page_title: Brasted
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brasted / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The watermill at Brasted, Kent. Postcard datestamped 26 September 1909.
context_page_description: Brasted is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. Brasted lies on the A25 road, between Sundridge and Westerham; the road is named Westerham Road, High Street and Main Road as it passes through the village east to west. Brasted is 6 km west of Sevenoaks town. The parish had a population of 1321 and includes the hamlets of Brasted Chart, Toys Hill and Puddledock. The village of Brasted has a number of 18th-century houses with several antique shops, pubs and residences. The parish church is dedicated to St Martin.
context_section_description: The name is recorded as Briestede in 1086, one of only two large manors in the hundred of Westerham described in the Domesday Book, and as Bradestede around 1100; it is from Old English brād + stede and means "broad place". After the Domesday hundreds of Kent were consolidated, Brasted was in the "Hundred of Westerham and Edenbridge". From 1894 to 1974, Brasted was within the Sevenoaks Rural District.
  In the 18th century and earlier, Brasted had the economic advantage of a watermill.
  Brasted had a railway station on the branch line running between Westerham and Dunton Green that opened in 1881 and closed in 1961.
  John Turton (1735–1806), famed physician to King George III, was the first owner of Brasted Place, one of only two houses in Kent that were designed by neoclassical architect Robert Adam. In the 19th century, Napoleon III lived in Brasted Place. During the 20th century, surrounding acreage was sold for mainly residential uses. Following its disuse as a country house, it was eventually repurposed as commercial office suites. In the early 21st century, architect and restorationist Michael Wilson crafted a seven apartment interior for Brasted Place, now within an eight acre park. Its lodge and gateway also became listed historic buildings.
  Australian soft-drink manufacturer George Marchant was born in Brasted in 1857. During the Second World War the local pub, the White Hart, was popular with RAF fighter pilots stationed at nearby RAF Biggin Hill.
  Just to the north of Brasted the M25 motorway passes in a west–east direction; the River Darent has its source near the village.
caption: The Brasted Watermill, circa 1906
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