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
Parish magazine
An on-line archive of parish magazines is being constructed. It is possible to search this archive and retrieve pages of any of the parish magazines that we have.
Facsimile pages are available for download as pdf files. If you have any Parish Magazines that we are missing and would be willing to lend them to us for scanning and uploading to the website, please contact Peter Blandon.
visit the archiveGraveyard inscriptions
All of the inscriptions of the gravestones in Hartlip Churchyard have been surveyed and they are gradually being added to an on-line resource here.
It is possible to search this resource to find a particular person's grave. For a general description of the churchyard project follow the churchyard link in the menu bar above.
go to the name indexPhoto and image album
A large collection of images is slowly being uploaded onto the website. The catalogue can be searched using simple free text searches.
If you have any photos or documents that can be scanned and are willing to let us use them on the website please contact Peter Blandon.
visit photo album