Copyright Kent Past 2010
Kent Past
The History of Kent
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History of Betteshanger
Betteshanger comes from the Old English ‘bytle’ meaning a ‘building, house’ with
‘hangra’ as a ‘gentle sloping wood’; therefore, ‘wooded slope by a building’. The
Domesday Book records Betteshanger as Bedesham.
Betteshanger parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Mary
the Virgin. The Normans built the church in the 12th century. In 1800, Edward Hasted
described the Betteshanger church as a ‘small mean building, consisting of a nave
and chancel, both which are kept uncommonly neat’. In 1853, the Victorian architect,
Anthony Salvin, completely rebuilt the church in imitation of St Nicholas, Barfreston.
Sir Walter James, 1st Baron Northbourne of Betteshanger, paid for the rebuild. The
new church hung a bell which William Oldfield had cast in the mid-
Having purchased the mineral rights to large areas of Kent Dorman Long & Co opened
the Betteshanger Colliery -