Streets in North East Tenterden

This is a list of the streets in North East Tenterden - the triangle formed between Ashford Road up to but not including Mill Lane and Oaks Road/ East Hill; Woodchurch Road up to Knockwood Road. These roads form an inverted letter “A” with Beacon Oak Road acting as the bar to the “A”.

Street list

Num. 1, RP 2, Name: Adams Close.
Num. 2, RP 3, Name: Admirals Walk.
Num. 3, RP 6, Name: Ashford Road.
Num. 4, RP 9, Name: Beachy Path.
Num. 5, RP 10, Name: Beacon Oak Road .
Num. 6, RP 11, Name: Beacon Walk.
Num. 7, RP -, Name: Clay Hill.
Num. 8, RP 39, Name: Craythorne.
Num. 9, RP 43, Name: Danemore.
Num. 10, RP 46, Name: East Cross.
Num. 11, RP -, Name: East Cross Left.
Num. 12, RP -, Name: East Cross Right.
Num. 13, RP 47, Name: East Hill.
Num. 14, RP 48, Name: East Weald Drive.
Num. 15, RP 49, Name: Eastgate Road.
Num. 16, RP 52, Name: Elmfield.
Num. 17, RP 58, Name: Golden Square.
Num. 18, RP 59, Name: Goldsmith Court.
Num. 19, RP 63, Name: Green Hedges.
Num. 20, RP 66, Name: Hales Close.
Num. 21, RP 67, Name: Hales Court.
Num. 22, RP -, Name: Jacob’s Ladder.
Num. 23, RP 87, Name: Limes Hill.
Num. 24, RP 93, Name: Martins Close.
Num. 25, RP 99, Name: Mount Pleasant.
Num. 26, RP 103, Name: Oaks Road.
Num. 27, RP 120, Name: Roethorne Gardens.
Num. 28, RP 124, Name: Rothley Close.
Num. 29, RP 125, Name: Sandy Lane.
Num. 30, RP 138, Name: Stace Close.
Num. 31, RP 140, Name: Summer Close.
Num. 32, RP -, Name: The Croft.
Num. 33, RP 53, Name: The Fairings.
Num. 34, RP 148, Name: Vineys Gardens.
Num. 35, RP 158, Name: Woodchurch Road.

Num. 1, RP 2, Name: Adams Close
Named in honour of Mrs Edith A. Adams, in 1928 the second lady to be elected a member of Tenterden Borough Council (the first was Miss M K Winser, in 1927) and the first lady to be elected mayor of Tenterden Borough (1937 and 1938). Before the Second World War, Mrs Adams (1885–1975) was a strong campaigner for a secondary school in Tenterden and when Homewood became available in 1947 she was largely responsible for persuading Kent Education Committee to acquire the estate as a secondary school. She became the first chairman of the school Governors when the school fully opened in 1949, a post she held until retirement in 1966. In April 1960 she was made a Freeman of the Borough of Tenterden.

Num. 2, RP 3, Name: Admirals Walk
28 March 2021 Named after Admiral Sir Charles Drury (see Drury Road and Homewood Road), Admirals Walk dates from 1980. Admiral Drury is one of two people to give their name to two Tenterden streets (the other is Major Leslie Chalk).

Num. 3, RP 6, Name: Ashford Road
Ashford Road is the name for the A28 travelling in a North Easterly direction and then North from East Cross. Ashford did not reach its current importance until the arrival of the railways so this could quite easily have been called the Biddenden Road, the road to Biddenden having been part of the Tenterden Turnpike Trust.

Num. 4, RP 9, Name: Beachy Path
Beachy Path is the old footpath linking Ashford Road and Golden Square, now Public Footpath AB15. The Ashford Road end is now part of Rothley Close. It is named after the Beach family who owned Beachy Farm. Four cottages alongside the path were for workers on the farm. Between the First and Second World Wars Tenterden Borough Council built four pairs of semi-detached houses here. Unusually all these houses are numbered 1 to 12 with number 1 at the head of the cul-de-sac. Until 1974 Tenterden Borough Council’s highways depot was based here on the site of the old Tenterden Carriage Works.

Num. 5, RP 10, Name: Beacon Oak Road
29 March 2021 Beacon Oak Road is another of Tenterden’s ancient roads, leading from the Ashford Road to the junction with Appledore Road and East Hill. The Hundred Pound was at this junction from 1848, when the Corporation sold the existing Manor Pound in the High Street for this Pound and a new shed for the manual fire engine. The name probably derives from the Beacon Oak Field opposite the Northern junction which is shown on John Adam’s 1822 map of Tenterden and on the 1843 Tithe map. Until the early 1900s it was known as Beacon Oak Lane, the housing development on the West side coinciding with the change of name. Until the 1960s the section between the Woodchurch Road and East Hill junctions was known as Limes Hill.

Num. 6, RP 11, Name: Beacon Walk
Beacon Walk is the Northern extension of Craythorne off Beacon Oak Road and dates from 1978.

