Wye, Kent

Historical Description

Wye, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on the river Stour, under Wye Downs, with a station on the S.E.R., 60 miles from London, and 4 NNE of Ashford. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, was once a market-town, and consists of two parallel streets crossed by two others. The South-eastern Agricultural College is a 15th-century building, which has been adapted to modern requirements. A fair is held annually on 11 Oct. Acreage of the civil parish, 7349; population, 1419; of the ecclesiastical, 1254. There is a parish council consisting of nine members. The manor belonged to the Saxon kings, was given by William the Conqueror to Battle Abbey, went after the dissolution of monasteries to the Hunsdons, and passed in 1628 to the Finches. Olantigh Towers is the chief residence, and is believed to contain the finest collection of pictures in the county. Wye Downs command a fine view. A mineral spring is at Withersdane. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £275 with residence. The church is large and handsome, and has a nave of the time of Henry VI., and a chancel and tower of 1706. There are a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed school, and almshouses.

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.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Wye from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wye (St. Martin and St. Gregory))

Maps

Online maps of Wye 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.