Boxley, Kent

Description
Boxley, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands at the foot of a barren range of chalk hills, 2 miles NE by N of Maidstone station on the L.C. &.D.R. and S.E.R., has a post office under Maidstone, which is the money order and telegraph office, and was once a market-town. The parish includes part of Penenden Heath, and comprises 5787 acres; population of the civil parish, 1562 ; of the ecclesiastical, 1428. The manor was given by Richard I. to Boxley Abbey, passed at the dissolution to Sir Thomas Wyatt, and belongs now to the Earl of Romney. The abbey was founded in 1146 by William d'Ypres, Earl of Kent, stood 1 1/2 mile WSW of the village, was Cistercian, mitred, and well endowed, had an image of St Eumbald and an automaton crucifix which attracted crowds of pilgrims and were publicly burnt at the Reformation, and is now all effaced except the foundations. A deep thick vein of fuller's-earth occurs at Grove, and was worked so early as 1630. Fulling-mills stood on the neighbouring rivulets, and have been succeeded by paper-mills. A Roman urn and several other Roman relics have been found in the neighbourhood of Grove. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £534 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. The church is Decorated English, and contains the remains of the poet Sandys, and tombs of the Wyatts and others. It was restored in 1876.