Num. 7, RP -, Name: Clay Hill
Whilst not a registered street name, records of the stretch of Woodchurch Road roughly opposite Tenterden Golf Club being called Clay Hill stretch back to the 1560s.

Num. 8, RP 39, Name: Craythorne
Craythorne House, built about 1780, is the large white house on the North East corner of the junction of Beacon Oak Road and Woodchurch Road. Its estate stretched along the East side of Beacon Oak Road. Craythorne, the road, lies in what was an orchard on the estate. The initial short cul-de-sac appears on the 1947 OS map with the rest of the development complete by 1961. Beacon Walk would be added later.

Num. 9, RP 43, Name: Danemore
Danemore was a cul-de-sac off Beachy Path where a group of pre-fabs were built after the second world war. In 1977, following the compulsory purchase and demolition of Mr Puxted’s bicycle shop, the area was developed for sheltered housing, retaining the Danemore name. Further recent re-development keeps the name on the block, opened in February 2020 by HRH The Princess Royal, which “provides rural communal living for 34 residents”.

Num. 10, RP 46, Name: East Cross
East Cross is the name of the short stretch of the A28 running alongside East Cross Gardens from the end of Tenterden High Street to the start of Ashford Road. The Misses Bright, two sisters who lived in Miriam House (16 East Cross), bought what is now East Cross Gardens to prevent development. It was acquired by Tenterden Borough Council after World War 2 and funds raised by the W.V.S., the Chamber of Trade and the Rotary Club, Tenterden were used to establish the attractive flower beds and seating.

Num. 11, RP -, Name: East Cross Left

Num. 12, RP -, Name: East Cross Right

Num. 13, RP 47, Name: East Hill
31/03/2021 East Hill is another of Tenterden’s ancient roads. However, the source of the name is unknown but probably is a old as that of East Hill House, the mathematically tiled, timber framed house at the junction of Golden Square and East Hill.

Num. 14, RP 48, Name: East Weald Drive
East Weald Drive is named after the large house known as East Weald found at the top of the drive.

Num. 15, RP 49, Name: Eastgate Road
Eastgate Road, Martins Close and Mount Pleasant are built in the former garden of Eastgate House. This Georgian house dated from about 1741. The Whitfield family, who have a fine monument dated 1622 in the Church and provided several Tenterden mayors in the 18th century, used to live here. The house was demolished in 1964 after much fighting by townspeople and preservation societies and Eastgate Road dates from the following year. Part of the boundary wall to the original house remains along Woodchurch Road.

Num. 16, RP 52, Name: Elmfield
Dating from 1905, Elmfield runs off Oaks Road parallel to Sandy Lane.

Num. 17, RP 58, Name: Golden Square
29/03/2021 Not a square at all, Golden Square is the road running from Oaks Road to Woodchurch Road. The name is taken from Golden Farm (the old name for Leigh Green Farm). Most of Golden Square was built 1840-1860 and was called “New Town”.

Num. 18, RP 59, Name: Goldsmith Court
A spur off Homewood Road, Goldsmith Court (dating from 1997) was named after Mrs Nina Daisy Goldsmith who became the second lady mayor of Tenterden in 1956 for two years and in 1993 was given the Freedom of the Town. She came to the Weald in 1916, from Winslow in Buckinghamshire, to work in the stationary department at Alex Ridley’s chemist shop at 60 High Street – now Paydens the chemist shop. Seven years later she married Arthur Goldsmith, whose father had founded a family baker’s at 37 High Street in 1895 and which he ran from 1926 until his retirement in 1975. During the Second World War Mrs Goldsmith ran a “threepenny hop” for troops in the town hall. When the Americans arrived she raised the entrance fee to ninepence. Mrs Goldsmith died four months short of her hundredth birthday in 1996.

Num. 19, RP 63, Name: Green Hedges
Green Hedges is the private road leading off Beacon Oak Road. It is named after the building erected in the 1890s as a laundry. The laundry closed in 1939, just before World War 2 and the house is now flats.

Num. 20, RP 66, Name: Hales Close
Hales Close dates from 1961, taking its name from nearby Hales Place. The Hales came to Tenterden in the late 15th century and built Hales Place. John Hales, the incumbent Bailiff, become the town’s first Mayor in 1600 when Queen Elizabeth granted Tenterden a new Charter of Incorporation replacing the Bailiff with a Mayor. The house was much altered in the eighteenth century.

Num. 21, RP 67, Name: Hales Court
Aptly named, Hales Court is a court off Hales Close and dates from 1989.

Num. 22, RP -, Name: Jacob’s Ladder
Jacob’s Ladder is the small flight of steps almost opposite the entrance to Knockwood Road. They lead up to the footpath - AB12 - that goes across the fields to Appledore Road via the former Homewood School playing fields. Jacob’s Ladder - the biblical ladder leading to heaven seen by Jacob in a dream - is a common name for steep flights of steps. It is also the name used for the rigging leading to the fighting top of fifteenth century sailing vessels and can been seen on the 1449 common seal of the town and hundred of Tenterden.

