UK-Pages. Bethersden

The sign on the left is a temporary on. Borrowed from Biddenden.

Your guide to the pretty little village of Bethersden. Probably best know for the Bethersden marble and the Stevenson Brothers Rocking Horse factory.

Click on the links below to find out more about the village, and all the facilities on offer

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Where to sleep locally

Local Eating & Drinking

Local Shops & Business

People have lived here for more than one thousand years. St. Margaret's church is mentioned in 12th century dooms day monachorum. The Baptist and Methodists chapels are more modern.

Bethersden Marble formed from fossilised shells of tiny fresh water snails is no longer quarried, but traditional crafts (woodworking, iron forging, etc.) continue, as do horticulture and pig, sheep and cereal farming.

Riding, cricket, football, tennis and cycle racing are features of village life, as is a spirit of community care.

Bethersden Millennium Sign.

The material in this sign: Iron, oak and limestone marble and symbol are all related to activities for which Bethersden is famous. The plaque is a montage of features in the village centre. The sign was designed by residents and built by local craftsmen with a grant from Ashford Borough Council. Beneath the base, a time capsule is buried, to be opened no sooner than 2100 AD.

The sign symbols on the millennium symbol of Bethersden are:

• Oast house - Hop farming area until 1970's.

• Rocking horse - Stevenson brothers export them all over the world.

• Anvil - Forges in the parish, still operational.

• Book - Richard Lovelace, 17th century cavalier poet, owned land in Bethesden. He wrote; "Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage."

• Plain - villages wood craftsmenship'srenowned.

• Shears - sheep farming commercially important.

Nearest Tourist Information Centres:

Tenterden

Ashford

01580 763 572

01233 629 165