Northfleet, Kent

Historical Description

Northfleet, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on the river Thames, with a station on the S.E.R., 21 miles from London, and 2 W of Gravesend. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Gravesend. Acreage of the civil parish, 3934; population, 11,717; of the ecclesiastical, 9831. The manor figures in Domesday book and belonged anciently to the Archbishops of Canterbury. There are numerous good residences. A marsh in the NW was formerly covered by the Thames, but is now protected by high flood-gates. Rosherville Gardens, lying between Northfleet village and Gravesend, are large and picturesque; contain well-arranged promenades; include cliffs upwards of 150 feet high; have connection with a pier at which steamers touch, and have for many years been a favourite pleasure resort. Chalk rocks have been extensively quarried and chalk pits sunk; lime and cement are very largely manufactured; flints from the chalk are exported to Staffordshire and even to China for pottery purposes; and fossils in the chalk formation, particularly echinites and glosso-petrae, are very plentiful. Some masses of chalk along the bank of the Thames were left untouched by the excavations, in consequence of not being rich enough for manufacturing uses, are now covered with brushwood, and present a very picturesque appearance. A handsome edifice, called Hnggens' College, which stands on an eminence near Stonebridge, was erected by the munificence of Mr John Huggens, of Sittingbourne, for the occupancy of reduced ladies and gentlemen; gives each of them a weekly allowance of £1, and comprises fifty residences and a chapel with a beautiful lofty spire. A reach of the Thames contiguous to the parish and 1¼ mile long, bears the name of Northfleet Hope, and at one time-was the anchoring-place of the East India Company's ships. The Roman Watling Street traverses the S, and a Roman station probably was within the limits. The living is a. vicarage in the diocese of Rochester; gross value, £420 with residence. Patron, the Crown. The church is partly ancient, partly of the 15th century; has a chancel 52 feet by 22, restored in 1862; has a tower of about 1717 built after a previous one fell, and contains a 14th-century rood-screen, some oak stalls and stone seats, two piscinas, and several good brasses. There are Congregational, Wesleyan, Methodist, and Roman Catholic chapels. The Factory Club, erected in 1878, is a substantial building consisting of large hall, reading and billiard rooms, and capable of containing 900 persons.

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.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Northfleet from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Northfleet (St. Botolph))

Maps

Online maps of Northfleet 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.