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Greenstreet has become synonymous with the area surrounding London Road (A2) as it extends between Claxfield Lane (down which you can find Sunderland Farmhouse) and Cellar Hill with its distinctive thatched medieaval buildings including the well documented Tudor Cottage. In point of fact the area draws its identity from the ancient Greenstreet family that lived in Claxfield and later in Cellar Hill with landholdings here and in neighbouring parishes. Unusual in the parish is the thatching to be found in Cellar Hill - the process of thatching was captured in 1989. London Road forms part of what was Watling Street in Roman times. You can read more about the road as it passes through Greenstreet here.
The area to the North (Teynham) lost its rural character a long time ago under the influence of industrial scale brickfields. Local brickfields are few and far between now but brick earth extraction continues unabated. By placing maps of 1872 and 1909 next to each other, you can see how quickly things were changing for Teynham.
In spite of urbanising pressure to the north, the southern edge of London Road has retained many gems in it and suffered a loss of identity in other parts. However, the early agricultural (small holding) development of the local economy has been retained by open aspects into the Parish of Lynsted.
Surprisingly, given the visual clutter offered by modern life, there are several listed buildings here, some dating back to the 17th century. Recently, the east end of London Road has been designated a conservation area but this belies several other significant buildings elsewhere to the West as far as Claxfield (or Mill) Lane.
Nuggets: Robert Greenstreet presided over the trial of Joan Williford, Joan Cariden and Jane Hott at Faversham in 1645 for witchcraft. While we are on the subject - there was the mystery of the Kingsdown cow curse......
Greenstreet Families: The Society heard in February 2005 from a genealogist whose family (KEMP) lived in Greenstreet as saddlers at the turn of the century.
We also had sight of the Deeds and other documents for The Grange, Greenstreet.
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