Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SHEPPEY

SHEPPEY, an island, a district, and a liberty, in the N of Kent. The island is bounded by the Thames, the Swale, and the Medway; measures 10½ miles in length south-eastward, 5 in breadth, and about 30 in circuit; was known to the Saxons as Sceapige, signifying "sheep island;'' suffered devastation by the Danes in 832, 849, 851, 854, and some subsequent years; retains vestiges of Danish invasion, in the form of "coterels'' or tumuli; rises toward the centre, with diversity of hilland dale; is edged, along most of the N, by cliffs of from 60 to 80 feet high; suffers so much encroachment by the sea as to lose about 50 acres in 20 years; and consists entirely of the London clay formation, very rich in interesting fossils, and containing many pyrites or copperas-stones. -The district is identical with the island and its foreshores; comprises 22,928 acres of land and 8,155 of water or foreshore; and is divided into the sub-districts of Minster and Eastchurch. Poor rates in 1863, £3,514. Pop. in 1851, 13,385; in 1861, 18,494. Houses, 2,684. Marriages in 1863, 97; births, 677,-of which 15 were illegitimate; deaths, 407,-of which 215 were at ages under 5 years, and 3 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851 60,1,068; births, 5,661; deaths, 3,083. The places of worship, in 1851, were 9 of the Church of England, with 3,738 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1,082 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 302 s.; 7 of Wesleyans, with 1,426 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 200 s.; 1 of Bible Christians, with 200 s.; 1 of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, with 168 s.; 2 of Latter Day Saints, with 240 s.; 1 of Roman Catholics, with 120 s.; and 1 of Jews, with 39 s. The schools were 8 public day-schools, with 644 scholars; 39 private day-schools, with 1,094 s.; and 14 Sunday schools, with 1,936 s. The workhouse is in Minster.-The liberty is mainly identical with the district, and is in the lathe of Scray. See Sheerness.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "an island, a district, and a liberty"   (ADL Feature Type: "islands")
Administrative units: Sheppey RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place names: SCEAPIGE     |     SHEPPEY
Place: Sheppey

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