1882 Kelly’s Directory

Sutton at Hone is a parish, giving its name to a lathe, in the Western division of the county, Dartford Union and county court district, Axton Hundred, rural deanery of East Dartford, archdeaconry of Maidstone and diocese of Canterbury, 3 miles from south of Dartford, 7 miles south west from Gravesend and 18 miles from London and very pleasantly situated on the west side of the river Darenth and on the road to Sevenoaks; there is a station at Farningham Road on the London, Chatham and Dover railway.

The church of St. John the Baptist is a building of flint, with stone dressings, in the Decorated and later styles and consists of chancel, nave, south aisle with an arcade of four arches, porch and a western tower of rude construction containing 3 bells; the pews have Jacobean woodwork with the linen pattern and the pulpit is of the same character; in the south pier of the chancel is a hagioscope, formed by a rude slit, and on each pier a kind of stone ledge, probably connected with the roodloft; the south-east window of the chancel is extended for a sedile and near it is a piscine of late Decorated or transition work; in the chancel is a monument to Sir Thomas Smith, 1625; the west window is a memorial to Jane Chapman, erected by her sister Ann Eleanor Mumford : and the other windows of the church are all stained. There are sittings for about 400 persons. The register dates from the year 1607.

The living is a vicarage; yearly value £520, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester and held by the Rev. Walter John Weeks. There are places of worship for Wesleyans and Baptists. There are almshouses for four persons and the poor have £30 yearly from Sir T. Smith’s charity, which is in the hands of the Skinners’ Company of London.

Thomas Horn Fleet, Esq., is lord of the manor of St John of Jerusalem, and Mrs Fleet is lady of the manor of Sutton. The principal landowners are Thomas Horn Fleet esq and the Rt. Hon Sir William Hart Dyke, bart, M.P., P.C. The soil is loam with gravel; subsoil, chalk. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley and beans and fruit is grown. The area is 3,615 acres, about 400 acres of woodland: rateable value £14,229; and the population in 1881 was 2,669.

Holmfield is half a mile south west and Burnt House, half a mile north west; At Hawley, 1 ½ miles north, are paper mills.

Parish Clerk – Spencer Barnes

Post & Money Order Office & Savings Bank – Miss Mary Evans, receiver. Letters arrive from Dartford at 7 and 11am; dispatched at 11.30am, 4.10 & 7.15pm. Wall Letter Box at Hawley, collected at 11.15am & 7.35pm.

Insurance Agents:
Guardian – G. Carman
Royal, G. Parker

National School – Edward Royce Barnacle, master; Miss Clara Turner, mistress

Railway Station, Farningham Road – John Bull, station master

Private Residents
Thomas Aldworth
George Carman, Ryecroft
Rev. Hayman Alfred James Cummings T.A.K.C.L., Sutton House, Hawley
Frederick William Deane, Sutton Place
Captain Thomas English, The Rookery
Charles H.W. Faux, Hawley
Edwin Haines, Hawley Place
John Horsberg, The Mills
Samuel Mart, Sutton Lodge
Mrs Nevill, Hill Cottage
George Parker, Mill House
John Russell, St John’s
Robert Berriman Stephens, North Villa
Frederick Tabrum
Rev. Walter John Weeks, Vicarage

Traders
James Acton, carpenter
Mark Atkins, baker
Maurice Bayley, farmer, Court Lodge Farm
William Bowers, plumber & painter
William Brown, Ship Inn
James Clark, Miller
Robert Collins, grocer
Thomas Dartnall, beer retailer
Edward Davis, basket maker
Miss Mary Evans, dress maker & post office
Charles Hall, boot maker
Walter Harber, blacksmith
Robert Howard, carman
William Kennard, butcher
Richard Lane, baker
William Meaden, beer retailer
Henry Packman, bricklayer
George Parker, coal merchant & agent to Shepherd , Neame & Co. brewrs & London Manure Co. Railway Station; & at Swanley & Eynsford
George Philpot, Bull Inn, Hawley
John Quinton, beer retailer, Hawley
William Henry Rogers, grocer & draper
Jn Russell, farmer & landowner, St John’s
Thomas Harry Saunders & Co, paper makers, Hawley Mills
Robert Berriman Stephens, surveyor of highways, North Villa
Mrs Susannah Morgan Sydell, shopkeeper
James Thomas, beer retailer