Timeline

618 The manor of ‘Norborne’ was given by Eadbald, King of Kent (reigned 616-640) to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine in Canterbury.
1337 Salamon de Ripple, a monk of St. Augustine’s monastery appointed by the abbot as ‘keeper of this manor’. He made great improvements in particular he built new barns here, and a ‘very fair chapel’.
1346 September 12, Queen Philippa at Northbourne before departing for Calais to meet her husband Edward III and her son the Prince of Wales (Black Prince).
1359 The Black Prince established his headquarters at Northbourne grange from at least 18 September, until departing for Calais with Edward III’s army on 28 October.
1371 The great storehouses here belonging to the abbey, full of corn, were burnt down, the damage was estimated at one thousand pounds.
1373 From around 27 June to 16 July, John of Gaunt established a headquarters at Northbourne grange, pior to setting off to France with his army on a Great Chevauchée (Great Horse Raid).
1383  From around 27 April to 16 May, the bishop of Norwich, Henry Despenser, stayed at the monastic grange in Northbourne, prior to setting off to lead a crusade in Flanders. Empowered by Pope Urban VI during the time of the Papal Schism, Despenser aimed to assist the city of Ghent in its struggle against the supporters of the Antipope Clement VII. The campaign ended up as a humiliating disaster.
1450-1 Rebellion broke out in Kent and Sussex. The rebellion in the summer of 1450 was known as the ‘Cade Rebellion’, but there were other outbreaks in the Eastry area in early 1450 and again in 1451: John Tayllour of Finglesham who together with other unknown traitors, assembled at Eastry April 21 and 22nd, 1451 and “imagined and compassed the death of the king and the destruction of the realm.”
1511 Archbishop Warham’s Visitation, 1511-12, NORBORNE: ‘Item that there be many of the parisshe that wille not helpe to the clerks wages nor putt theire helpe to othrer charges’.
1557 Archdeacon Harpsfield’s Visitation, NORBORNE: ‘Memorandum that the vicaryg house ys brent [burnt]’. Information given to Archbishop Reginald Pole states, ‘On 16 May past church and steple [at Northbourne] along with priest’s house burned down.’ Most likely it refers to 16 May 1556; but possibility 16 May 1557.
1561 Edwin Sandys, (later Sir Edwin Sandys) born 9th December, Worcestershire.
1561 Queen Elizabeth I granted Northbourne Court for life to Edward Sanders, her foster brother. He resided here until he died (c.1580).
1573 Archbishop Matthew Parker’s Visitation, NORBORNE: ‘… chauncell is in decay, the windowes are broken and Lacketh glasinge, and the chauncell Lacketh pavinge and whitinge,…’
1588 On the approach of the Spanish Armada a camp of 4,030 militia was established on the downs at Little Betteshanger from 29 July to 19 August 1588, commanded by Sir Thomas Scott.
1605 Sir Edwin Sandys married his fourth wife Katherine (sometimes recorded as Catherine). In the next two decades they had twelve children.
1605 June – Edwin Sandys published A Relation of the State of Religion.
1609 December – Sir Edwin Sandys denounced the vicar of Northbourne, Henoch Clapham.
1611 The first recorded letter by Sir Edwin Sandys from ‘Northborn’ is dated March 1611.
1613/14 The formal grant of the Northbourne Court made in March 1613/14.
1614 Sir Edwin Sandys began to build a new mansion at Northbourne Court, completed in 1616.
1614 Sir Edwin Sandys became a member of the East India Company.
1619 Governor Francis Yeardley was directed by Sir Edwin Sandys to issue writs for the election of a general assembly, and July 30, 1619, the first house of burgesses, and the first representative legislature body ever assembled in America met in the church at Jamestown.
1620/21 January – Sir Edwin Sandys, MP for Sandwich, Kent. 1621, 1624.
1621 June 16 – Sir Edwin Sandys imprisoned in The Tower by the king, but he was released a month later on the 16 July.
1623 May 13 – Privy Council confined Sir Edwin Sandys to his house at Northbourne.
1629 October – Sir Edwin Sandys died in London, aged 68, and was brought back and buried at Northbourne under an impressive monument on 1 November.
1634 Sir Edwin Sandys’s last wife, Katherine, dies.
1635 The ship Hercules sailed from Sandwich on 19 March 1634/5, bound for New England carrying 102 passengers, part of the ‘Great Migration’ to the New World. Among them Parnell Harris and her step-brother James Sayer, both from Northbourne.
1642 August – The Parliamentarian, Colonel Edwin Sandys, along with 200 troopers and 300 dragoons search Kent for weapons and purloin whatever they could find for the Parliamentary cause. He had a full commission to disarm all malignants, secure all forts, castles, and stores or arms.
1642 September 23 – The Parliamentarian, Colonel Edwin Sandys, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Powick Bridge near Worcester. He died on 1 December and is buried at Worcester Cathedral.
1711 Matthew Bagley cast the five bells for St. Augustine’s church Northbourne.
1740 Vice-Admiral Salmon Morrice (1672-1740) buried at Betteshanger church.
1775 The Kentish antiquary the Reverend Bryan Faussett (1720-1776) acquired two stone corbels from Northbourne Court.
1782 The scholar, translator, poet, and ‘bluestocking,’ Mrs. Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806) of Deal, was a keen walker and undertook ‘many a ramble’ to Northbourne Court; which she records in letters written in 1767 and 1770 and also in a letter to Mrs. Vesey, written on Aug. 19, 1782.
