Frant

"FRANT, a parish, partly in the hundred of Rotherfield, rape of Pevensey, county Sussex, and partly in the hundred of Washlingstone, county Kent, 2 miles S. of Tunbridge Wells, its post town. It is a station on the South-Eastern line of railway. The parish includes part of the town of Tunbridge Wells and Bayham Abbey, the latter founded in the early part of the 13th century. The village is situated on very high ground, and commands an extensive prospect. A public well has recently been sunk here in memory of the late Prince Consort. The High Rocks and Eridge Rocks are of great size, and very picturesque. Here is a reservoir from which the town of Tunbridge Wells is supplied with water, and there are good chalybeate springs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester, value £800. The church is dedicated to St. Alban, and has some fine monuments of the Abergavenny and other families. There is also a district church at Eridge Green called Trinity church, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, value £150. The parochial charities produce about £23 per annum. There are National schools for both sexes, and a mixed one at Eridge Green. The principal residences are Eridge Castle, the seat of the Earl of Abergavenny, and Bayham Abbey, built near the site of the old religious establishment of that name, a seat of the Marquis of Camden. Some remains of the old abbey are still to be seen. The Earl of Abergavenny and the Marquis of Camden are the lords of the manor."

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]