Tonbridge Castle, Castle Street, Tonbridge - 01732 770929 Tonbridge.castle@tmbc.gov.uk

Tonbridge (historic spelling Tunbridge) is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately four miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 25 miles south east of London. It belongs to the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling (population 107,560 in 2001).

Tonbridge stands at a point where the Saxons built a bridge across the River Medway. For much of its existence, the town remained to the north of the river, since the land to the south was subject to extensive seasonal flooding. One part of the town is called 'Dryhill'.

The town was recorded in the Domesday Book 1087 as Tonebrige, which may indicate a bridge belonging to the estate or manor (from the Old English tun), or alternatively a bridge belonging to Tunna, a common Anglo-Saxon man's name. Another theory suggests that the name is a contraction of "town of bridges", due to the large number of streams the High Street originally crossed. Until 1870, the town's name was actually spelt Tunbridge, as shown on old maps including the 1871 Ordnance Survey map and contemporary issues of the Bradshaw railway guide. In 1870, this was artificially changed to Tonbridge by the Royal Mail due to confusion with nearby Tunbridge Wells, despite Tonbridge being a much older settlement. Tunbridge Wells has always maintained the correct spelling.

A castle was built here in the 11th century by Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, a cousin of William the Conqueror. Richard was responsible for governing England in William I's many absences.

The town was besieged by William Rufus, soon after his accession to the throne, because the Earl had pledged allegiance to William's brother, Robert. It is thus hardly surprising that the arrow that killed William Rufus a few years later in the New Forest was fired by Walter Tirel who was born in town as well as the Earls in law.

It was soon afterwards taken again, this time by King John only a few months after the signing of the Magna Carta. Both the Earl and his son were signatories and guardians of the document responsible for its compliance. It was subsequently besieged by Prince Edward, son of Henry III. On this occasion the besieged garrison burnt the town rather than see it fall. The town and Tonbridge Castle were rebuilt after this and in the 13th century became an official residence and records repository of Edward II.

The castle was finally taken by Henry VIII when its owner, the Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason.

At this time, Tonbridge was considered an important strategic settlement. The King intended it to be a medieval walled town and a charter was issued allowing for walls to be built, a market to be held, court sessions to be held and two members of the town to attend parliament. Walls were never built however, probably because the castle's large outer bailey could have easily accommodated the town's populace in times of strife. A surrounding bank and ditch known as The Fosse was erected. Today only traces of this encircling defence now remain. The historic core of the town still contains a large number of working buildings dating from the 15th century; the oldest being Portreeves on East Street.

Tonbridge School, the famous public school, was set up in 1552 under the letters patent of Edward VI, to educate the male children of locals gentry and farmers (there was already a nearby school in existence for poorer boys, now Sevenoaks School).

During Queen Mary's reign Tonbridge was involved in an unsuccessful uprising against the Queens marriage to the King of Spain resulting in 500 people of the town being involved at the Battle of Hartley in 1554. As a result of the deffiant action it is not surprising the town did escape being chosen for a place of execution for a number of Protestants and in 1555 James Tutty and Margery Polley were burnt at the stake in the town and Joan Beach met the same fate in 1556 at Rochester. A memorial to Margery Polly's fate is to be found on the green at Pembury.

During the Civil War, the town was garrisoned by the Parliamentarian side who refortified the castle. Royalist sympathisers made several attempts to take the town but were repulsed.

In 1740 an Act of Parliament was passed to make the River Medway navigable to Tonbridge by the Medway Navigation Company, allowing such materials as coal and lime to be transported to the town, and gunpowder, hops and timber to be carried downriver to Maidstone and the Thames. For a hundred years the Medway Navigation Company was highly profitable, paying out good dividends to its investors but after the arrival of the railway in 1842 the company went into a steep decline and all commercial traffic ceased in 1911 when the company collapsed. Some of the original warehouses and the wharves are still recognisable today, downstream of the town's main bridge.

Later, the town and its surroundings became famous for the production of finely inlaid wooden cabinets, boxes and other objects called Tunbridgeware, which were sold to tourists who were taking the waters at the nearby springs at Tunbridge Wells. Another speciality in the town was until recently the production of cricket balls and other sports goods.

In October 1853 the Hartlake bridge a few miles downstream of the town was the scene of tragedy when a wagon carrying over 30 hop pickers toppled off the bridge into the river, which was in flood due to heavy rain. Thirty of the wagon's occupants including entire families drowned, but due to the flood it was many days before all the bodies could be recovered. A service was held at the bridge on the 150th anniversary of the tragedy in 2003.

During the March 1880 parliamentary elections, Tonbridge was the scene of a riot. On the announcement of the results, several thousand people started to hurl stones and cobbles at each other in the High Street near the Rose and Crown Hotel. The county's Chief Constable Captain Ruskin together with in excess of a hundred policeman charged the crowds many times during the night only to end up being the crowd's target who started hurling stones and cobbles at them instead of each other. Many people including twelve policeman were seriously injured before the crowd finally dispersed at midnight.

The United Kingdom's first speeding fine was handed down by Tonbridge petty Sessions court in 1896. The guilty driver was a Mr Walter Arnold of East Peckham who was fined one shilling for speeding at eight miles an hour in a two mile an hour zone in Paddock Wood, in his Karl Benz powered car. Mr Arnold was eventually apprehended by a policeman who had given chase on his bicycle.

During World war II a POW Camp was built on the junction of Tudeley Lane and Pembury Road on land belonging to Somerhill. It was used to house both German pilots who had been shot down, and also captured Italian soldiers. After the war the camp was used as temporary housing for people made homeless by the Blitz. The site is now occupied by the Weald of Kent Girls' Grammar School.

Ruth Ellis, the last woman in the United Kingdom to be hanged, was married at the registry office in Tonbridge on the 8th November 1950.

Tonbridge was the location of the largest cash theft in British criminal history. On 22 February 2006, over £53.1 million was stolen from the Securitas cash-handling depot in Vale Road to the east of the High Street. During the following police investigation, around half of the money was recovered. On 28 January 2008 five people were convicted at the Old Bailey.