Sheerness or Sheerness on Sea, Kent

Historical Description

Sheerness or Sheerness-on-Sea, a town and a parish in Kent. The town stands on the NW extremity of the Isle-of Sheppey, at the influx of the Medway to the Thames, with stations on the L.C. & D.R., 51 miles from London, 3½ SW of the Nore Light, and 7 N of Sittingbourne, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office. It occupies low ground which was a swamp so late as the time of Charles I.; originated and acquired a fort with twelve guns in the time of Charles II.; was taken in 1667 by the Dutch admiral De Ruyter; became afterwards a place of greater note, with increase of its fort to a regular fortification, and with formation of Government docks; was the scene in 1797 of the outbreak of the mutiny of the Nore; is now defended by works 1¼ mile in extent, constructed at a cost of about £100,000, and mounting more than 100 guns; has dockyards covering 60 acres, formed at a cost of little less than £3,000,000, surrounded by a brick wall built at a cost of £40,000, and giving employment to about 2500 mechanics and artisans; has also barracks with accommodation for about 1750 men; and is a coastguard station and a seat of county courts. It publishes a weekly newspaper, and has a bank, a handsome county court house, a Roman Catholic chapel, a Jews' synagogue, a mechanics' institute and reading-room, and some other institutions. The Victoria Hall, erected in 1879, is a large brick structure,. and is used for concerts, public meetings, &c. The Victoria Working-men's Club is a handsome brick building, and is-arranged for about 1000 members. The Royal Hotel in Banks Town is a noble building, and was originally the mansion of Sir E. Banks. St Paul's Church is a building of brick in the Byzantine style, and has been twice enlarged. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £240 with residence. Holy Trinity is a small edifice of brick erected in 1836. The living is a vicarage; gross value, £370 with residence. There are Congregational, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and Bible Christian chapels. A fine esplanade has been constructed, extending from Garrison Fort to Cheney Rock, and forms a long and pleasant promenade. The dockyard includes docks of sufficient capacity for the largest men-of-war, two smaller basins, a storehouse-six storeys high with capacity for about 30,000 tons of naval stores, a mast-house, a rigging-house, smitheries, a sail-lofty and residences for the port admiral and other officers. The harbour fronts the Medway, has undergone much enlargement, and has a steamboat pier 1500 feet long. The water supply of Sheerness was formerly very scanty, but is now obtained from deep artesian wells. A subterranean forest was discovered at the sinking of one of the wells, and the workmen burned their way through it. Considerable business is done in the corn and seed trade, in oyster fishing, and in the furnishing of supplies to ships. The ecclesiastical parish of Holy Trinity was constituted in 1851 (population, 8453),. and of St Paul in 1873 (population, 6039).

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 Sheerness or Sheerness on Sea from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Sheerness or Sheerness on Sea 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.