Mereworth Village
Mereworth and Malling Spiritual Development group next meeting will be Saturday 13 March at 11am in the Village Hall, Butchers Lane, Mereworth - new members welcome. The group will be offering Personal Readings at this session from 12 noon. £5 per person - see diary dates for more information
Mereworth lies in the Medway Valley between Maidstone and Tonbridge.
The village is in the Metropolitan Green Belt and much of it is a Conservation Area.
St Lawrence Church is a handsome classical building with an eye-catching steeple, and there are many listed buildings in the main street (The Street) and Butchers Lane. The former Globe petrol filling station, now a motorcycle business, is also in The Street.
There is one public house, The Queens Head, which is in Butchers Lane, close to the Village Hall.
Mereworth Primary School is located in The Street
Mereworth Church The Street
Mereworth – a brief history
MEREWORTH derives from Mýra’s wort, or homestead, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book 1086 as belonging to Hamo, a Norman nobleman. Among information recorded then there were 28 villagers, a church and two mills.
Sir John de Mereworth fought at Edward III’s siege and capture of Calais in 1347 and the Nevill family owned Mereworth and much of the surrounding area throughout the middle ages.
Their descendant John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, rebuilt their castle in the style of an Italian villa in 1722-25, and the church in 1744-46, both regarded as among the pre-eminent buildings of their period.
Still largely agricultural, the village was long associated with hop growing, with important growers including the Fremlin brewing family. In the 20th century this gave way to top fruit growing and more recently soft fruit.
During the second World War several doodlebugs fell in the village
THE FETE - annually in mid-June, the village holds a fete in the recreation ground and the day has always proved a happy and successful occasion. It does, for many people, provide one of the last links with true village life.