St Lawrence, Kent

Historical Description

Lawrence, St, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands near the coast, and has a station on the S.E.R. 85 miles from London and half a mile W of Ramsgate. The parish was at first a chapelry of Minster, was made parochial in 1275, and included what is now Ramsgate parish till 1827. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Ramsgate. Acreage, 3247 of land and 1221 of water and-foreshore; population of the civil parish, 8897; of the ecclesiastical, 2536. It contains the tithings of Ozengell and" Newlands; the hamlets of Southwood, Pegwell, Chilton, Little Cliff's End, Great Cliff's End, Manston, Poleash, Sprat-ting Street, Coldswood, Haine, Newington, Puddle Dock, and Whitehall; part of EIlington hamlet, and parts of North-wood, Poisons, Holycondane, Dumpton, and Hereson. By the Parish Councils Act, the portion of the parish outside the urban boundary forms a separate council, and is called the parish of Manstone. East Cliff Lodge is the seat of the-Montefiore family. Manston Court is an ancient mansion, now a farmhouse, with ruins of a chapel. Curious subterranean passages lead from East Cliff Lodge gardens to the-sands. There are a number of very fine residences in the-vicinity. Pegwell is noted for shrimps and lobsters, and carries on trade in the potting of shrimps. There is a coastguard station. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, -£200. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is Norman, in good condition, has a central tower with external arcade, and contains monuments of the Spracklings and the Manstons. St Luke's. Church, situated near the railway station, is a building of Kentish ragstone in the Gothic style. Holy Trinity, a new church with separate district, is on the East Cliff. There is-a chapel of ease to the parish church at Manstone, and also a Jews' synagogue, a Wesleyan chapel, a small convent, and a good boarding-school for boys. Joy, the strong man of Kent,. who could lift a ton and pull against a horse, was a native.

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 St Lawrence from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Laurence, St.)

Maps

Online maps of St Lawrence 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.