Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for EASTRY

EASTRY, a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred, in Kent. The village stands 2½ miles SW by S of Sandwich r. station; was once a market-town, belonging to Canterbury priory; was previously a seat of the Saxon kings, who had a palace at it; and has now a post office† under Sandwich, a fair on 2 Oct., a church, a Wesleyan chapel, a workhouse, and charities £109. The church is chiefly early English, but has Norman portions; and contains monuments of the Botelers, the Paramors, the Harveys, and the Bargraves. The parish contains also Heronden, Selson, Gower, Statenborough, and Falderland. Acres, 2, 715. Real property, £7, 870. Pop., 1, 505. Houses, 236. The property is subdivided. Court Lodge belonged to the Bargraves, and was the hiding-place of Becket, for some days, before his flight to France. Some ancient remains are at Statenborough; and a remarkable excavation, winding to a great depth through chalk strata, is in the vicinity of Eastry village. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, 310.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. -The district comprehends the sub-district of Sandwich, containing the parishes of Sandwich-St. Mary, Sandwich-St. Peter, Sandwich -St. Clement, Ash-next-Sandwich, Woodnesborough, Worth, Ham, Eastry, and Betshanger, the extra-parochial tract of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and most of the parish of Northbourne; the sub-district of Wingham, containing the parishes of Wingham, Elm-stone, Goodnestone, Stourmouth, Staple-next. Wingham, Preston-by-Wingham, and a small part of Northbourne; the sub-district of Eythorn, containing the parishes of Eythorn, Tilmonstone, Nonington, Chillenden, Knowlton, Barfreston, and the larger part of Waldershare; and the sub-district of Deal, containing the parishes of Deal, Walmer, Sholden, Ripple, Little Mongeham, Great Mongeham, Sutton-by-Dover, and the smaller part of Walder-share. Acres, 50, 710. Poor-rates in 1862, £14, 378. Pop. in 1851, 25, 162; in 1861, 25, 900. Marriages in 1860, 203; births, 745, -of which 51 were illegitimate; deaths, 472, -of which 137 were at ages under 5 years, and 30 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,830; births, 7, 815; deaths, 4, 968. The places of worship in 1851 were 34 of the Church of England, with 11, 527 sittings; 6 of Independents, with 1, 744 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 1, 352 s.; 7 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1, 064 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 130 s.; 4 undefined, with 450 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 300 s. The schools were 21 public day schools, with 2, 008 scholars; 83 private day schools, with 1, 626 s.; and 35 Sunday schools, with 2, 666 s.-The hundred is in the lathe of St. Augustine; is bounded by the Straits of Dover on the E, and by the river Stour on the N; and contains twelve parishes. Acres, 19, 677. Pop., 4, 525. Houses, 794.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Eastry AP/CP       Eastry Hundred       Eastry RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Eastry

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