WESTERHAM IS AS OLD AS CIVILISATION ITSELF. The Pilgrims Way, which crosses to the north of the town, is arguably the oldest track in all
Westerham from the Pilgrim's Way
England, first trodden some 5,000 years ago.
In the grounds of Squerryes Park is a clearly defined Celtic hill fort which has stood there for more than 2,000 years.
But it was from the Saxons that the community first began to take the shape we see today. Their first
settlement followed the very lines which now define The Green and Market Square. St Mary's Church tower was originally built as a Saxon watchtower, looking out across the Holmesdale Valley for hostile invaders, and the church itself is recorded from around 1115AD.
Squerryes Lodge, too, dates from the 12th Century; the monks used its ancient chapel by the River Darent for four hundred years until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539.
If we say that it was the Saxons who provided the very foundation of Westerham, then this is no more than literal truth; for it is on those Saxon footings that
successive generations have continued to build their houses, each introducing its own architectural heritage. You can find traces of old Tudor cottages inside the houses on Vicarage Hill, The Green, Market Square and the High Street houses which themselves were often enlarged in Cromwell's day and then refronted in Queen Victoria's. .......>
