HEVER, a village and a parish in Sevenoaks district, Kent. The village stands near the river Medway, 2½ miles SE by E of Edenbridge, and 3 SE of Edenbridge r. station; and has a post office under Edenbridge, and a small inn with the sign of Henry VIII. The parish includes also the hamlet of Linkhill, and part of the chapelry of Mark-Beech. Acres, 2, 608. Real property, £2, 714. Pop., 626. Houses, 118. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged anciently to the Hevers or Hevres; passed to the Cobhams and the Brocas; was purchased, in the time of Henry VI., by Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, great-grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn; was given, by Henry VIII., after the death of Anne Boleyn's father, to Anne of Cleves; passed, by gift of Queen Mary, to the Waldegraves; was purchased, in 1745, by Sir T. Waldo; and belongs now to Edmund W. M. Waldo, Esq. A castle on it, close to the Medway, dates from an ancient period; was rebuilt, in the time of Edward III., by Sir William Hever; was again refounded by Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, and completed by his grandson, the father of Anne Boleyn; was the scene of Henry VIII. 's first acquaintance with Anne Boleyn, and of his course of courting her; retains curious traditiona1 associations of his visits to it; is now an interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of its period; forms a quadrangle, surrounded by a double moat, and surmounted by high pitched roofs and gables; is now occupied as a farm house, but retains its old arrangements; and was approached by a strongly portcullised gatehouse, which still remains. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £600.* Patron, E. W. M. Waldo, Esq. The church is mostly decorated English; consists of nave and chancel, with tower and lofty spire; and contains an altar tomb of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and memorials of the Cobhams and the Waldos. There are a British school, and charities £9.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))