In the Domesday book Gravenhurst was known as Crauenhest. Originally classed as one village it later divided into Over and Nether Gravenhurst which were renamed later to Upper and Lower Gravenhurst. The name Gravenhurst may derive from the Old English words grafa and hyrst meaning ‘coppice wooded-hill' or ‘wooded-hill with a pit/trench‘. In the 2001 Census the population of the Gravenhurst civil parish was 581.

At one time men were employed in the making of bricks at the kiln in Lower Gravenhurst. A water mill was used to lift the clay out of the pit. This pit is now filled with water.

Lower Gravenhurst

Barton Road

In Lower Gravenhurst clay from a local pit was used to make bricks. This pit was later filled with water and it was there that a young girl drowned herself after losing her baby. It is said that her ghost now haunts a nearby house.

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