Hartlip History Website

Welcome to the website devoted to Hartlip's History. Hartlip is a village and in the Borough of Swale in the Kent. In the 2011 census the population was 743.

The village is home to one of the country's oldest primary schools, founded in 1678 by an endowment by Mary Gibbon. The Parish Church dates back to the 11th century and houses six bells, one of which is the sixth oldest bell in Kent.

The derivation of the name Hartlip is a matter of dispute. One version is that it derives from the Old English hliep, which means a gate or fence and heorot meaning a hart or stag. Together this is taken to mean a "gate over which harts leap". However, why a village should be named after a gate that deer chose to jump over is not clear.

Another more plausible explanation was found in correspondence between Canon Mutter, vicar of the Parish in the 1930s, and Mr. Jessup, an expert on Kent. Jessup's conclusion was that the name meant "an enclosure in which deer were kept". .... read more.

The centre of Hartlip