Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
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History of Halling
Halling comes from the Old English ‘ingas’ meaning the ‘people of, people called after’ combined with a warlords name; therefore, the ‘people of Heall’. The Domesday Book records Halling as Hallinges.
Halling parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Although the Normans built it in the 12th century, there are indicators of the Saxons building an earlier church. The Bishops of Rochester enlarged and extended it in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1675, John Hodson cast and hung a ring of five bells, in the tower. In 1797, Edward Hasted described St John’s church as a ‘small building with a low spire at the west end’. In 1889, the architect Hubert Bensted carried out a heavy restoration, whilst enlarging and extending the church. Alfred Bowell recast the bells into a ring of six in 1919.
Halling railway station opened, on the South Eastern Railway’s northern extension of the Medway Valley Line, on 1 March 1890. The station had the addition of a single track link with Halling Manor Cement Works, together with a pair of goods sidings, which closed in September 1961…. more