Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BRIDGE

BRIDGE, a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred in Kent. The village stands on Watling-street, and on the Little Stour river, near the Beaksbourne station of the Canterbury and Dover railway, 3 miles SE of Canterbury: and has a post office under Canterbury. The parish comprises 1,161 acres. Real property, £3,339. Pop., 893. Houses, 149. The manor belonged to an ancient abbey, on the ground now occupied by the church; and passed to the Dutch family of Braeams. Bridge-Hill House was the seat and death-place of the Baron de Montesquieu, grandson of the famous president. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the vicarage of Patrixbourne, in the diocese of Canterbury. The church is Norman and early English; and contains a remarkable monumental effigies, supposed to be of a steward of the ancient Abbey, and some singular carvings, representing the creation and fall of man. There are a Wesleyan chapel, a literary institute, and a national school. The artist Jansen resided much in Bridge; and painted here his portrait of the lady popularly called the "Star in the East."

The district comprehends the subdistrict of Barham, containing the parishes of Barham, Bridge, Patrixbourne, Beaksbourne, Bishopsbourne, Kingstone, Womens would, Adisham, Ickham, Wickhambreux, Stodmarsh, Littlebourne, and Fordwich; and the subdistrict of Chartham, containing the parishes of Chartham, Waltham, Petham, Upper Hardres, Lower Hardres, Nackington, Thanington, Milton Chapel, and Harbledown, the extra-parochial tracts of Mint and St. Nicholas Hospital, and part of the parish of Holy-Cross-Westgate. Acres, 41,394. Poorrates in 1866, £8,219. Pop. in 1861, 11,316. Houses, 2,308. Marriages in 1866, 55; births, 344,-of which 9 were illegitimate; deaths, 200,-of which 54 were at ages under 5 years, and 7 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 690; births, 3,539; deaths, 2,0 41. The places of worship in 1851, were 23 of the Church of England, with 5,059 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 160 s.; 7 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 680 s.; and 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 50 s. The schools were 20 public day schools, with 1,054 scholars; 17 private day schools, with 277 s.; and 18 Sunday. schools, with 830 s. The workhouse is in Bridge, and cost £5,000.-The hundred bears the name of Bridge and Petham; is in the lathe of St. Augustine; and contains eight parishes. Acres, 13,369. Pop., 3,009.


(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: Bridge Ch/CP       Bridge RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Bridge

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