Blean, a parish and an ancient forest in Kent. The parish is called also St Cosmus and St Damian-in-the-Blean, 2 1/2 miles NW by N of Canterbury, on the Whitstable branch of the S.E.R., and has a post office under Canterbury, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 2334; population, 662. Much of the land in the north is under coppice. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury ; net value, £217 with residence. The church is small. The forest belonged anciently to the Crown, extended from the vicinity of Herne to that of Chatham, was given away piecemeal, both before and after the Conquest, till nearly all was alienated, and gradually lost the character of a forest, till it became known simply as the Blean. Wild boars abounded in portions of it so late as the Reformation, and the yellow pine marten is still occasionally found.
