Milton next Sittingbourne, Kent

Historical Description

Milton-next-Sittingbourne, a town and a parish in Kent. The town stands on a hillside at the top of a creek of the river Swale, adjacent on the NW to the town and station of Sittingbourne on the L.C. & D.R., and adjacent on the NE to the junction of the North Kent railway with the branch to Sheerness, 10 miles ESE of Chatham. It was anciently known as Mideltun, is supposed to have had a palace of the Saxon kings, was a royal manor from the Saxon times till the time of Charles I., often held in dowry by the queens, and is said to have been the deathplace about 680 of Sexburga, the canonized prioress of Minster in Sheppey. It was attacked in 893 by Hastings the Dane with a fleet of eiglity ships, suffered desolation from the fire raised by Earl Godwin in a quarrel with Edward the Confessor, is recorded to have had six mills and twenty-seven salt-pits at Domesday, and was a considerable maritime place in the time of Elizabeth. It has a court-leet said to have been established by King Alfred, and held annually for the appointment of two high-constables and other officers; consists of a number of small streets intersecting one another at right angles, and straggling into scattered outskirts; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office, of the name of Milton, under Sittingbourne, a court-house, a market-house, shipping quays, a church, a workhouse, and a variety of institutions, some of them conjoint with Sittingbonme. The court-house stands in the centre of the town, is an ancient timbered structure, is used for the manor courts, and includes what was long used as a small town jail. The church stands to the N of the town, is partly Norman, partly Early English, and chiefly Decorated English; incorporates pieces of Roman brick scattered through its walls; has in the south chancel three paving-tiles with coloured patterns, seemingly either Venetian or Moorish, and contains a piscina, two sedilia, the brass of a knight of the time of Edward IV., two other brasses, and some monuments. There are Congregational and Methodist chapels. An extensive lanyard is at Chalkwell, and some oil and cement mills are at Crown Quay, while some extensive paper mills are also in the parish. Some export trade in corn, wool, bricks and paving stones for London is carried on from Crown Quay. The oyster fishery dates from at least the Roman times, and is believed to have furnished the Rutupian oysters celebrated by Juvenal; it was granted by King John to the abbots of Faversham, and continued in their hands till the dissolution; it has been worked from very early times by a company of fishermen under special by-laws like those of Faversham, and it employs a large fleet of smacks and hoys in conveying the produce to London. The oysters are known as " Milton natives," and bear the reputation of being among the best in the British market. The parish comprises 2558 acres; population, 5213. Part of the land is marsh. An earthwork of about 100 feet square, known as Castle Rough, with a broad fosse and a single val-lum, on Kemsley Downs, on the marshes, is believed to have been a fortress formed by Hastings the Dane at his attack in 893, and traces of a raised causeway lead from it to the mouth of the creek. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £270 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. St Paul's chapel of ease is a large brick building to which a well-proportioned chancel has been added.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Milton next Sittingbourne from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Milton-Next-Sittingbourne (Holy Trinity))

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.