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Wye
Coordinates: 51.1815° N 0.9413° E
Population	2,384 (Parish)[1]
OS grid reference	TR055466
Parish	Wye with Hinxhill
District	Ashford
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	TONBRIDGE
Postcode district	TN25
Dial code	01233
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Ashford
European Parliament	South East England
List of places: UK • England • Kent

Wye is an historic village in Kent, England, located some 12 miles from Canterbury. It is part of the civil parish of Wye with Hinxhill.

Its modern population is about 2,300 (for the entire parish) but was expanded by an additional 600 students at Wye College, until 2005 an agricultural college and part of Imperial College London. In 2005 Imperial announced that Wye College would be converted into a research centre for non-food crops and biomass fuels, in association with Kent County Council and Ashford Borough Council. Funding for the project remains uncertain, and leaks of official documents to a local campaigning website, save-wye.org have shown that the principal aim of the plan appears to be to raise £100 million for Imperial projects in London by building thousands of houses and commercial developments on protected countryside with Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty status. The plan provoked bitter opposition both locally and nationally and is seen as a test case for other attempts to build on AONB land. On 15 September 2006, Imperial announced it was abandoning the plan altogether after support was withdrawn by Ashford Borough Council following widespread complaints from the public and the publication by save-wye of an Imperial masterplan for four thousand homes on the green AONB land. This was hailed by environmentalists as a key victory to preserve the status of Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The novelist David Hewson, who started the save-wye org web-site and ran it with the journalist Justin Williams, has written a personal account of the campaign, SAVED, which is due for publication on April 7th, 2007. [1]

Wye is located at an ancient ford of the River Great Stour, and a Roman camp and villa stood at the site. On the Downs east of the village is a crown (hill figure) carved in the chalk by students in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII.

The college was founded in 1447 as a Latin school and seminary by John Cardinal Kempe, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor. It has been part of London University since 1900.

There was once a racecourse here: the first race was run on 29 May 1849, the last 2 May 1974. It is described thus: "Less than one mile round, and more suited to a greyhound track than a racecourse, Wye could not be entirely classed as the ideal preparation for a tilt at the Champion Hurdle" [2].

Changing patterns of transport in the 19th century reduced its importance. The main A28 road between Canterbury and Ashford now runs some distance away, beyond the river, and somewhat isolated today's historic village and agricultural centre. There is a railway station here, built when the line from Ashford to Margate was opened on 1 December 1846 by the South Eastern Railway.

A farmers market is held in Wye on the first and third Saturday of every month.

Contents 1 Walks 2 Notable Residents 3 See also 4 External links

Wye is on the Pilgrims' Way and at a junction of the North Downs Way, a long distance walk from Farnham in Surrey east to Dover, and the Stour Valley Walk from Lenham via Ashford and Canterbury to Sandwich and finally the English Channel.

• Aphra Behn, Restoration dramatist and spy.
• John Kemp, 15th century English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor.
• Catherine Macaulay, 18th century English historian and republican.

• Ashford, Kent
• Chalk figures in the United Kingdom

• Save-wye.org Village website covering an attempt to introduce large scale housing and commercial development into an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
• Privately-owned commercial website promoting businesses in the village
• History of the College
• Annual summer festival of blues music and real ale, held in the grounds of Withersdane, Wye, with profits to charity.

view • talk • edit  The town of Ashford in Kent, South East England with the surrounding suburbs, villages, towns and parishes:
Aldington • Appledore • Bethersden • Biddenden • Bilsington • Bilting • Bonnington • Boughton Aluph • Boughton Aluph and Eastwell • Boughton Lees • Brabourne • Brabourne Lees • Brook • Challock • Charing • Cheeseman's Green • Chilham • Chilmington Green • Crundale • Eastwell • Ebony • Egerton • Evegate • Godinton • Godmersham • Great Chart • Great Chart with Singleton • Hamstreet • Hastingleigh • High Halden • Hinxhill • Hothfield • Isle of Oxney • Kenardington • Kennington • Kingsnorth • Little Chart • Mersham • Molash • Newenden • Newtown • Orlestone • Park Farm • Pluckley • Rolvenden • Rolvenden Layne • Ruckinge • Sellindge • Sevington • Shadoxhurst • Singleton • Smarden • Smeeth • Stanhope • Stonebridge Green • Stone-cum-Ebony • Stone in Oxney • Snave • Tenterden • Warehorne • Westwell • Willesborough • Wittersham • Woodchurch • Wye • Wye with Hinxhill
The borough of Ashford List of places in Kent