Edenbridge

Edenbridge

Edenbridge, town (parish), Sevenoaks district, administrative and historic county of Kent, England. It is situated south of London near the Surrey border, on the River Eden.

The first references to the town appear in 12th-century church records. In 1279 Henry III granted Edenbridge a charter for a weekly market. The Eden Valley Museum, occupying one of the oldest surviving buildings in Edenbridge, preserves local history. Its late Georgian brick facade nearly obscures the medieval timber-framed manor house underneath, and two bricked-up windows are reminders of the window tax introduced in 1696. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which dates from at least Norman times, is notable for the single-handed 18th-century clock in its tower and for a stained-glass window created by painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, one of the pioneers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Another figure associated with the movement, architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865–1945), is buried in the church’s cemetery. Among the town’s several parks is Stangrove Park. During the annual Eden Valley Summer Festival, events are held throughout the area. In November the Edenbridge Bonfire Society’s Guy Fawkes Day celebration, including a torchlit procession and fireworks display, draws huge crowds.

Picturesque villages, steeped in history and nestled in the countryside, surround the town. Nearby are Chartwell, home of Sir Winston Churchill, and the 13th-century double-moated Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, whose grounds are now home to the Festival Theatre at Hever Castle. Also nearby is Penshurst Place, which dates from 1341, when the soaring medieval Baron’s Hall was built as a country retreat for a lord mayor of London. The Gothic Chiddingstone Castle is located in the area, and there is a nature reserve at Bough Beech Reservoir. Pop. (2001) 7,808; (2011) 8,907.