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Kent Past
The History of Kent
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History of Teston
Teston [pronounced 'Teeson' or 'Teestun'] comes from the Old English words ‘tær’ meaning ‘gaping, cleft, torn’ and ‘stān’ as a ‘stone, rock’; therefore, ‘stone with a hole’. The Domesday Book chronicles Teston as Testan, and the Textus Roffensis as Terstana..
Teston parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Although Sir Philip Boteler built the present church in 1736, it replaced an earlier building, recorded at the founding of the Priory of Leeds in 1119. There is a record of three bells being present in 1552, and rehung in the 1736 rebuild. In 1798, Edward Hasted described the Teston church as a ‘small, but neat building, with a square tower at the west end’. The Victorians extended the church in 1848, including the insertion of windows in the chancel and transepts, and crosses added to the gable tops…. more