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45-651: Wrotham ( / ˈ r uː t əm / ROO -təm ) is a village on the Pilgrims' Way in Kent , England, at the foot of the North Downs . It is 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Borough Green and approximately 5 miles (8 km) east of Sevenoaks . It is between the M20 and M26 motorways. The name first occurs as Uurotaham in the year 788, meaning 'homestead of a man called Wrōta'. The offshoot village on Wrotham Heath at

90-606: A change in nomenclature: the authorities created by the 1858 act were simply entitled "local boards" and their areas as "local government districts". When the General Board of Health was abolished in 1858 its responsibilities in respect of local government passed to the Secretary of State of the Home Department , in whose department a Local Government Act Office was formed to administer the local boards. In 1871

135-481: A high percentage of workers in agriculture; energy and water supply; hotels and restaurants; and construction. It had a low percentage in health and social work; and public administration. According to Office for National Statistics estimates, the average gross income of households in Wrotham between April 2001 and March 2002 was £770 per week (£40,000 per year). The village has a variety of small businesses serving

180-411: A low rate of unemployment, and a high proportion of self-employed workers. Employment by industry was 16% retail; 14% real estate; 13% manufacturing; 10% construction; 8% health and social work; 8% education; 7% transport and communications; 5% finance; 5% hotels and restaurants; 3% public administration ; 3% agriculture; 1% energy and water supply; and 6% other. Compared to national figures, Wrotham had

225-668: A mile wide" and not as a single, well-defined track. The route was still followed as an artery for through traffic in Roman times, a period of continuous use of more than 3000 years. From Thomas Becket's canonization in 1173, until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, his shrine at Canterbury became the most important in the country, indeed "after Rome...the chief shrine in Christendom", and it drew pilgrims from far and wide. Winchester, apart from being an ecclesiastical centre in its own right (the shrine of St Swithin ),

270-646: A pamphlet in 1871 entitled Notes on the Pilgrims' Way in West Surrey . While acknowledging that the route was "little studied" and that "very many persons in the neighbourhood had not been aware of it", he nonetheless caused the name to be inserted on the Ordnance Survey map, giving official sanction to his conjecture. Romantic writers such as Hilaire Belloc were eager to follow this up and they succeeded in creating "a fable of...modern origin" to explain

315-560: A separate agency was again formed entitled the Local Government Board , with a President who was frequently a Cabinet member. The Local Government Board also took over the duties of the Poor Law Board . The procedure for adopting the act and constituting a local board was laid out in sections 12 – 17 of the act, and was similar to that in the 1848 act. Changes made included: The method of electing members of

360-623: Is Early English and later; nearby is the site of a palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury , maintained until the time of Archbishop Simon Islip (c. 1350). Wrotham Hill to the north was a main measuring point for the 18th-century trigonometric survey linking the Greenwich Royal Observatory with the Paris Observatory . This Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) was led by General William Roy . Close by

405-475: Is responsible for running local services, such as recreation, refuse collection and council housing ; while Kent County Council is responsible for education, social services and trading standards. Both councils are involved in town planning and road maintenance. Wrotham is part of the Electoral Division of Malling West of Kent County Council A 2008 report showed that Wrotham has experienced one of

450-638: Is the Wrotham transmitting station which was the first transmitter in the UK to broadcast on FM in 1955 and now carries the main national FM radio frequencies for most of London. The parish of Wrotham formed a major part of the Hundred of Wrotham , forming 58% of its area and 61% of its population (1891) The area and population of each parish and the totals for the Hundred were as follows: The Hundred of Wrotham

495-607: The River Medway ). South of Rochester , the Pilgrims' Way travels through the villages of Burham , Boxley , Detling and continuing in a south-east direction to the north of the villages of Harrietsham and Lenham . The route continues south-east along the top of the Downs past Charing , to Wye and then turns north to follow the valley of the Great Stour through Chilham and on to Canterbury . Along some stretches

