Eastry, Kent
Historical Description
Eastry, a village, a parish, and a hundred in Kent. The village stands 2½ miles SW by S of Sandwich station on the S.E.R., was once a market town belonging to Canterbury priory, was previously a seat of the Saxon kings, who had a palace at it, and has now a post, money order, and telegraph office under Dover, a fair on 2 Oct., a church, a Wesleyan chapel, a workhouse, a cottage hospital, and some large charities. The church is chiefly Early English, but has Norman portions, -and contains monuments of the Botelers, the Paramors, the Harveys, and the Bargraves; it was restored in 1860. The parish contains also Heronden, Selson, Gower, Statenborough, -znd Felderland. Acreage, 2733; population, 1343. Court Lodge belonged to the Bargraves, and was the hiding-place of Becket for some days before his flight to France. Some ancient remains are at Statenborougli; and a remarkable excavation, winding to a great depth through a chalk strata, is in the vicinity of Eastry village. The living is a vicarage in .the diocese of Canterbury; value, £198 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Kent | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Eastry St. Mary | |
Hundred | Downhamford | |
Lathe | St. Augustine | |
Poor Law union | Eastry |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast have the following online for Eastry, St Mary the Virgin: baptisms 1559-1912, marriages 1559-1928, burials 1559-1853
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Eastry from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Eastry (St. Mary))
Maps
Online maps of Eastry are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:
- Kent & Sussex Courier
- Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
- Dover Express
- Kentish Gazette
- Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
- Kentish Chronicle
- Maidstone Telegraph
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.