Birling or Byrling, Kent

Historical Description

Birling or Byrling, a parish in Kent, adjacent to the river Medway, 2½ miles WSW of Snodland station on the S.E.R., and 6 NW of Maidstone, under which it has a post office; money order and telegraph office, Snodland (S.O.) Acreage, 1918; population, 1384. The manor belonged formerly to the Mainmots, the Says, and the Nevilles; it is now the property of the Earl of Abergavenny. Comfort, now a farmhouse, and Birling Place, represented only by a fragment, were seats of the Nevilles. A range of chalk heights, called Birling Hills, occupies the W. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £340 with residence. Patron, the Marquis of Abergavenny. The church is Perpendicular English, in good condition, and contains the remains, but no monuments, of some of the Nevilles.

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	Birling All Saints
Hundred	Larkfield
Lathe	Aylesford
Poor Law union	Malling

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 Birling, All Saints: baptisms 1551-1968, marriages 1711-1969, burials 1558-1992

Churches

Church of England

All Saints (parish church)

The church of All Saints is a building of Kentish rag, principally Perpendicular in style, and has a tower containing a clock and 8 bells, and several stained windows, as well as memorials of the Nevill family: the church affords upwards of 400 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 Birling or Byrling from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Birling (All Saints))

Maps

Online maps of Birling or Byrling 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.