Lynsted

The parish of Lynsted with Kingsdown lies just south of the A2, mid-way between Faversham and Sittingbourne, and includes part of the old settlement of Greenstreet. The M2 bisects the southwestern, Kingsdown, area.

Greenstreet became the name for the part of the ancient Roman road (Watling Street), now the A2, which forms the northen boundary of the parish.

Church of St Peter and St Paul Lynsted Church across meadow

Shops and Services

For a list of shops and services available in Lynsted please click here.

Lynsted Community

• Association of Men of Kent & Kentish Men - Lynsted Branch
• Church of St Peter and St Paul Priest-in-Charge Revd Steve Lillicrap  01795 522510
• Lynsted with Kingsdown Society
• Mobile Library
• Primary School
  Lynsted and Norton Primary School 01795 521362
  Directgov information
• Newsletter: editor David Bage 01795 521273
• Shops and Services
• Travel Search - bus services, timetables etc serving Lynsted

Parish Council

Mark Jones (Chairman)	01795 522749
Angela Darling (Vice-Chairman)	07976 727123
Allison Bowers
Brian Pond	01795 521163
Kay Prescott

 

Parish Clerk
Joanne Drew  01795 430133
Responsible Finance Officer 
Charles Bennett   01795 476606

Parish Council Meetings

Meetings are held at either the Belle Friday Centre, London Road, Lynsted, or the St Peter and St Paul Community Room, Lynsted. They start at 7.30pm and all parishioners are welcome.

For more information please visit the Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council website

Parochial Church Council Lynsted-with-Kingsdown

History

The name Lynsted comes from the Old English ‘Linde Stede’ meaning ‘the place of the lime tree’, of which there are still some found in the parish.

The parish is predominantly rural, with the population of about 1,000 centred at Lynsted village and along the A2 (Greenstreet). Traditionally the main activity was fruit growing, particularly cherries, and with some hops. This has given way over the years to arable farming, although culture of apples, on dwarf stock, and soft fruit, still has its place.

The parish boasts some wonderful buildings, large and small, and from half-timbered medieval, through Tudor brick to post-war prefabricated. Part of the parish is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and there are three Conservation Areas.

There is a primary school, a range of shops, three churches and four public houses in the parish. The picture on the left shows the rural/farming aspect of Lynsted with the cherry trees and the spire of the Church of St Peter and St Paul. The church dates back to the 15th century and is well worth a visit.

The local primary school, Lynsted and Norton, is housed in a beautiful Victorian building in Lynsted Lane. It is not a large school, but has excellent staff who contribute a regular column about school activities to the local newsletter. Parts of Lynsted village, Cellar Hill and Bogle Corner are in a designated conservation area. Cellar Hill has many different styles of architecture from the very old Tudor Cottage, through to the prefabricated houses of the late 1940s, 1840s terraced housing and the very modern of 2000.

There are a number of large manor houses in the parish, including Bogle, Lynsted Court and Lynsted Park.

The A2 end of Lynsted houses public houses that serve excellent food, a vet, an art shop, a wool and model shop and a joinery. The village of Lynsted is reached via Lynsted Lane, Cellar Hill or Claxfield Road.
Here you can find another pub, the Church and a small green called St Peter’s Place. St Peter’s Place is a place to rest and find your way using a new Footpath Map displayed on the Green. Maps can be bought from the pub facing the green. Or you can sit and admire the Lynsted and Norton School’s pictorial map of Lynsted and the new Jubilee flowerbed.

The community spirit is very much alive in the parish. Lynsted has a newsletter which is produced monthly and has many contributors who need to vie for space in this popular publication.
Lynsted has a lively Parochial Church Council, a branch of the Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men, a Horticultural Society, a Women's Institute, baby-and-toddler groups, Scouts, quiz evenings, coffee mornings, and much more.

The picture at the top of the page is courtesy of the Village Design Statement, which has been completed by a number of residents voluntarily. It is the first of its kind in Swale and has now been adopted as supplementary planning guidance for Lynsted. It was a chance for residents to say what they felt was right for the future and development of the Parish.

Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council has nine councillors. It is a friendly council concerned about rural conservation but not bucolic in its approach to planning issues and modern technology. It is proactive in organising events and improving the environment for the good of the parish.

If you would like to know more about Lynsted, please e-mail the Parish on Julia.kitt@btopenworld.com.

Greenstreet

Greenstreet became the name for the part of the ancient Roman road (Watling Street), now the A2, which forms the northen boundary of the parish, presumably because after its intensive use and regular maintenance in Roman times its metalling was neglected in Anglo-Saxon and medieval times to the extent that it became literally green, with moss and grass. The name is first recorded in 1278.

Since the premises on the south side of the road were in Lynsted parish and those on the north in Teynham, as they still are, the substantial settlement which developed alongside it became known as Greenstreet.

Greenstreet c 1910

So it remained till the early 20th century, and early picture postcards of it, like the one reproduced here, bear this name. Both its post office and Methodist chapel also used this name.

There are no other settlements called Greenstreet in the UK, but in the later 20th century this did not deter some officious and unimaginative bureaucrat from giving this stretch of road the prosaic name it now bears - London Road - which of course is repeated countless times within a 100-mile radius of London.

Road signs at the A2 entrances to the settlement read 'Teynham', though they should really read either 'Lynsted & Teynham' or 'Greenstreet'. In fact Teynham Street, the village street of Teynham, lies about a mile to the north.

However the settlement's Methodist chapel (also used by local Roman Catholics) still uses the name, and it is also perpetuated in the family name Greenstreeet. This is first recorded in 1494, with the death of John Greenstreet, who lived at Claxfield, at the far west end of Greenstreet, in the parish of Lynsted.

The name became well-established locally to the extent that in the Faversham area and indeed in East Kent generally it became almost as common as Smith and far more common than Robinson. For many people, particularly fans of "Casablanca" and other films of the 1940s and 1950s, the best-known bearer of the name is Sydney Greenstreet, born the son of a Sandwich tanner in 1879. Seldom a lead player, and usually cast in sinister supporting roles, he was an inveterate scene-stealer whose name on a cinema poster was a recommendation in itself.