Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
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History of Kennington
Kennington comes from the Old English ‘cyne’ meaning ‘kingly, royal’ with ‘tūn’ as an ‘enclosure, a farmstead, a village’; therefore, a ‘royal farm/settlement’. The Domesday Book records Kennington as Chenetone.
Kennington parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin. The Normans built it, although completely rebuilt the church in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. In 1552, there is a record of five bells, three of which William Oldfield cast in 1550. In 1798, Edward Hasted described St Mary’s church as consisting of ‘one isle and two chancels, with a small lower chancel on the south side. It has a tower steeple, with a beacon turret at the west end, in which are five bells’. In 1878, the Victorians carried out a major restoration. Mears and Stainbank added a treble, to make six bells, in 1883…. more
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