Early times – Roman route and Saxon swine
Edenbridge developed at a crossing point of the River Eden.
There are ancient earthworks of the Cantii people on the hills,
north and south, and the Romans passed through on their London
to Lewes road which first crossed the river here. The route
is marked in the straight line of the main road.
In Saxon times the area lay among five denes of swine pasture
in the oak forest – the names survive locally as Broxham,
Shernden and Sundridge. In the Doomsday Survey it was included
in Westerham Hundred. Probably the first record of Eadelmesbrege
is early 12th century, as a parish within a list of churches
paying fees to Rochester. 
Ancient church
Parts of the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul are early
Norman. There is evidence of a smaller building than the present
church, rebuilt and enlarged at the beginning of the 14th
century. Within a century more major alterations raised the
walls and pillars by four feet (shown in two different colours
of pillar stone), it was completely re-roofed with Horsham
slabs, and in the tower a large west door with window above
was inserted.
The porch was an 18th centrury addition and the vestry 19th
century. The clock interestingly has only an hour hand. Local
Arts and Crafts connections are reflected in the large Burne-Jones
stained glass window in the Martyn Chapel, and the architect
Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1864-1945) is buried in the old
cemetery, beside the Church Street boundary wall – his
memorial is an obelisk, topped with a small metal cross.
Market town – continuing tradition
Under a Charter granted by Henry III to the Lord of the
Manor Robert de Camvill in the 13th century, a market was
held in Eadenegbrigge every Saturday. When the market bell
was rung, tolls due to the lord were paid at the toll-booth.
The lord also regulated the sale of bread and beer, and held
the right of pillory for the baker and tumbrill for the brewer
if regulations were ignored.
The market tradition has continued through the centuries,
and a cattle market operated in the town until the 1920s.
Market Yard car park still hosts a weekly general market and
a monthly farmers’ market.
Industrial past – iron, leather, and timber
Wealden iron industry reached a peak in Elizabethan times,
exploiting the ironstone found between the layers of sandstone
of the High Weald, with timber from the woods providing charcoal
to feed the furnaces and forges. Streams were dammed and provided
energy to power the hammer mills. There were several furnaces
and forges in the parish of Cowden. Springs south of Edenbridge
were chalybeate with a metallic tang, like those in Tunbridge
Wells.
Five hundred years a tannery town – a major chapter
of Edenbridge history ended when the tannery closed in the
1970s, unable to compete with imported leather. The owners,
Messrs Whitmore, held deeds showing continuous title on the
site back to the 1670s. The office building, Tanyard House,
remains at the southern end of the High Street, and curves
of the site gateway can be seen on the ground of the Leathermarket
car park entrance. Opposite is the white-boarded ancient corn
mill building of medieval origin, which contained a water
wheel turned by the stream in the Mill Leat.
The timber trade was important in the mid 19th century with
more than a dozen saw-pits, at what is now Edenbridge Town
station, working on the oak brought by road on timber-carriages.
However, by the early 20th century little was left of this
industry. 
Politics and power
Edenbridge has been home to some powerful historic figures.
William Taylour of the Grocers’ Company was elected
Sheriff of London in 1455, becoming Lord Mayor in 1468, and
his house Taylour House still stands in the narrowest part
of the High Street opposite Ye Old Crown Inn. He was knighted
Sir William of St Mary Aldermary in 1483.
During the Commonwealth there were divided loyalities in the
area. A Royalist uprising led to a skirmish on Delaware Farm,
and in 1648 the demolition of Starborough Castle was ordered
to thwart the Royalist threat. Staunch local Parliamentarians
included brothers John and Thomas Seyliard – John was
chosen by Cromwell to represent Kent in Parliament in 1654,
but later managed to also find favour with Charles II, receiving
a baronetcy in 1661.
The Great Stone Bridge
Prompted by on-going expenditure on repairs, the present
single-arch stone bridge (dated 1836) replaced the first six-arch
design built in stone in the reign of Henry VII. From early
times bridge upkeep was considered a religious work of charity,
benefitting from Medieval wills and from the Lord of the Manor’s
right of toll, for maintenance. In time, the bridge itself
owned real estate, with bridge wardens appointed to administer
its property. Records of the ancient Great Stone Bridge Trust
date from 1595, with originally 12 wardens who held office
for life, unless bankrupted or choosing to retire. An i nscription
on the bridge names as Bridge Wardens George Langridge and
Augustus Corke. Over centuries surplus funds built up and
were used for the good of the parish, and the Trust is still
actively benefitting Edenbridge today.
Ancient inns – and smugglers
Located on a through-route from London to the coast, finding
old High Street inns like the White Horse, with former stableyards
behind, is not surprising. The 14th century Ye Old Crown Inn
has an unusual street-spanning sign and links to smuggling
– at its height in the early 19th century the Ransley
Gang were moving contraband. Upstairs is a concealed passage,
where several casks could be hidden, with secret pipes down
to the tap room which were disconnected if Excise men appeared.
Taylour House opposite was the Griffin Inn in the 16th century.
Eden Valley Museum – Doggetts Farm House
Recording the flow of social history through the Eden Valley,
the museum itself occupies a former 14th century Wealden hall
house, owned by the Seyliard family in the late 16th century.
Once Doggetts Farm House, known more recently as Church House,
its Medieval frontage was covered by brick in the 18th century.
The museum opened in 2000, fulfiling a long-held ambition
of the Edenbridge and District Historical Society to have
a single home for local collections.
Doggetts Barn and Visitor
Information Point
Across the courtyard behind the museum is a former timber-framed
barn related to Doggetts Farm House. Converted into Edenbridge
Town Council office in the 1980s, the addition of a lift facilitated
the creation of a new Visitor Information Point upstairs in
2007.
www.edenvalleykent.org 
Victorian railways
Edenbridge expanded with the building of two rail lines in
Victorian times. First, the Redhill to Tonbridge line opened
in 1842, linking to Dover two years later. Then the London
Brighton and South Coast Railway reached town in 1888, delayed
by earlier riots at Mark Beech when English navvies, worried
about wages, attacked around 500 lower-paid French labourers
in 1866. The tunnel-under-a-cutting, at the lines’ cross-over
point west of town, is an interesting construction feature.
20th century expansion
Major growth came in the 1950’s and 60’s with
private and public housing developments, including two London
County Council estates at Stangrove Park and Spitals Cross
– both hailed for the town-in-country design quality
of the homes. New industrial estates were also created, providing
work for the incoming residents. The town’s main industrial
base is at the northern end, where there is a variety of light
industry, and there is also a small trading estate in Hever
Road.
Population increase continued with further developments, including
an established permanent site for travellers, but surrounded
by Green Belt fields, Edenbridge keeps its small rural town
identity.
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