Welcome to the Paddock Wood Archive

Paddock Wood is a small town, having a population at the 2021 census of 8,159. Hop growing started in the area in the 1500’s, but it was in 1836 when the population was 121, that an Act of Parliament granted permission for a railway line to be built from Redhill to Dover. The station opened as “Maidstone Halt” in 1842 and by 1900 it had become a local transport hub with three railway lines. By 1921 the population had grown to 1,924. A notable former resident is Captain John Brunt who was killed in action in Italy in 1944 and was awarded a V.C. Paddock Wood was also the birthplace, and former home, of Sir Frederick Edgworth Morgan, KCB who was behind Operation Overlord and the D Day Landings of World War 2. The family home Mascalls has been restored and is in private ownership.