Charing

Charing
Charing High Street, c. 1905
Charing
Charing shown within Kent
Area	24.9 km² (9.6 sq mi)
Population	2,766 (Civil Parish 2011)
• Density	111/km² (290/sq mi)
OS grid reference	TQ953494
District	Ashford
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Ashford
Postcode district	TN27
Dialling code	01233

Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Ashford
List of places UK England Kent 51°12′39″N 0°47′42″E / 51.2107°N 0.7949°E / 51.2107; 0.7949Coordinates: 51°12′39″N 0°47′42″E / 51.2107°N 0.7949°E / 51.2107; 0.7949

Charing is a mostly agricultural large village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, in south-east England.; it includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment.

The Pilgrims' Way the M20 motorway and Charing railway station (between London Victoria and Ashford International via Maidstone) serve the parish.

The name Charing first appears in 799 as Ciorrincg. The name probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon word cerring, which means a bend in the road, or it may be from Ceorra-ingas, which is Anglo-Saxon, meaning people of Ceorra. The village is sited on the Pilgrims' Way from London to Canterbury, and is one day's walk from Canterbury. There are a number of old manors located around the village, such as Newlands (now a horse stud) and Pett Place. The village had a market recorded in 1285, and a fair recorded in the fifteenth century.

Church of St Peter and St Paul, the parish church of Charing, is situated next to the remains of the Archbishop's Palace, just off the High Street. The church's west tower was built in the 14th century, though most of the rest of the building was reconstructed following a catastrophic fire in the 16th century. The church contains a number of memorials to the Dering family, a branch of the Dering family of Surrenden Dering, Pluckley, Kent.

Charing has had four mills over the centuries, serving the needs of the villagers. There were two watermills on the Upper Great Stour and two windmills.

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