Lyminge

Lyminge is a village in southeast Kent, England. It lies about five miles from Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel, on the road passing through the Elham Valley. The Nailbourne stream begins in the village and flows north through the Valley, to become one of the tributary streams of the River Great Stour. The hamlet of Ottinge lies to the NE on the road to Elham.

Although many other village centres struggle to survive once a large supermarket is opened in the area, Lyminge still boasts a pub, a school, a post office, a hairdressers, a thriving coffee shop, a grocery store, and many other shops and services. This is largely due to the large elderly population in the village, of whom many do not drive. The sense of community is also felt within the monthly newsletter, paid for by advertisements from local businesses, detailing the various events and clubs within the local area.

It also boasts a play school given an outstanding grade for one of 4 criteria in a recent Ofsted report.

Lyminge was named Kent's best village in 1998.

Sport

Lyminge currently is home to Sibton Park Cricket Club who play in Division 1 of the Kent Cricket League and have a very active Junior Section which caters for boys and girls from a wide area around Lyminge.

Railway

The Elham Valley Light Railway ran from Canterbury to Folkestone through the village from 1887 until eventually closing in 1947. The station building exists today as the library, situated in The Sidings, off Station Road.

Archaeology

Lyminge has been a focus of archaeological work for over a half a century. In December 1953 two inhumation burials were discovered there by workmen working for farming contractors and subsequent excavations led by Alan Warhurst resulted in the discovery of a 6th century Jutish cemetery (National Grid Reference TR/1638/4169) containing 44 graves. The grave assemblages were remarkable, although not unusual for this period, and contained a lot of high status jewelry, weapons such as spear heads, swords and shield bosses and some rare glass claw beakers of exceptionally quality and condition. Excavations are now being led by Dr. Gabor Thomas of the Univerity of Reading and continue to contribute to the field of archaeology.