TENTERDEN, a market town and municipal borough in the Ashford parliamentary division of Kent, England, 53 m. S.E. by E. of London by the S. railway. Pop. (1931) 3,473. It lies on an elevation above the Newnill channel, a tributary of the Rother, whose flat valley, called the Rother Levels, was an estuary within historic times; and even as late as the 18th century the sea was within 2 m. of Tenterden, which is a member of the affiliated Cinque Port of Rye. The church of St. Mildred is Early English and later, and its tall, massive Perpendicular tower is well known for the legend connecting it with Goodwin Sands. The story is that the abbot of St. Augustine, Canterbury, diverted the funds by which the sea-wall protecting Earl Godwin's island was kept up, for the purpose of building Tenterden steeple, the consequence being that in 1099 an inundation took place and "Tenterden steeple was the cause of the Goodwin Sands." The church of High Halden, in the neighbourhood, is remarkable for its octagonal wooden tower constructed of huge timbers, with a belfry of wooden tiles (shingles), of the time of Henry VI.
Tenterden (Tenterdenne, Tentyrden) figures frequently in con temporary records from 1300 onwards. In 1449 it was united to
Rye, and granted a charter which, however, did not come into operation till 1463 under Edward IV. In return for these and other privileges it was to contribute towards the services due from Rye as one of the Cinque Ports. In 1600 it was incorporated under the title of the "Mayor, Jurats and Commons" of the town and hun dred of Tenterden, in the county of Kent, the members of the corporation ranking henceforward as barons of the Cinque Ports. A weekly corn market on Friday and a yearly cattle and wool fair on the first Monday in May were granted, both of which are held at the present day. In 1790 a contemporary writer mentions the market as being little frequented, whilst the fair was large and resorted to by all the neighbourhood. The size and importance of Tenterden can be estimated from a receipt of 1635 for .190 ship money, as compared with £70 contributed by Faversham, and f6o by Hythe. Under Edward III. several refugee Flemings settled in the town and established the woollen manufacture. By 1835 this trade died out.