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Singlewell

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Church Lane,

Goes to Toltingtrow Green, meeting place of the Hundred

St Margaret.‘Re-edified’ 1596 and repaired in 1648. A survivor of earlier days. No great architectural pretensions, it is attractive in its rural setting.  From its dimensions and the thickness of the walls it would seem that Ifield church is probably a small two-cell Norman fabric, but roughcast and interior plaster have concealed all the early features.  There is, however, the remains of an inserted low side window on the south chancel wall, and a reference in an early 19th-century painting in the K. A. S. collection at Maidstone refers to lancets in the chancel.  The present windows date from 1845, the cusping and tracery may have been copied from the 15th- century window at 'Ifield Court'.  The previous church windows were also square headed.

Rectory built in 1865 on the glebe land.

Dene hole in the fields nearby

Church Road

Denehole. At Christmas 1993 a collapse occurred in a field on a piece of land between here and the  A2.. It was believed to signify the presence of a denehole or chalk well. The collapse was 1.5m deep.

Hever Court Road

Hever Court Road is the Watling Street of pre-1924. It was a narrow lane with a pond on the north side of the roadway overhung with elms.

Craggs Farm, was demolished in 1971.  at one time the farmlands covered a considerable area to the north, extending nearly as far as Cross Lane.

Hever Court Estate. houses were built in 1957.

'Hever Court',  for many years the most imposing house in the village, standing upon the site of an earlier 'Hever Court', the original house of the Hever family, who removed to Hever, near Tonbridge, in 1331. 'Hever Court' was a 17th-century house of brick which bore over its dining-room window 'P.R.E. 1675'. During the Second World War it was occupied by the War Office as a barracks, caught fire.  as a result it became derelict and was demolished in 1952. It had been formerly the property of Sir James Fergusson and Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson, his son.

Singlewell Fields arable land, between here and Gravesend

Chapel Farm.On the south side of the road are the remains of an old chapel which may date back to the period of the Salerna legend.  The stucco front of the farmhouse.  Gives no hint that the lower walls are some 2ft. 6ins. thick.  The south wall, away from the road, is exposed and of flint and ragstone with a doorway and stone quoins of two windows which have been filled in.  There are some written references to this chapel.

George Inn during the 19th century, this was a favourite house of refreshment of Gravesenders, who found it a convenient walking distance from home on summer evenings. An extension on the south in the 1930s opened its patronage to the coaches and lorries on the A2, and there is now a loopway to its successor, opened in 1971.

Ifield

Yelesfield Saxon name

Singlewell

Singlewell.  Most of the parish was in common parlance Singlewell, called after the old well - properly 'Shinglewell' - which, with its winding gear, stood a few, yards from the Watling Street.  During the First World War the well was filled in and a granite slab placed there to record its earlier existence, and being inscribed appropriately.  This slab was removed in 1952.  The widely held opinion that the village was named 'Singlewell' because there was only one well in the parish was entirely erroneous.  A legend of a miracle performed here by St. Thomas of Canterbury, whereby a panic-stricken girl, Salerna, was saved from drowning by the saint's intervention, may be taken as witness of the well's antiquity.

Watling Street

New road built by KCC and opened by Prince of Wales in 1924



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