Wye, United Kingdom

Wye Racecourse's inaugural 1849 meeting was held in Fanscombe Valley, an isolated coombe and natural amphitheatre directly north of Wye Crown, and 1 mile (1.6 km) as the crow flies from Wye village. Flat racing took place annually on Oak Leaf Day, 29 May coinciding with Wye Fair.

By 1878, Wye's racing had moved to the National Hunt course on Harville Road. Steeplechase meetings were held in September, January, March, and May until 1974, and the course closed permanently by June 1975. As of 2022, both former courses are farmland.

As early as the 6th century, Wye was a royal vill, and the royal court would have resided in the vicinity of Wye Court for part of the year. In the 13th century it was a Royal Manor whose Liberty extended as far as Hawkhurst. The Palace complex by then was at Wye Court.

Wye was important for being the first ford over the River Stour that travellers could cross on their route from the West Country to Dover.

In 1307, King Edward II spent Christmas at Wye Court between the death of his father King Edward I, and his own coronation the following February. The father had received his Seal from the Officer of State there. Young King Henry VI visited Wye Court in 1428 when Cardinal Kempe of Olantigh was his Lord Chancellor.

The Manor House at Wye Court was a large building, with a circular dungeon that was extant as late as the 19th century and known locally as the Lollard's Hole. In 1553, two Protestants were executed by burning in front of Wye Church. The disturbances and associated use of the dungeons may have led to that name.

Wye was not isolated from Wat Tyler's 1381 uprising or Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450. In the 15th century, church officials were ordered especially to address lollardy in Maidstone, Tenterden, Faverisham and Wy.

Queen Elizabeth I granted Wye Court to the Boleym related Hunsden family but by the time of King Charles I, ownership had passed to the Finches, a distant branch of the Earls of Winchilsea.

Following the 1572 lightning strike at Wye Church, yeoman farmer Roger Twysden of Wye Court provided timber for reconstruction of the tower. He became High Sheriff of Kent in 1599 but following a fire at his own home he moved from Wye Court to a family dwelling at Chelmington, and then Roydon Hall.

A 1648 Civil War skirmish involving Rich's men and cavaliers took place at the entrance to Wye Court on Olantigh Road. Accounts identify four casualties of the encounter being buried at Wye, and three others killed.

By 1732, Wye Court, along with other land near Wye at Harville, Coldharbour, Wye Downs and Naccolt had fallen into the ownership of miser, John "Vulture" Hopkins. Once his affairs had been unravelled the properties were inherited by Benjamin Bond Hopkins (1745–1794). He sold them to John Sawbridge of Olantigh whose son owned Wye Court by 1798.

Wye Court formerly extended beyond the present day farm, including land to Churchfield Way. Wye College purchased parts of Wye Court for expansion along Olantigh Road in 1925. In 1917, Wye Church agreed to purchase a parcel of Wye Court, to extend its graveyard, from Wanley Elias Sawbridge Erle-Drax, a descendant of John Sawbridge. The Long family purchased their present Wye Court farm and former racecourse on Harville Road in 1925.

Entomologist Frederick Theobald lived at Wye Court until he died in 1930. He had moved to Wye to teach at the South Eastern Agricultural College when it opened in 1894. Apart from his work at the college he spent much of his time curating economic zoology and mosquito collections at the British Museum, and ceased lecturing from 1920 in favour of agricultural extension. Theobald's research on mosquitos and tropical sanitation earned him international recognition including the Order of Osmanieh and Mary Kingsley Medal.

In September 1940, a Spitfire of No 19 Squadron from RAF Duxford crashed at Wye Court injuring the pilot and writing the aircraft off. The crash site was excavated in 1974 by the RAF Museum.

Wye College was founded in 1447 as a chantry by Cardinal Kempe. From 1627, a grammar and charity school operated from the premises. In 1894 the buildings re-opened as the South Eastern Agricultural College, offering University of London degrees from 1898, and in 1948 incorporated as Wye College. It merged with Imperial College in 2000 but the campus was progressively closed between 2005 and 2009.