1789-90 Sir Thomas Hyde Page military engineer, who took part in the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 and founded the Dover Volunteers in 1780; forerunners of the Territorial Army. Baptisms for two of their children, Anne and George, place Thomas and his wife Albinia at Betteshanger in 1789-90. The 1790 Poll Book lists him as a freeholder with a house and land.
1796 Shutter telegraph set up in January 1796, during the Napoleonic Wars, to link the Admiralty in London to the Naval Yard at Deal. The first relay on the route up to London built 1.3km south of Betteshanger.
1806 Rev. Montagu Pennington (1762-1849), vicar of Northbourne 1806-49, published the memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and later her collected letters (see 1782).
1822 July – Collection made in the Parish of Northbourne (in consequence of the King’s Letter) for the Relief of the poor in Ireland, who were perishing for want of food – £13 – 4s raised.
1825 Frederick E. Morrice (1778-1858) builds a new house at Betteshanger. A neo-Tudor villa designed by the architect Robert Lugar (1772/3-1855).
1850 Sir Walter James (later Lord Northbourne, 1st Baron) bought Betteshanger Park estate from Frederick E. Morrice.
1853-4 Sir Walter James had Anthony Salvin completely rebuild St. Mary’s church at Betteshanger in the Norman style, imitating the 12th century church at Barfreston.
c.1856 Sir Walter James employed architect George Devey (1820 – 1886) to undertake major additions and remodelling of Betteshanger house.
1868 June 2 – Laying of the foundation-stone of the Wesleyan Chapel, Finglesham.
1881 Frederick L. H. Morrice of the Vine Northbourne published a book – ‘The Nightless North – A Walk Across Lapland.’
1881 On 26/27 November 1881, gales strong enough to be called hurricanes toppled at least 500 trees in Betteshanger Park, and at the nearby vicarage “a valuable conservatory belonging to the Rev. John Worthington Bliss was almost totally destroyed.”
1887 Mr. Gladstone’s visit to Betteshanger. Reported in the Dover Standard 31 Dec 1887.
1893 Lord Northbourne, 1st Baron (Walter Charles James, 1816-1893), died 4 February 1893, at the age of 77. Buried in Betteshanger churchyard.
1898 December 9 – Mr. and Mrs. Jolliffe retire from the posts of Master and Mistress of Northbourne School, after 38 years service. Mr. Samuel Jolliffe 1838 – 1918.
1907 May 23 – Northbourne schoolhouse and school were struck by lightning.
1914 In the autumn of 1914, the poet Rupert Brooke was stationed at Betteshanger with the Royal Naval Division.
1915 On 28 January, the formation of the Northbourne Platoon of the Volunteer Training Corps (WWI Dad’s Army).
1915 In July 1915 a ‘whirlwind’ blew off two sweeps from the New Mill and it continued working with the remaining pair.
1925 Two of the four sails of the Old Mill were damaged and the mill went out of use; until 1928 when it was reconditioned.
1928-9 Excavation of Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery (38 graves) by W.P.D Stebbing, see also 1959-67.
1935 The lych gate at St Augustine’s church Northbourne blown down in early 1935. In March Betteshanger Colliery engineers volunteered to repair the uprights and put it back up.
1939 Betteshanger Summer School and Conference on Bio-Dynamic Farming, held at Home Farm, 1-9 July 1939.
1940 In May 1940 Lord Northbourne (Walter Ernest Christopher James 4th Baron 1896-1982) published Look to the Land, the work that introduced the term ‘organic farming’.
1940 Sunday 25 August – Spitfire 1 K9931 of No. 610 Sqn crashed at Stoneheap Farm, Northbourne; P/O F.T. Gardiner baled out slightly wounded.
1940 Thursday 19 September 21.00, an unexploded bomb blocked the road from Worth to Ham.
1940 Friday 27 September – 15.50hrs: Bf109E-1 3442 12+ – of 4/JG52 severely damaged, and pilot wounded by S/L G.L. Denholm (or P/O R. Barry) of No. 603 Sqn over Thanet. It crashed through high-tension cables and force-landed in Northbourne Park. Gefr Ernst Bosch wounded.
1940 Wednesday 27 November – 0.8.30hrs: Spitfire 11A P7499 LZ-S of 421 Flt crashed at Cottington Court Farm, Finglesham, after attack by Bf109; P/O Keith A. Lawrence was blown out of the cockpit, but later picked up by RN vessel and taken to Ramsgate.
1944 Wednesday 8 November – 20.24hrs: Air-launched V1 fell near Northbourne school after skimming over the Downs.
1959-1967 Further excavation of Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery by Sonia Chadwick (later Sonia Chadwick Hawkes) see also 1928-9.
1952 20 August 1952 – USAF Thunderjet 49-2349 call sign ‘Thread Red 2’ caught fire during a local night flying exercise. The pilot ejected and it crashed at Little Mongeham. He parachuted down to Ripple and afterwards was taken to Deal police station before returning to Manston. Curiously there is no mention of the pilot’s name although, in early 1951 it was flown by WWII veteran Col Eugene H. Snavely.
1982 July – White Horse at Finglesham burnt down.
2008 June/July – Lych gate roof repaired and new weather vane installed on top of the church tower.