Thanet, Kent
Historical Description
Thanet, an island in the NE of Kent. The island projects to the North Foreland, at the mouth of the Thames, is bounded on the N and the E by the sea, on the SE by Pegwell Bay, on the S by the river Stour, on the W by the rivulet Nethergong; was anciently separated from the land by the Wantsome Channel, about a mile wide, along the course of the Stour and the Nethergong, and used as a short cut in the ordinary passage between 'London and France; became nearly connected with the land by the silting up of that channel progressively till about the year 1500; appears to have extended much farther seaward in the Saxon times than now; measures about 10 miles from E to W, and from 2½ to 7½ from N to S; was known to the ancient Britons as Ruim or Inis-Ruochim, to the Saxons as Tenet or Tanet-lond, to the old geographers as Thanatos; and retains, or has furnished, many relics of Roman, Saxon, and Jutish inhabitation. Till about the beginning of the eighteenth century it lay in nearly as wild a condition as the remotest parts of Cornwall, but is now distinguished by rich cultivation and high progress, and has generally a light fertile soil on a chalky bottom. It includes some rich marshes on the sides of the streams, and gave from 1628 till 1849 the title of Earl to the family of Tufton. The workhouse is situated in Minster parish.
Thanet Parliamentary Division of Kent was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 60,646. The division includes the following;-Ramsgate-St Lawrence, Minster-in-Thanet, Monkton, St Nicholas-at-Wade, Stonar; Margate, municipal borough; Sandwich, municipal borough; Ramsgate, non-corporate member of Sandwich; Sarre, non-corporate member of Sandwich; Birchington, St John, Wood, St Peter, Minster, non-corporate members of Dover.
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
Villages, Hamlets, &c
AcolVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.