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Launched 09/04/2011

Latest update

21/02/2025 03:58

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Graveyard Memorial Inscriptions
Welcome to the Elham Historical Society database website. Feel free to browse and uncover the history of Elham. Our dedicated team of historians has recently finished recording the details on all the memorials in the graveyard. Our chairman Derek Boughton has overseen the operation, correlating the data and checking for errors. The results of their labours can be seen on the burials page.

Elham beat off stiff competition for the title of Kent Village of the year 2011 organised by Action with Communities in Rural Kent.

Censuses for outlying communities in the parish will be rolled out gradually. Check out the stats page for interesting facts and

trivia about the village. We still need your help so please send us any information relating to Elham that may be of interest.

Les Ames hits out
Les Ames in action

Elham resident Les Ames in action for England against the West Indies in 1939. He was one of the finer wicketkeeper - batsmen and played for Kent CCC.

Abbot's Fireside c 1450
Abbot's Fireside

The Abbot's Fireside is one of the older buildings in the village and probably dates back to the mid fifteenth century.

Audrey attends school
Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn (neé Rushton) lived in Orchard Cottage (Five Bells) for five years in her childhood (1935-1940) and attended the local village schools. She took ballet lessons and dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina. I wonder what became of her?

George V Playing Field
George V Playing Field

Dave Lee opens Elham's brand new playground with a sensory garden and a pretty flower meadow created by the Play for Elham charity. 21st November 2010

Swing Riots of 1830
Swing Riots

The machine breaking that led to the riots of August 1830 onwards started in the Elham Parish, writes our historian Derek Boughton, who has made a lifetime's study of the subject.

Elham residents were prominent in the gangs that sought out the new fangled threshing machines and destroyed them. Some of them cost the not inconsiderable sum for the day of £100. Full Story

SHOCKING Accident 1812

On Monday the 8th inst. a child, between three and four years old, son of Mr. Carswell, butcher, at Elham, being improvidently left in a room by its parents, set fire to its clothes. The neighbours alarmed by its cries, hastened to its assistance, and extinguished the flames, by wrapping it in a sheet, nor, however, till the poor victim was so dreadfully burned, that death relieved it from its torture in about four hours afterwards.- This is the second instance of the kind that has occurred at the above place within the last eight mouths, and it is hoped will prove a warning to those entrusted with the care of children. Kentish Gazette - Tuesday 16 June 1812

Emma Rigden 1938

News in Brief. FAITHFUL SERVICE On our front page is announced the death of Constance Emma Rigden, of Elham, Kent, the former governess and devoted friend for 51 years of the family of the late Dr. and Mrs. Vere Nicoll. Brigadier & Mrs Fryer (she was daughter of H W Selby-Lowndes, Master of East Kent Hunt from 1900).

USING THREATENING LANGUAGE 1869

Mr. Danzey Somerville Creswell, of Elham, was summoned before Thomas Deane, Esq., on Wednesday, on an information laid by James Sprinks, of the same place, charging him with using threatening language towards him. It appeared that the complainant, who is a grocer and draper, and the defendant, were in conversation on the previous day at Elham, and according to the statement of the complainant, the defendant said to him in a rather excited manner, "If I had my gun with me I would blow out your brains." The complainant now asked for protection, as he feared that the defendant would carry out his threat. Defendant said he was rather excited at something that was said to him by the complainant; but lie did not use the language imputed to him, neither had he any intention of doing the complainant any bodily injury. Mr. Dense said he mast bind him over to keep the peace towards the complainant —himself in £40 and one surety in £20, for six months. Mr. Cresswell said he brought no friends with him. Mr. Dense asked complainant if he would be satisfied with the bond of Mr. Cresswell alone, but he declined. Mr. Cresswell ultimately obtained a surety in Mr. Thomas Cloke, prior of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Hythe, who was accepted. Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald - Saturday 08 May 1869


What's in the database
11820 People
6789 Demography entries
2422 Events
1299 Marriages
415 Properties
427 Photographs
Completed projects ...
  • Properties 1841-1911
  • Demography records 1841-1911 (village only)
  • Cemetery & Graveyard burials
  • Memorial and graveyard inscriptions
Work in progress ...
  • Demography records 1841-1911 (parish)
  • Marriages within the Elham parish
  • Audio/verbal accounts by Elham residents
Coming soon ...
  • Mapping of all properties within the Elham parish
  • List of artefacts
Future projects ...
  • Audio village tour
  • Complete list of shops - past and present
What's new!
Michael Hayes
Doctor Who Producer
Arthur Frederick Broadbridge
Elham resident and diplomat
Charles Alfred Fortin
Elham assistant surgeon
William Lewis Cowley
Elham resident and author
George W Palmer
Graveyard burials
John Midgeley
Henry Clayson
STATS - Facts & Trivia
Windlass Cottage Title Deeds
Church Cottage history back to 1720
Anthony Eden
Prime Minister and Elham resident

EHS
Swing Riots
Les Ames in action
Audrey Hepburn
Letters

EHS Database

Swing Riots of 1830 recounted by Derek Boughton our local expert historian.

Les Ames for England v West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica 1930 or 1935. WK Ivan Barrow watches on.

Audrey Hepburn attended private schools in the village and dreamed of being a ballerina. I wonder what became of her?

What's in the database? Find the latest additions here.

1952 First listed building in village