Sheppey, Kent
Historical Description
Sheppey, an island, a district, and a liberty, in the N of Kent. The island is bounded by the Thames, the Swale, and the Medway; measures 10½ miles in length south-eastward, 5 in breadth, and about 30 in circuit; was known to the Saxons as Sceapige, signifying " sheep island;" suffered devastation by the Danes in 832, 849, 851, 854, and some subsequent years; retains vestiges of Danish invasion in the form of " coterels " or tumuli; rises towards the centre, with diversity of hill and dale; is edged along most of the N by cliffs of from 60 to 80 feet high; suffers so much encroachment by the sea as to lose about 50 acres in twenty years; and consists entirely of the London clay formation, very rich in interesting fossils, and containing many pyrites or copperas-stones. The L.C. & D.R. affords communication with the mainland, the line being carried over the Swale by means of a movable iron viaduct.
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.