Boughton Monchelsea
| Boughton Monchelsea | |
|---|---|
 Boughton Monchelsea
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| Boughton Monchelsea shown within Kent | |
| Population | 3,313 (2011 Census) |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Maidstone |
| Postcode district | ME17 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
The village and civil parish of Boughton Monchelsea is in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The civil parish lies on a ragstone ridge situated between the North Downs and the Weald of Kent and has commonly been called Quarry Hills. The village itself is located 3 miles (5 km) south of Maidstone.
The village name comes from a corruption of the name of the Norman family given the manor after the Conquest: Montchensie who held the manor until 1287 and the Anglo Saxon Boc Tun (Beech Tree settlement). The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Boltone, then Bouton, Bocton, and probably via Bocton de Montchensie to the current Boughton Monchelsea. The suffix using the family name seems to have been added in this area of Kent, possibly to differentiate multiple Boctun's.
Some of the earliest history of Boughton Monchelsea is in the Iron Age settlement at Quarry Wood Camp (Camp Field). There are traces of an outer rampart on Parsonage Farm (on the edge of Park Wood) constructed by the Belgae about 40 AD possibly as a defence against the Roman invasion in 43 AD.
The foundations of a Roman bathhouse were discovered in 1841 near Brishing Court, also a Roman villa at Brishing and a cemetery at Lockham. The Quarries were worked extensively in Romans times and the villa and bathhouse could well have belonged to the quarry owner. Ragstone (a type of sandstone) was worked here; stone for building of Westminster Abbey, the present-day Houses of Parliament and the repair of Rochester Castle came from here. The last quarry closed in 1960.
The village church, dedicated to St Peter, was built around 1100.
The village has a village green, a primary school, a village hall, a recreation ground, one public houses, a post office among its amenities.
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