Tonbridge

Tonbridge is a market town located in Kent, England, on the River Medway. It is about 12 miles (19 kilometres) south west of Maidstone, 12 miles (6 kilometres) north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, and 29 miles (47 kilometres) south east of London. In 2018, it was projected that there were 41,293 people living within the boundaries of the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling.

The name of the town that was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1087 was Tonebrige, which may mean a bridge that belonged to the estate or manor (from the Old English tun), or it may suggest a bridge that belonged to Tunna, a common Anglo-Saxon man's name. There is also the possibility that the name is an abbreviation for "town of bridges," in reference to the significant number of waterways that the High Street was first built to span.

Old maps, such as the one created by the Ordnance Survey in 1871 and current editions of the Bradshaw railway guide, demonstrate that the name of the town was spelled Tunbridge up to the year 1870. The General Post Office (GPO) decided in 1870 to alter this to Tonbridge in order to avoid confusion with the neighbouring town of Tunbridge Wells, despite the fact that Tonbridge is a considerably older community. The name Tunbridge Wells has never been changed from its original form.