Blean, Kent

Historical Description

Blean, a parish and an ancient forest in Kent. The parish is called also St Cosmus and St Damian-in-the-Blean, 2½ miles NW by N of Canterbury, on the Whitstable branch of the S.E.R., and has a post office under Canterbury, which is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 2334; population, 662. Much of the land in the north is under coppice. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £217 with residence. The church is small. The forest belonged anciently to the Crown, extended from the vicinity of Herne to that of Chatham, was given away piecemeal, both before and after the Conquest, till nearly all was alienated, and gradually lost the character of a forest, till it became known simply as the Blean. Wild boars abounded in portions of it so late as the Reformation, and the yellow pine marten is still occasionally found.

Church Records

The register dates from the year 1553.

Findmypast have the following online for Blean, SS Cosmus & Damian: baptisms 1558-1912, marriages 1559-1928, burials 1558-1893

Churches

Church of England

Maps

Online maps of Blean 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.