Minster, Kent
Historical Description
Minster, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands in the Isle of Thanet, 1 mile N of the river Stour, and 4 miles W of Ramsgate; was once a market-town, and has a station on the S.E.R., 81 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The parish contains also Brook and Wayborough, and comprises 5388 acres; population of the civil parish, 2339; of the ecclesiastical, 2156. A nunnery was founded here in 670 by Domneva, niece of Egbert, King of Kent; was placed under his daughter Mildred as abbess over seventy nuns; was repeatedly plundered and sacked by the Danes, particularly in 980 and 1011; ceased at the latter date to be occupied as a nunnery, and passed with its property to the monks of Canterbury. Minster Court or the Abbey occupies the site of the old manor house, in which the monks resided who had charge of the property; retains some portions of the old building, particularly one of the 12th century; and long had connected with it the spicarium or great barn, 352 feet by 47, which was destroyed by lightning in 1700. Most of the land is flat, and bears the name of Minster Level; but part is hilly, and commands very fine views, both landward and seaward. Fruit is extensively grown in the parish. Ebbs Fleet, in the SE, was the landing-place of Hengist and Horsa. Roman coins were found about 1640 at Mount Pleasant. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £640 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is large and interesting; comprises nave, transepts, and choir, with tower and spire; is Early Norman in the W end, Late Norman in the nave, and Early English in the transepts and the choir; has a triplet E window, with clustered shafts between the lights, and a Norman door with tympanum within the tower; and contains eighteen miserere stalls, a very ancient iron-bound chest, an arched tomb of Edile de Thome, and traces of several brasses. A cross originally surmounted the spire, but was removed in 1647 by " Blue Dick," the noted Canterbury fanatic. There are Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, and Methodist chapels. The workhouse for Thanet district also is in this parish. Lewis the historian of Thanet, Wharton the author of " Anglia Sacra," and the younger Cassaubon were vicars.
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 | Minster St. Mary | |
Hundred | Ringslow | |
Lathe | St. Augustine | |
Poor Law union | Isle of Thanet |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Minster from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Minster (St. Mary))
Maps
Online maps of Minster 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.