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540-595: The South Downs Way at Winchester. 51°17′N 0°4′E  /  51.283°N 0.067°E  / 51.283; 0.067 Local board of health#Local Government Act 1858 The first local boards were created under the Public Health Act 1848 ( 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63). The aim of the act was to improve the sanitary condition of towns and populous places in England and Wales by placing:

585-399: The 2001 UK census, 39.5% of the village's residents aged 16–74 were employed full-time, 12.9% employed part-time, 14.1% self-employed and 1.6% unemployed, while 1.9% were students with jobs, 3.4% students without jobs, 14.3% retired, 8.0% looking after home or family, 2.5% permanently sick or disabled and 1.9% economically inactive for other reasons. Compared to national figures, the village had

630-462: The act was applied by Order in Council . Where a new district was created this was done by provisional order of the General Board, confirmed by Parliament. Members of local boards were either: Where a local board district coincided with a borough, or was entirely within a borough's limits, all the members were selected by the corporation. Where a district was entirely outside a municipality, all

675-475: The ancient way, as it was the direct route, and research by local historians has provided much by way of detail—sometimes embellished—of the pilgrims' journeys. The numbers making their way to Canterbury by this route were not recorded, but the estimate by the Kentish historian William Coles Finch that it carried more than 100,000 pilgrims a year is surely an exaggeration; a more prosaic estimate—extrapolated from

720-458: The board remained the same, although existing or new boards could now be divided into wards. The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 had included model clauses for the government of towns which could be adopted in all or in part by existing borough corporations, local boards of health or improvement commissioners. The application of these was very uneven, so they were incorporated into the 1858 act, all local boards gaining these powers. Areas covered by

765-468: The clauses were: The local board also took over any lamps, lamp posts and gas posts provided by the Lighting and Watching Act 1833 , and was given a new power to provide a market place where one was required or inadequate. The number of local boards peaked at 721 in 1873. In that year the Public Health Act 1872 merged local boards into municipal boroughs and improvement commissioners where they shared

810-518: The contours, avoided the sticky clay of the land below but also the thinner, overlying "clay with flints" of the summits. In places a coexisting ridgeway and terrace way can be identified; the route followed would have varied with the season, but it would not drop below the upper line of cultivation. The trackway ran the entire length of the North Downs, leading to and from Folkestone : the pilgrims would have had to turn away from it, north along

855-542: The district and board did not change however, the local board assuming extra duties as a sanitary authority. Local boards and local government districts were finally abolished by the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), when all urban sanitary districts became urban districts . A new urban district council was to govern the district. The new council was to be directly elected by all those entitled to voted in parliamentary elections, replacing

900-518: The existence of the Way. In fact, the route as shown on modern maps is not only unsuitable for the mass movement of travellers but has also left few traces of their activity. The official history of the Ordnance Survey acknowledges the "enduring archaeological blunder", blaming the enthusiasm for history of the then Director, General Sir Henry James . However, F. C. Elliston-Erwood, a Kentish historian, notes that tithe records dating from before 1815 use

945-466: The film. Anyone walking the 'Pilgrims Way' from Winchester would have started along the Roman road east following the route through New Alresford , Four Marks , Alton and Bentley to Farnham. This roughly follows the modern A31 . The ancient main streets of towns along the route from Farnham (where the old trackway converges with the pilgrims' route) through Guildford , Dorking and Reigate align west to east, strongly suggesting that this

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990-471: The greatest deteriorations of basic services, losing the most amenities in the previous four years. Wrotham is in the parliamentary constituency of Tonbridge and Malling . Since the constituency's creation in 1974 it has been represented by two Members of Parliament: Sir John Stanley from 1974 to 2015 and Tom Tugendhat from 2015 onwards, both representing the Conservative Party . Wrotham

1035-568: The heart of the heath of the same name, once an area of wholly common land , is 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (2.4 km) to the south-east. Wrotham shows extensive signs of occupation by the Romans and it is posited that the Wrotham Pinot, a disease-resistant variety of the Pinot noir grape found in Wrotham churchyard, is descended from vines brought by the Romans. The church of St George

