Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
Leave your email address to receive Kent Past Times free every month
History of Wingham
Wingham comes from the Old English ‘ingas’ meaning the ‘people of, people called after’ and ‘hām’ as a ‘village, homestead, estate’ combined with a personal name; therefore ‘homestead/village of the people of Wiga’. The Domesday Book chronicles Wingham as Wingheham.
Wingham parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Mary the
Virgin. The Saxons built the church as a major minster with various chapels belonging
to it. The Normans rebuilt the church, as a cruciform, around 1200, with the addition
of the chancel in the following century, the tower in the 14th century and nave and
aisle in the 16th century. Richard Phelps cast and hung a ring of eight bells in
1720. In 1800, Edward Hasted described Wingham church as being ‘a handsome building,
consisting of two isles and three chancels, having a slim spire steeple at the west
end, in which is a peal of eight bells and a clock. The church consists of two isles
and three chancels. The former appear to have been built since the reformation; the
latter are much more antient. It is handsome and well built; the pillars between
the isles, now cased with wood, are slender and well proportioned. The outside is
remarkably beautiful in the flint-
Wingham Town railway station opened on the East Kent Light Railway line from Shepherdswell in 1912. In response to coalfield reduction, Wingham Town closed in 1951.