Boughton Monchelsea is a village and civil parish[2] in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The civil parish lies on a ragstone ridge situated between the North Downs and the Weald of Kent and has commonly been called Quarry Hills. The village itself is located 3 miles (5 km) south of the town of Maidstone
The village name comes from a corruption of the name of the Norman family given the manor after the Conquest: Montchensie who held the manor until 1287[4] and the Anglo Saxon Boc Tun (Beech Tree settlement). The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Boltone, then Bouton, Bocton, and probably via Bocton de Montchensie to the current Boughton Monchelsea. The suffix using the family name seems to have been added in this area of Kent, possibly to differentiate multiple Boctuns.[5]
Some of the earliest history of Boughton Monchelsea is in the Iron Age settlement at Quarry Wood Camp (Camp Field). There are traces of an outer rampart on Parsonage Farm (on the edge of Park Wood) constructed by the Belgae about 40 AD, possibly as a defence against the Roman invasion in 43 AD.
The foundations of a Roman bathhouse were discovered in 1841 near Brishing Court, also a Roman villa at Brishing and a cemetery at Lockham. The quarries were worked extensively in Roman times and the villa and bathhouse could well have belonged to the quarry owner. Ragstone (a type of sandstone) was worked here; stone for the building of Westminster Abbey, the present-day Houses of Parliament and the repair of Rochester Castle came from here. The last quarry closed in 1960.
The village has a village green, a primary school, a village hall, a recreation ground, one public house a post office and a community arts centre The Maidstone Art Centre which is situated at Marlpit Farm in Wierton Road among its amenities.
The 16th-century Elizabethan stone-built former manor house, Boughton Monchelsea Place,[6] is situated in a private deer park and remains a private dwelling although it is occasionally opened for commercial use as a venue for weddings and business conferences.
A similar property at nearby Wierton Place has in recent years operated as a polo and country club as well as an exclusive out-of-town nightclub. Prior to that it was the official residence of judges when on circuit at Maidstone Crown Court.[4]
Other historic houses include the Grade II listed Tanyard,[7] Brishing Court and Lewis Court.
The Cock Inn, dating back to 1568, is situated at the junction of Heath Road and Brishing Lane. Featured in the classic 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets starring Alec Guinness and Dennis Price, The Cock is a typical old English pub featuring inglenooks, exposed beams and low ceilings.
