Interesting facts about Chelsfield Kent
General Info
Chelsfield Village has a primary school, a playground, a village hall, an allotment and a cricket club which is the site of the annual Village Summer Fair. In the 1950s the village fielded a football team of sorts, and in the early 1960s a ladies hockey team had a pitch next to the village hall, with the latter lasting only two seasons. On one corner of the field there was also two tennis courts but unused, they ‘disappeared’ late in the 60s. There is a pub, the Five Bells, and the church Parish Rooms sited next to the ‘new’ (70s?) Rectory in Skibbs Lane. There are now no shops at all. Neal’s Store – a grocer cum ironmonger – closed in the early 60s. The post office, latterly run by Mrs Lambert, closed at a later date.The privately operated Chelsfield Park Hospital is situated on the outskirts of the village, in extensive grounds. The house had a sweeping staircase going up in the entrance hall. Post-war (WWII) ‘Chelsfield House’ was used as a ‘reception centre’ for families awaiting a council house. Certainly, one family moved from here to a council house at Kilnfields, in Hollybush Lane. The 70s map shows Orlestone Gardens next to the village school, and this is the site of the ‘old’ rectory, and its large rambling gardens which shared a fence with the school playground. In 1962 the gardens were overgrown and neglected, sporting several decaying beehives – and soon after, the ‘new’ rectory was built in Skibbs Lane.
New Chelsfield has a wide variety of shops along Windsor Drive ranging from a funeral directors and dentist to hairdressers, grocery stores, a betting shop, a fish & chip takeaway and an Indian restaurant. There is also a pub, The Chelsfield (also previously known as The Heavy Horse). Windsor Drive also has the Chelsfield Community Centre, a Methodist church and GP’s surgery.
History
The name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as “Cillesfelle”, meaning “land of a man called Cēol”.Another older variant was ‘Chilesfeld’. The village church was constructed in the early Norman period, and gives its names to the Five Bells pubs. Chelsfield was historically a stopping place for drovers.
In 1868 Chelsfield station was opened, however it was located 1 mile west of the village. As a result, in 1925 land near the station was bought by Homesteads Ltd. and developed for housing, thus creating what is sometime referred to as ‘New’ Chelsfield. Further development occurred after the Second World War, with New Chelsfield eventually merging with Green Street Green and Goddington, however the introduction of the London Green Belt stymied development around the village. The New Chelsfield area is now largely a commuter suburb.
