insideKENT Magazine Issue 48 - March 2016 | Page 77

TOWNSPOTLIGHT S P O T L I G H T O N chislehurst You love the hustle and bustle of a town, but you crave the peace of the countryside. You enjoy living in a village with all the local amenities it offers, but you want the facilities of a more suburban area. You want it all – which is great if you happen to live or work in Chislehurst, because this is where you can have it all, and then some. From the village atmosphere to the restaurants, events, and leisure activities of a big town, it’s all here, in one exceptional place. BY LISAMARIE LAMB history in brief The name Chislehurst is Saxon, and, literally translated, means ‘gravelly wood’. The reason for the name becomes evident the more you walk around the wooded areas surrounding the village; not much has changed in a thousand years. The area was never particularly good for agriculture, so instead the main income of Chislehurst was derived from mining for chalk and lime, and the well-known Chislehurst Caves are part of that mining industry from so long ago. Chislehurst was first mentioned in records in AD973, when King Edgar gave a piece of land (Chislehurst) to St Andrews Priory in Rochester. It gr