St Margaret at Cliffe, Kent

Historical Description

Margaret-at-Cliffe, St, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands half a mile from the coast, 1¼ from-Martin Mill station on the Deal and Dover Joint railway, and 4½ miles NE of Dover; takes the suffix of its name from chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Dover. The parish contains also the hamlet of St Margaret's Bay, and comprises-1866 acres; population of the civil parish, 828; of the ecclesiastical, 972. The parish council, under the Local Government Act, 1894, consists of seven members. The-manor has always belonged to the Archbishops of Canterbury. The cliffs curve round and shelve down like an-amphitheatre, command a fine view of the English Channel and the French coast, and are traversed down their broken sides by a winding road from the village to St Margaret's' Bay. St Margaret's Bay is noted for lobsters, said to be the finest flavoured ones in England, and for prawns of a-large size, and is the commencing point of the sub-marine telegraph across the Channel. The South Foreland, with it& lights, is on the W side of the bay. The living is a vicarage, with West Cliffe annexed, in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £240 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is fine Norman, of Caen stone; was found, on removal of a thick coating of plaster and whitewash, to have-excellent specimens of stone carving; comprises a nave of four bays and a very long chancel; possesses highly interesting-features, and has been restored.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

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

Ancient County	Kent
Hundred	Bewsborough
Lathe	St. Augustine
Poor Law union	Dover

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

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for St Margaret at Cliffe from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Margaret, St., at Cliffe)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.