Romney, Kent
Historical Description
Romney, New, a small town and a parish in Kent. The town stands 1¼ mile from the coast, with a station, called New Romney and Littlestone, on the S.E.R., 74 miles from London, and 9 SW of Hythe, and has a post, money order, and telegraph omce. Acreage of the civil parish, 2568; population, 1402; of the ecclesiastical, 1460. Romney was known to the Saxons as Rumenea and to the Normans as Romenel; had at Domesday five parish churches, an hospital, twelve wards, and 156 burgesses; ranked for some time as an important one of the cinque ports; lost its harbour in the time of Edward L by a great storm, which changed the course of the river Rother; is a borough by prescription and was chartered by Edward IIL; sent two members to parliament till disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. In 1885 it received a charter of incorporation, and is now governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; is a seat of county courts and a polling-place, gives the title of Earl to the family of Marsham, and has a good inn, a market-house, an assembly-room, a church, a workhouse, almshouses with £112 a year, and a large stock fair on 21 Aug. The church is mainly Norman, partly Early English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a lofty tower, seen all over the surrounding level; contains a piscina, two brasses, and some ancient monuments; and belonged once to Pontignac Abbey in France. It was thoroughly restored in 1884. A cell of that abbey was once here; a lepers' hospital or chantry of the time of Henry II. also was here, but both have been entirely effaced. The living is a vicarage, united to the rectory of Hope All Saints, in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £300 with residence. There are Wesleyan and Baptist chapels. Littlestone-on-Sea is an estate on the sea front which has been laid out for building purposes, so as in time to form a marine town.
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.