1080-407: The latter case a superintending inspector appointed by the General Board would hold an inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, supply of water, state of burial grounds and other matters relating to the sanitary condition of the town, and where necessary define boundaries for the district of the local board. Where the boundaries of a proposed local board's district were the same as an existing local unit,

1125-582: The members were elected. In districts which were partly in and partly outside a borough the board had a mixture of selected and elected members. Selected members did not have to be members of the corporation. Borough mayors were ex officio board members. Those entitled to elect board members could have multiple votes depending on how much property they owned. This ranged from one vote for owners of property worth less than £50, to six votes for those holding more than £250 of property. It followed that board members were generally wealthy property owners or members of

1170-779: The needs of the community. It has a central concentration of pubs , three within a hundred yards of each other: the Rose and Crown, the George and Dragon and the Bull Hotel. A fourth, the Three Postboys, ceased trading in 2009. [REDACTED] Media related to Wrotham at Wikimedia Commons Pilgrims%27 Way The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way ) is the historical route supposedly taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire , England , to

1215-475: The other two members being appointed by warrant. The board was originally to be dissolved after five years, but acts of parliament were passed annually allowing for its continuation. Chadwick was appointed a commissioner, and the board was strongly associated with him. In 1852, Edward Gotto was employed to carry out the national General Board of Health Survey. The board finally ceased to exist on 1 September 1858. Local boards could be formed in two ways: In

1260-432: The pilgrims' route left the ancient trackway to encompass religious sites, examples being Pewley Down, near Guildford, where the later way passed St Martha's Hill and St Catherine's chantry chapel , some 500 metres to the south. At Reigate the thirteenth-century chapel of St Thomas and a hospice were built for the pilgrims' use, although they were not on the route. Boxley Abbey , with its revered Rood of Grace ,

1305-407: The professions. The powers and duties of a local board of health were enumerated in the act: The 1848 act was replaced by the Local Government Act 1858 ( 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98). The act came into force in all existing local board of health districts on 1 September 1858. The act made some changes to the procedure for constituting a local board and gave them some additional powers. There was also

1350-621: The records of pilgrims' offerings at the shrine—contends an annual figure closer to 1,000. A separate (and more reliably attested) route to Canterbury from London was by way of Watling Street , as followed by the storytellers in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer . Conversely, the concept of a single route called the Pilgrims' Way could be no older than the Victorian Ordnance Survey map of Surrey, whose surveyor, Edward Renouard James, published

1395-511: The same district. 419 of the local boards had been formed under the Public Health Act 1848 , the remaining 302 under the Local Government Act 1858 . The number of local boards was inflated in 1862–63, as communities adopted the act in order to avoid being grouped into highway districts under the Highways Act 1862 . Many of these local government districts had a population of fewer than 500, and several fewer than 100. Further legislation

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1440-498: The shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent . This name, of comparatively recent coinage, is applied to a pre-existing ancient trackway dated by archaeological finds to 600–450 BC, but probably in existence since the Stone Age . The prehistoric route followed the "natural causeway" east to west on the southern slopes of the North Downs . The course was dictated by the natural geography: it took advantage of

1485-641: The supply of water; sewerage; drainage; cleansing; paving, and environmental health regulation under a single local body. The act could be applied to any place in England and Wales except the City of London and some other areas in the Metropolis already under the control of sewer commissioners . The Act was passed by the Whig government of Lord John Russell , in response to the urging of Edwin Chadwick . This

1530-582: The urban district council was always based in Borough Green, which was growing to become the largest settlement in the parish following the opening of Wrotham railway station there in 1874 (renamed Borough Green and Wrotham in 1962). The council met at the Railway Hotel until 1902, then at a converted house it leased at 2 Sevenoaks Road from 1902 until 1924, before building its own headquarters at 16–18 Maidstone Road in 1924. Wrotham Urban District

1575-634: The valley of the Great Stour near Chilham , to reach Canterbury. The prehistoric trackway extended further than the present Way, providing a link from the narrowest part of the English Channel to the important religious complexes of Avebury and Stonehenge , in Wiltshire, where it is known as the Harroway . The way then existed as "broad and ill-defined corridors of movement up to half

