The name Boughton Monchelsea originates from the Jutish name Boc Tun
meaning "a farmstead in a beach wood clearing". By the Doomsday Book
it had become Bocton. During the 12th Century, it had passed into the hands of
the Monchensie family, hence the deviation to the present day name.
Throughout history, our economy has been largely based on two industries,
ragstone quarrying in the north, dating back to Roman times, and elsewhere in
the parish agriculture, including hops and timber. Westminster Abbey was built
with Boughton Monchelsea ragstone and cannonballs were another parish product.
The parish can boast an Iron Age settlement, the sites of a Roman bath
house and cemetery and evidence of a Roman road. The 12th century church of St
Peter has a lych gate claimed to be the 2nd oldest in the country. One of the
pubs, The Cock Inn, billeted officers during the Napoleonic War in 1778/9.
