Beaksbourne, Kent

Historical Description

Beaksbourne or Bekesbourne, a parish in Kent, on the L.C. & D.R., 65 miles from London, and 2½ SE of Canterbury. It is a member of the Cinque port liberty of Hastings, and has a station on the railway and a post office under Canterbury; money order and telegraph office, Bridge. Acreage, 1113; population, 370. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £145 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is Norman and Early English. It was restored in 1881-89. There is an old palace, formerly belonging to Archbishop Cranmer, and occupied by him, though little of the original house remains.

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
Ecclesiastical parish	Beaksbourne St. Peter
Hundred	Bridge and Petham
Lathe	St. Augustine
Liberty	Hastings
Poor Law union	Bridge

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

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1558.

Findmypast have the following online for Bekesbourne, St Peter: baptisms 1558-1877, marriages 1558-1928, burials 1558-1948

Churches

Church of England

St. Peter (parish church)

The church of St. Peter is in the Norman, Early English and later styles, and has a tower containing 6 bells, the gift of Miss Gibbs, late of Howletts: in the church are memorials to the families of Palmer, Hales, Fagge, Eden and Gardner and various memorial windows: the church was restored in 1882-8 at a cost of about £3,000, and has 150 sittings.

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 Beaksbourne from the following:

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

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.