Tenterden cottages

Cottages in Tenterden

The Kent town of Tenterden is full of lovely shops, pubs and restaurants and is home to the Chapel Down Vineyard which produces exceptional quality wines served in all the best places – including Buckingham Palace and First Class on British Airways! Known as ‘the Jewel in the Weald’, it certainly lives up to this description; the town is exceptionally pretty with a wide main street bordered by trees and gardens. 

It was first settled by Anglo-Saxon swine herders from Thanet who drove their pigs down ancient trackways, through nearby Ashford and into clearings in the woods near Tenterden where the animals could feast on plump acorns. Soon these clearings became permanent, and the town was established. It was an important market throughout the Middle Ages and became prosperous through the expansion of several industries in the area. The iron industry was of major importance, as was the wool trade. 

Acres of ancient woodland were felled to fire the furnaces to keep the smelting and fulling processes going. The timber was also used to build houses and there are still plenty of white weather boarded houses in the town, many that housed weavers, and are now much sought after – often as holiday cottages. A more surprising use of local timber was in shipbuilding, given how far Tenterden is from the sea. But a few centuries ago, Small Hythe was a busy port, and the River Rother was wide and navigable, capable of supporting a fleet of warships.