Launched 09/04/2011
Latest update
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.
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.
The Abbot's Fireside is one of the older buildings in the village and probably dates back to the mid fifteenth century.
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?
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
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
2nd Baronet of Elham. He left his house in the Square and some land to establish a Charity School for six boys from the village. Sir John's father, Dr. Thomas Williams had purchased the Manor of Elham as a country venue. Thomas became a chymical physician to Charles II and later to James II. Charles's method of paying his doctor's bill was by heaping profitable sinecures on him — Assay-Master of the Mint , Examiner in Bankruptcy , Receiver-General of Land Revenues , etc.; all of which brought great wealth to Williams. Sir John's grandfather on his mother's side was John Hogbeane (now Hogben) c1600 Elham, a barrister at law. He and Mary had five girls and the baronetcy passed to his nephew Sir David Williams.
ELHAM. TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, By Mr GEORGE FINNIS, at the THREE TUNS INN, in ELHAM, on ..24th May 1824, all that FREEHOLD MESSUAGE or TENEMENT, (In two dwellings,) with the large brick building formerly used as a Wine Vault, but now converted into stables; fifty perches .. of garden ground .. situate in Middle-Row, in Elham, and now in the occupation of James Rootes and Henry Crouch, as yearly tenants. K.G., 21 May 1824, 1c K.G., 15 June 1824, 4a
A long, two-storeyed building, originally timber-framed and built in the 16th century. Most of it was refronted, and extended at the south end, where a datestone gives the date, 1740. This inn was used for many years for the Elham Petty Sessions, and the courtroom may still be viewed. Mortises and grooves in the beams show where a small room was set aside for the use of the magistrate, who visited here once a fortnight. Some of the original Tudor timber-framing may be seen at the north end. Inside the inn, some of the joists and beams of the centre bar are obviously re-used timbers, and upon closer examination are seen to have come from a 15th century hall house, which may have once stood on this site. This re-use of older timbers is not uncommon, and has often been wrongly described as re-used ships' timbers. Elham Study