Mersham is a small village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

, three miles east of Willesborough

Willesborough

Willesborough is a residential suburb on the eastern side of Ashford, Kent, England.-The area:The South Willesborough Dykes area, on the west bank of the East Stour river, is an area of sheep fields drained by dykes. The area is designated as the South Willesborough Dykes Site of Nature...

 and the town of Ashford

Ashford, Kent

Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...

 in the county

County

A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

 of Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

.

History

Historically Mersham has been a farming community with close ties to the local market town of Ashford. The small village dates back to Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

. The village was owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury for over 500 years. The beautiful Church of St. John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

, which stands on the site of a Saxon church, is part Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

. There are two water mills on the East Stour river, one of which, Swanton, is still working. Part of Hatch Park

Hatch Park

Hatch Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Mersham and Brabourne, five miles from Ashford in Kent, England .The site is of special interest for its unimproved acidic grassland, a scarce habitat...

, an ancient deerpark and SSSI

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

, is within the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

.

It is thought that the village gives rise to the surname Marshman

Marshman

The name Marshman is a family, or surname which originated in England and either refers to an occupation - namely a person whose job it was to work the marshes or it is derived from their residency possibly of Marsham in Norfolk, or in Mersham in Kent...

.

The Knatchbulls

The village has been the home of the Knatchbull family since the times of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

. In 1638 Sir Norton Knatchbull

Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet

Sir Norton Knatchbull, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1679....

 founded Ashford Grammar School, to which pupils were not admitted until they could read the Bible in English, he was also the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Romney. In the early 19th century Edward Knatchbull

Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet

Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet was a British politician and baronet.-Background:He was the only surviving son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet and his wife Grace Legge, second daughter of William Legge. In 1789, he succeeded his father as baronet. Knatchbull was educated at Tunbridge and...

 served under Robert Walpole

Robert Walpole

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....

 in the Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 government and in 1830 another Sir Edward Knatchbull became M.P. for Romney

New Romney

New Romney is a small town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to be silted up. New Romney was once a sea port, with the harbour adjacent to the church, but is now more than a mile from the sea...

 and served under Sir Robert Peel

Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...

in his government of 1841.

Local Facilities

• Mersham Primary School
• 2 Public Houses – The Royal Oak & The Farriers Arms
• Village Hall
• Local Shop & Post Office
• Playing Fields & Play Areas

Mersham is also mentioned in the American series Dynasty (Season 5, Episode 11, Swept Away) as being the place where one of the characters (Alexis Colby) grew up.

External links

• VillageNet
• http://mersham-on-the-net.webs.com/