • Leybourne • Mereworth • Offham • Platt • Plaxtol • Ryarsh • Shipbourne • Snodland • Stansted • Tonbridge • Trottiscliffe • Walderslade • Wateringbury • West Malling • West Peckham • Wrotham • Wrotham Heath |
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| The borough of Tonbridge and Malling List of places in Kent |
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