Cranbrook, Kent

Description
Cranbrook, a small town and a parish in Kent. The town stands in the Weald, on the river Crane, 6 miles S by W of Staplehurst, 14 S by E of Maidstone, and 48 from London. It has a station on the Paddock Wood and Hawkhurst branch of the S.E.R. It consists chiefly of one long street, is a seat of petty sessions, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (S.O.), a bank, two chief inns, a market-house, a parish church, four dissenting chapels, a free grammar-school, a workhouse, and the Cramp Institute for lads and young men. Acreage of the civil parish, 10,374 ; population, 4046 ; of the ecclesiastical, 2971. The church is chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular English, has a western square embattled tower, was partly rebuilt in 1722, and contains monuments of the Robertses of Glassenbury and the Bakers of Sissinghurst. It was restored in 1879, and again in 1893. There is a handsome font of Gaen stone, and in the south aisle likewise a baptistery for immersion, a thing of very rare occurrence, there being supposed to be only one more in the kingdom. The grammar-school was founded in 1574 by Sir Simon Lynch, and has £135 from endowment. The building was enlarged and very much improved in 1885. Markets are held on alternate Wednesdays, and fairs on 30 May and 29 Sep. A broadcloth manufactory was introduced in the time of Edward III., flourished for ages so greatly as to give its masters and patrons high influence in county affairs, ceased about the beginning of the 19th century, and has left traces of itself in picturesque remains of old factories. The parish includes also the hamlet of Milkhouse Street, commonly called Sissing-burst Street. The surface presents all the characteristics of the Weald. Sissinghurst Castle was a stately mansion of the time of Edward VI. belonging to the Bakers, became toward the end of the 18th century a place of confinement for French prisoners, and now survives only in some picturesque fragments. There are mineral springs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £270 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The vicarage of Sissinghurst is a separate benefice. Sir R. Baker, the author of the " English Chronicle," was a native.