Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HIGHAM

HIGHAM, a village and a parish in North Aylesford district, Kent. The village stands near the Thames and Medway canal and the North Kent railway, 1½ mile from the Thames, and 4 NNW of Rochester; was known, at Domesday, as Heckham; and has a station on the railway, and a post office under Rochcster. The parish includes also Lillechurch, Oakley, Mockbeggar, and Gads Hill. Acres, 3, 155; of which 190 are water. Real property, £7, 630. Pop. in 1851, 843; in 1861, 1, 064. Houses, 208. The increase in pop. arose from the extension of market gardening, and the erection of small houses for the workers. The property is much subdivided. A Benedictine nunnery was founded at Lillechurch, by King Stephen; had, for its first abbess, King Stephen's daughter, Mary; was soon removed to Higham village; was given, at the dissolution, to St. John's college, Cambridge; and is now represented by some fragments of masonry there, in a house called the Abbey. An ancient causeway, probably of Roman origin, leads from the village, across the marshes, to the Thames at a point where formerly there was a ferry to a road direct toward Colchester. An ancient barrow is about 1½ mile from the railway station. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of St. John, in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £598. Patron, St. John's College, Cambridge. The parish church is ancient, with slight Norman traces; was recently restored; and contains a font, a piscina, and a large ancient altar tomb. Roman bricks are in its masonry; and many Roman urns, pieces of pottery, and other relics were found in the near neighbourhood, in what is supposed to have been a potter's field. The church of St. John was built, in 1861, at a cost of £3, 600; is in the early decorated English style; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with W porch and circular tower. There are national schools, and charities £16.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Higham AP/CP       Strood RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place names: HECKHAM     |     HIGHAM
Place: Higham

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