1620-524: The village was given as 99.2% white, 0.66% mixed race , and 0.16% Black. The place of birth of the town's residents was 95.9% United Kingdom (92.0% England), 0.4% Republic of Ireland, 0.8% other Western Europe, 0.4% Eastern Europe, 1.0% Africa, 0.8% Asia, 0.4% North America and 0.3% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 74.81% Christian, 0.44% Jewish, 0.22% Buddhist, 0.17% Muslim and 0.17% Sikh. 15.46% were recorded as having no religion, 0.33% had an alternative religion, and 8.42% did not state their religion. At

1665-454: The well established name "Pilgrims' Way" to reference and locate pieces of land. Earlier still, surviving thirteenth century documents show a "Pilgrim Road" by the walls of Thornham Castle , Kent, on what is today considered the route. The Pilgrims' Way is at the centre of the Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale , with the camera panning along a map of the route at the start of

1710-610: Was abolished in 1934, with the area being absorbed into Malling Rural District and divided into the parishes of Borough Green (which also took some territory from Ightham ), Platt, Plaxtol and Wrotham. Malling Rural District in turn was abolished in 1974 to become part of Tonbridge and Malling . At the 2001 UK census , the Wrotham ward had a population of 1,815. The village had 759 households; of which, 42% were married couples, 29% were individuals, 9% were cohabiting couples, and 6% were lone parent families. 20% of households had someone at pensionable age living alone. The ethnicity of

1755-423: Was an ancient parish , and was formerly significantly larger than it is today, also including Borough Green , Platt , Plaxtol and Stansted . Stansted became a separate civil parish sometime before the nineteenth century. In 1863 the parish of Wrotham was made a local government district , governed by a local board. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts in 1894. Although named after Wrotham,

1800-501: Was an important regional focus and an aggregation point for travellers arriving through the seaports on the south coast. It is "widely accepted" that this was the route taken by Henry II on his pilgrimage of atonement for the death of Bishop Thomas, from France to Canterbury in July 1174, although this has been disputed and some evidence points to his having taken a route via London. Travellers from Winchester to Canterbury naturally used

1845-580: Was another recognised detour. The North Downs Way National Trail parallels the old Pilgrims' Way between Farnham and Canterbury. Much of the traditional route of the Pilgrims' Way is now part of the modern road network and the Ramblers have previously advised walkers wishing to follow it to use St. Swithun's Way between Winchester and Farnham and the North Downs Way between Farnham and Canterbury as an alternative. The route also links with

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1890-671: Was one of the hundreds of the Lathe of Aylesford . Wrotham is a civil parish within the local government district of Tonbridge and Malling . The parish has 8 councillors elected at-large . Wrotham parish comprises the local government ward of Wrotham. which is one of the 53 seats on the Tonbridge & Malling District Borough Council. The seat is held by the Conservative Martin Coffin, having been re-elected in 2011 . Tonbridge & Malling District Borough Council

1935-406: Was passed in 1863 to limit the population of a new local government district to 3,000 or more. Some of these small authorities survived as urban districts until the county review orders of the 1930s. The Public Health Act 1875 ( 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55) designated local government districts as urban sanitary districts , with the local board becoming the urban sanitary authority. The titles of

1980-714: Was supported by reports, from the Royal Commission on the Health of Towns (formed in 1843) and local branches of the Health of Towns Association (formed in 1844), of poor and insanitary conditions in many UK cities. The act created a General Board of Health as a central authority to administer the act. There were three commissioners: the president of the board being the First Commissioner of Her Majesty's Woods and Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings ,

2025-418: Was the most important route that passed through them. On modern Ordnance Survey maps, part of the route is shown running east from Farnham via the heights by Guildford Castle , then north of the village of Shere , north of Dorking , Reigate , Merstham , Chaldon , Godstone , Limpsfield and Westerham , through Otford , Kemsing and Wrotham , north of Trottiscliffe , towards Cuxton (where it crossed

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