Cooling or Cowling, Kent

Historical Description

Cooling or Cowling, a parish in Kent, on the Thames, 1½ mile from Cliffe station on the S.E.R., and 6 miles N of Rochester. Post town, Cliffe, under Rochester; money order and telegraph office, Cliffe. Acreage, 2080; population, 176. The manor belonged to Duke Eadulf, and went to the Cobhams. A moated castle, of square form, with machicolated gateway, flanked by two round towers, was built here in the time of Richard II., and sustained a siege by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the time of Queen Mary. The gatehouse still stands in tolerable preservation, and the remainder is in ruins, in the midst of which is a farmhouse. A tract of marsh extends from the vicinity of the castle to the Thames. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester; value, £422 with residence. The church is ancient, with a tower, and has a double piscina and a brass of 1508.

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	Cooling St. James
Hundred	Shamwell
Lathe	Aylesford
Poor Law union	Hoo

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

Church Records

The register dates from about 1707.

Findmypast have the following online for Cooling, St James: baptisms 1707-1914, marriages 1712-1934, burials 1708-1977

Churches

Church of England

St. James (parish church)

The church of St. James is in the Early English style, and has a tower containing 3 bells: the font is Transition Norman: there are 200 sittings.

Methodist

Cooling Methodist Chapel

The Wesleyan chapel, built in 1889, is of brick with stone dressings; and has sittings for 150.

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 Cooling or Cowling from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Cooling or Cowling 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.