Bearsted or Bersted, Kent

Historical Description

Bearsted or Bersted, a parish in Kent, on a tributary of the Medway river, and on the L.C. & D.R., 45 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 573; population of the civil parish, 645; of the ecclesiastical, 665. Some lands here were held by the Bertie family before the reign of Henry II. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £162 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. The church is Perpendicular English, and has a tower with three stone figures—a lion, an ox, and an eagle—on the battlements. A Witenagemote was held here in 696 under Bertwald, "high bishop of Britain," with Gebmund of Rochester. Among the "Dooms" then enacted were several affecting the church.

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	Bearstead Holy Cross
Hundred	Eyhorne
Lathe	Aylesford
Poor Law union	Maidstone

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

Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1653.

Findmypast have the following online for Bearsted, Holy Cross: baptisms 1563-1919, marriages 1563-1919, burials 1563-1922

Churches

Church of England

Holy Cross (parish church)

The church of the Holy Cross is of stone, partly in the Early English style, and has a tower of Rectilinear date, containing 6 bells: several of the windows are stained, and there are a number of monuments; the church has been restored at different times since 1863, and affords 230 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 Bearsted or Bersted from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bearstead (Holy Cross))

Maps

Online maps of Bearsted or Bersted 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:

Visitations Heraldic

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