Also lying within the civil parish is the smaller linear settlement of Shottenden, which is situated 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west of Chilham.

[3] The village of Chilham is in the valley of the Great Stour River and beside the A28 road 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Canterbury.

It has been claimed that St Thomas Becket was buried in the churchyard, despite his ornate tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, destroyed at the Reformation.

In 1965 it was used for part of the filming of The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders starring Kim Novak, Leo McKern and Angela Lansbury, and it was also used as a location for the BBC's 2009 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma.

The village was made over to sunnier times for The Moving Finger, a mystery featuring Agatha Christie's other famous sleuth Miss Jane Marple, portrayed by Geraldine McEwan, and appeared as Riseholme in the 1985 LWT/Channel 4 adaptation of E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia, which also starred Geraldine McEwan.