Hook Green & Village Sign
The Meopham Village Sign designed by a local artist Mr Eric Bugg and erected on Hook Green in May 1998 by The Meopham Historical Society. It incorporates a bishop's mitre representing one of the earliest of Meopham's famous residents, Simon de Meopham, who was born in the parish in 1272 and died in Mayfield in Sussex in 1332. He became in 1327, after a distinguished ecclesiastical career, Archbishop of Canterbury and it was during his incumbency that the church was first built. It also includes a sprig of tradescantia virginica as a tribute to a Meopham family, the Tradescants, remembered for its contribution to horticulture. The elder John Tradescant became gardener to Charles I's Queen, Henrietta Maria in 1629 and by that time had brought to England specimens of new trees, plants, birds and stones from Algiers and Russia. His son, who succeeded him as the Queens gardener, brought specimens from Virginia and it was after him that tradescantia virginica was named. The cricket stumps and bat show the long history of cricket in the Parish dating back to 1776 and the Parish's two most prominent buildings, the Windmill built in 1801 by the Killick brothers and the St. John's Church dating back to 1325.
