Queenborough, Kent

Historical Description

Queenborough, a market-town, a municipal borough, a parish, and a port in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. The town stands on the Swale, near the Medway, with a station on the Sittingbourne and Sheerness branch of the L.C. & D.R., 50 miles from London, and 2 S of Sheerness. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Sheerness. Acreage of parish, 298; population, 1050. Queenborough superseded a Saxon place called Cyningburg or Kings Castle, where annual courts were held; was founded along with a castle by Edward III., and called Queenborough in compliment to bis queen Philippa; received a charter from Edward III.; is now governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 13 councillors; sent two members to Parliament from the time of Elizabeth till 1832; and was long a staple for wool. There is no market day, but a fair is held on 5 August. It has some glue and chemical manure factories, Portland cement works, and carries on a large timber trade. It consists chiefly of one main street, and has a guildhall, a church, Congregational and Wesleyau chapel, and charities. The guildhall has been recently renovated. The L.C. & D.R. have constructed a branch line for the requirements of their continental traffic via Flushing; a pier erected by them was destroyed by fire in 1882, and was rebuilt in 1885 on a much larger scale. The castle was erected after designs by William of Wykeham; was repaired by Richard II., Henry VIII., and Elizabeth; was taken down in the time of the Commonwealth; and is now represented by only a well and the remains of the moat and glacis. The well was re-opened in 1860, and is 271 feet deep. The church has an ancient tower, probably Norman, and was well restored in 1885. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £190 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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 Queenborough from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Queenborough (Holy Trinity))

Maps

Online maps of Queenborough 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.