Grain St James, Kent

Historical Description

Grain, Isle of, or St James, a parish in Kent, between the Thames and the Medway, 3 miles from Port Victoria station on the North Kent railway. It has a post and money order office under Rochester; telegraph office, Port Victoria. Acreage, 3074 of land and 103 of water; population, 570. The land was an island, bounded on the W by Yantlet Creek-on the other sides by the Thames and the Medway; but it is now connected with the mainland westward by a good road. The site of the village on the E is high ground, but the rest of the parish is low and flat, mostly pasture and marsh, and is protected from sea inundation by embankments. The Nore Light is off the E end. A large fort for the defence of the Medway was completed in 1865. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester; value, £200 with residence. The church belonged before the time of Edward I. to Minster nunnery in Sheppey, has a brass of 1494, and is good. There is a Congregational chapel.

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	Grain St. James
Hundred	Hoo
Lathe	Aylesford
Poor Law union	Hoo

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

Church Records

Findmypast have the following online for Grain, St James: marriages 1664-1814

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 Grain St James from the following:

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

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.