Welcome to the website of the Plaxtol Local History Group

COMING SOON   

  • Wednesday 4th July 2012, 1 45pm - GOODNESTONE PARK, Nr. CANTERBURY, CT3 1PL - tour of house and gardens, £9.00. Meet at the house at 1 45pm. Tour begins at 2pm. Please apply to Gillian Hogg for a place on the tour by Wednesday 13th June. MEMBERS ONLY

  • Wednesday 15th August 2012, 10 45am - RAMSGATE - full day guided tour with Jonathan Fenner, £12. Walking tour 11am. Pugin's house (The Grange) & St Augustine's Church 2pm. THIS TOUR IS NOW FULLY BOOKED

  • Tuesday 11th September 2012, 8pm - THE MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN IN TUDOR AND STUART KENT, a talk by Jackie Eales

  • the rest of our 2012 programme

BATTLEFIELD WALKS - you might enjoy the battlefield walks in Medway on 29th July or Maidstone on 12th August organised by the Battlefields Trust - http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/default.asp
FIND YOUR PLAXTOL ANCESTORS, OR WHO LIVED IN YOUR PLAXTOL HOUSE - for only £10 each (post & packing extra), you can buy our searchable CDs with details of all the thousands of entries:
  • of baptisms, marriages and burials in PLAXTOL PARISH REGISTERS from 1648 to 1931 or
  • in the 10-yearly PLAXTOL CENSUSES from 1841 to 1901.
For more details, please see Books etc.
NOW AVAILABLE  - our latest publications on various aspects of the history of Victorian Plaxtol:
  • "HOUSES AND HOUSEHOLDS OF VICTORIAN PLAXTOL" by Haydn Puleston Jones
    (NEW!!!)

  • "MILL LIFE IN VICTORIAN PLAXTOL" by Vanessa Dussek
  • "SCHOOL LIFE IN VICTORIAN PLAXTOL" by Tom Hogg

  • "BEERHOUSES AND INNS OF VICTORIAN PLAXTOL" by Haydn Puleston Jones and

  • "CHURCH LIFE IN VICTORIAN PLAXTOL" by Haydn Puleston Jones
Apart from the larger "Houses and Households" (which costs £6), each booklet costs only £5. Post & packing is extra, if posted. For more details, please see Books etc.            
Plaxtol Parish Church by Pip Perry. This is one of only three churches in England built during the Interregnum, 1649-60 and bears no Saint's name. 
Plaxtol Local History Group aims to help us all to understand and enjoy aspects of our village and parish history and that of the surrounding areas - from the houses and architecture to the people, their livelihoods and the landscape.  We do this through our lectures, special projects, publications and occasional exhibitions.

Each year we have a programme of monthly talks - when members and non-members are welcome (see our 2012 programme), plus visits each year to places of interest. Talks naturally focus on the history of this area and examples of subjects recently covered include: 

Roman Plaxtol, Kentish Place Names, Houses and People of Tudor Plaxtol, Iron Making in the WealdThe Kentish Parish, The American Connection with Ightham Mote, The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles, Plaxtol Houses

Regular talks are only one aspect of our commitment to local history. The Group is actively involved in projects: for example, a recent major undertaking has been the transcription and compilation onto databases and two CDs of the original Plaxtol census reports from 1841 to 1901 and of Plaxtol Parish Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from 1648 to 1931. 

From time to time, the Group researches various aspects of Plaxtol history, publishing the results of the rearch in books and booklets. We are currently working on a series of publications on various aspects of Plaxtol's history in Victorian times. For details of our publications and how to buy them, see Books etc. For our publications and exhibitions, we are able to use the significant resources of our archive of documents, photos and artefacts.

The Plaxtol Local History Group embraces the past with enthusiasm.  Surrounded as we are by change and development, especially here in the South East, local history gives us all an understanding and enjoyment of what our part of the world used to be like and how and why it has come to be the place we live in today. 

We are a friendly lot. Do join us - you could find our activities as stimulating as we do.

Rosemary Foster, Chairman                                             

Plaxtol Local History Group is a registered charity (Registered Number 294317).                 #Top