In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Eastry like this:
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.
Eastry through time
Eastry is now part of Dover district. Click here for graphs and data of how Dover has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Eastry itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Eastry, in Dover and Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/2066
Date accessed: 18th April 2024
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