Bredhurst, Kent
Historical Description
Bredhurst, a parish in Kent, 3 miles SSW of Rainham station on the L.C. & D.R., and 5 from Maidstone. It has a post office under Chatham; money order and telegraph office, Rainham. Acreage, 602; population of the civil parish, 121; of the ecclesiastical, 307. In 1884 the hamlet of Lidsing, in the civil parish of Gillingham, was ecclesiastically annexed to this parish. The living is a vicarage, with Lidsing, in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £261 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is old but good.
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 | Bredhurst St. Peter | |
Hundred | Eyhorne | |
Lathe | Aylesford | |
Poor Law union | Hollingbourn |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1545.
Findmypast have the following online for Bredhurst, St Peter: baptisms 1547-1916, marriages 1570-1935, burials 1547-1946
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)
The church of St. Peter is chiefly in the Early English style, with some traces of Norman work, and has a stone bell gable containing 2 bells: the chantry chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, on the south side of the chancel, is Early English, and shows remains of wall-painting: in the 16th century it was the burial place of the Kemsley family: the nave was rebuilt in 1865, and a stone holy-water stoup and a copper paten of the 14th century, belonging to the old church, are still preserved: there is a memorial window to the Rev. T. H. Day, by whom the entire cost of the restoration was defrayed, and all the other windows are also filled with stained glass. In 1905 the Rev. Anthony Collett M.A. then vicar, gave a new positive organ and the parishioners an organ case: the church affords 150 sittings: in the churchyard is a yew tree, said to be about 500 years old.
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 Bredhurst from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bredhurst (St. Peter))
Maps
Online maps of Bredhurst 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.