Num. 23, RP 87, Name: Limes Hill
This is the former name of the steep stretch of Beacon Oak Road from the cross-roads with Golden Square/ Woodchurch Road to the Appledore Road. It was named after the Lime trees growing around The Limes (now Stace House) on the Woodchurch Road/ Beacon Oak Road cross-roads.

Num. 24, RP 93, Name: Martins Close
Named in memory of the Martin family, the last residents of Eastgate House, a Georgian building. The last resident was Dr Martin, a native of Cornwall, who acquired Eastgate around 1926, after the death of the owner Sir James Mellor, formerly King’s Remembrancer. Dr Martin was Mayor of Tenterden in 1933 and 1934.
In 1964 after much fighting by townspeople and preservation societies, the house was demolished and Martins Close, Eastgate Road and Mount Pleasant were built in the former garden of the House.

Num. 25, RP 99, Name: Mount Pleasant
Built in 1966 in the grounds of the former Eastgate House, Mount Pleasant is named after the plot of land which used to lie behind (i.e. to the North) of Eastgate House.

Num. 26, RP 103, Name: Oaks Road
Oaks Road, running from Ashford Road to Golden Square, is part of the B2067. It was only after a road traffic accident in the mid 1970s that Oaks Road ceased to be a direct continuation of the High Street - the line followed by the Tenterden turnpike from Cranbrook to Appledore. Its name comes from The Oaks, an old half-timbered mansion standing at East Cross, which was demolished in 1830. Oaks Place (the terraced building along Oaks Road) dating from 1836 also perpetuates the name.

Num. 27, RP 120, Name: Roethorne Gardens
Dating from 1961, Roethorne Gardens is the private road which runs behind Craythorne House. Numbers 1 to 8 front onto Woodchurch Road.

Num. 28, RP 124, Name: Rothley Close
27 March 2021 Rothley Close dates from 1960 and takes its name from “Rothley”, No 56 Ashford Road, in whose grounds it was built. The close was built in two stages resulting in an unusual numbering of the properties - 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 3, 4.

Num. 29, RP 125, Name: Sandy Lane
Sandy line is restricted byway AB33A leading off Oaks Road and passing Huson Farm before becoming public footpath AB33. For a minor lane Sandy Lane is distinguished by being named on many old editions of large scale OS maps, many other more major roads being left unnamed.

Num. 30, RP 138, Name: Stace Close
Dating from 1982, Stace Close is named after Stace House on the corner of Woodchurch Road and Beacon Oak Road and is built on part of the old Stace estate. The Staces were prominent Tenterden citizens whose name frequently appears in the list of Tenterden Bailiffs and Mayors for a period of almost two centuries beginning with the last quarter of the sixteenth century.

Num. 31, RP 140, Name: Summer Close
Off Knockwood Road, Summer Close dates from 1963. Public footpath AB13 starts at the junction of Summer Close with Knockwood Road and continues along the close and then through Knock Wood and on, crossing Swain Road before becoming footpath AT163 in High Halden Parish, ending at Tiffenden Cottage on Harbourne Lane.

Num. 32, RP -, Name: The Croft
The Croft is the private road at the end of Elmfield.

Num. 33, RP 53, Name: The Fairings
This private street takes its name from the building of the same name. This is the site of the first cinema in Tenterden, the Picture House built in 1912 but soon known as the Electric Palace as it boasted electrical lighting well before electricity came to Tenterden in 1926. The Electric Palace closed in February 1937 after the new Embassy cinema opened. During World War 2 it was used as an Army Supply Depot but became derelict afterwards. It was nearly demolished but instead refurbished in the late 1950s into the row of shops seen today.

Num. 34, RP 148, Name: Vineys Gardens
Officially Vineys Gardens all the street signs show Viney’s Gardens - with an apostrophe. This is the only Tenterden street name where an apostrophe appears. Vineys Gardens is reached via Admirals Walk. The properties in this road are built in the garden of Dovenden, on the Woodchurch Road, whose gardens extended up to where the old windmill stood at the top of Mill Lane. In the eighteenth century Dovenden was the home of the Viney/ Viny family. Thomas Viny (1731-1812) was a noted Unitarian Dissenter and friend and correspondent of both Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Priestly. Viney entertained Franklin and Priestly at Dovenden when they attended the Unitarian Church on the Ashford Road in 1774 (2 years before Franklin signed the US Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia) and Priestly preached. There is a monument to Thomas Viny at the left hand side of the Old Meeting House on the Ashford Road.

Num. 35, RP 158, Name: Woodchurch Road
Woodchurch Road is another of Tenterden’s ancient roads and is named after its destination. Now the B2067 it extends from Beacon Oak Road to the Tenterden boundary at Huntbourne Bridge over the Tenterden Sewer after which the B2067 is known as Brook Street.