Dymchurch, Kent

Historical Description

Dymchurch, a parish in Kent, on the coast, 4 miles NE of New Romney, and 5½ SSW of Westenhanger station on the S.E.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Folkestone. Acreage, 1228 of land and 386 of tidal water and foreshore; population of the civil parish, 560; of the ecclesiastical, 629. The surface is all on the level of Romney Marsh, and, together with the rest of that low tract, is protected from sea-inundation only by means of Dymchurch wall. This is an embankment about 4 miles long, about 20 feet high, and from 15 to 30 feet wide, with three sluice-gates for drainage, and is kept in repair by a local rate, under management of a local body. Much damage was done to the wall in the severe gales of 1894, and the inhabitants petitioned the authorities to construct groynes of other material, and thus render the flooding of the marshes practically impossible. During some alterations on the embankment, relics of the Mediaeval and the Saxon times were obtained, and a quantity of Roman pottery. The living is a rectory united in 1868 with Eastbridge, Blackmanstone, and Orgarswick, in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £192 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is old. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, a working men's institute, and some large charities. A pleasure fair is held on the last Saturday in Whitsun week.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

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

Church Records

The register of baptisms dates from the year 1637; marriages, 1624; burials, 1645.

Findmypast have the following online for Dymchurch, SS Peter & Paul: baptisms 1637-1919, marriages 1624-1919, burials 1645-1922

Churches

Church of England

Baptist

Methodist

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Dymchurch from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Dymchurch (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Maps

Online maps of Dymchurch 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.