The village name comes from a corruption of the name of the
Norman family given the manor after the
Conquest:
Montchensie who held the manor until 1287 and the Anglo Saxon Boc Tun (Beech Tree settlement). The village is mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as Boltone, then Bouton, Bocton, and probably via Bocton de Montchensie to the current Boughton Monchelsea. The suffix using the family name seems to have been added in this area of Kent, possibly to differentiate multiple Boctuns. Some of the earliest history of Boughton Monchelsea is in the
Iron Age settlement at Quarry Wood Camp (Camp Field). There are traces of an outer rampart on Parsonage Farm (on the edge of Park Wood) constructed by the
Belgae about 40 AD, possibly as a defence against the
Roman invasion in 43 AD. The foundations of a Roman bathhouse were discovered in 1841 near Brishing Court, also a Roman villa at Brishing and a cemetery at Lockham. The quarries were worked extensively in Roman times and the villa and bathhouse could well have belonged to the quarry owner. Ragstone (a type of
sandstone) was worked here; stone for the building of
Westminster Abbey, the present-day
Houses of Parliament and the repair of
Rochester Castle came from here. The last quarry closed in 1960.
St Peter's Church is located in the village. ==Local amenities==