Great Chart is first mentioned in 762 as Seleberhtes Cert, a
Jutish name. It is also known that at this year, the village was operating a mechanical
water mill, the first water mill to be recorded in Britain. A charter first mentions Seleberhtes Cert when recording that
King Ethelberht II (of Kent) exchanged half the use of the successfully operating mill for some pasture in the
Weald. In 776 Great Chart's manor, the village, its lands and much of its produce were sold by
King Egbert (Ethelberht's successor) to Archbishop
Jænberht of
Canterbury to raise finances for a Kentish army - to rebel against
King Offa of Mercia. In that year there was a great battle between Mercians and Kentish men at
Otford as, apparently, a red cross appeared in the sky. For nine years after this battle Egbert held Kent, but ultimately Offa took control and retrieved Great Chart and its lands from Canterbury dividing them up among his followers. After Offa died in 796 his successor
Coenwulf of Mercia decided to reinstate properties, including Great Chart, back to the ownership of Canterbury. This ownership continued for hundreds of years through the
Norman Conquest - the
Domesday Book entry for Certh (Great Chart) makes clear that it was still in the possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury and had two mills, a salt-pit, feeding ground for a hundred hogs, and a population of fifty-two - up to the advent of
Henry VIII when between 1536 and 1539 he dissolved all monasteries. He confiscated Great Chart and its lands from the priory but soon reinstated them to his new Protestant Dean and Chapter in whose administration they remained until Victorian times (though in a map of the area from 1621 the lands are still attributed to 'Christ Churche', referring to Christ Church in Canterbury). On a map made of the Chart and Longbridge
Hundred in 1559, the village was named Charte Magna. On 1 April 1987 the civil parish of "Great Chard" was abolished to form "Great Chart with Singleton", part went to
Hothfield and
Kingsnorth and the
unparished area of Ashford. On 10 March 2021 police found human remains in a wood near the village. On 12 March 2021 they were confirmed to be those of
Sarah Everard. ==Description==