In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described New Romney like this:
ROMNEY (New), a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Romney-Marsh district, Kent. The town stands 1½ mile from the coast, 7 S E of Ham-street r. station, and 9 S W of Hythe; was known to the Saxons as Rumenea, and to the Normans as Romenel; had, at Domesday, five parish churches, an hospital, twelve wards, and 156 burgesses; ranked, for some time, as an important one of the cinque ports; lost its harbour, in the time of Edward I., by a great storm which changed thecourse of the river Rother; is a borough by prescription, and was chartered by Edward III.; sent two members toparliament, till disfranchised by the reform act of 1832; is a seat of county courts, and a polling-place; gives the title of Earl to the family of Marsham; and has a post-office† under Folkestone, a good inn, a market house, an assembly-room, a church, a Wesleyan chapel, a national school, a work-house, alms-houses with £112 a year, other charities £11, and a large stock fair on 21 Aug. ...
The church is mainly Norman, partly early English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a loftytower, seen all over the surrounding level; contains apiscina, two brasses, and some ancient monuments; and belonged once to Pontignac abbey in France. A cell of that abbey was once here; a lepers' hospital, or chantry, of the time of Henry II., also was here; but both have been entirely effaced. The parish comprises 2, 276 acres of land, and 643 of water. Rated property, £5, 619. Pop., 1,062. Houses, 205. The property is subdivided. There is a coast-guard station. The living is a vicarage, united with the sinecure rectory of Hope-All Saints, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £430. Patron, All Souls College, Oxford.—The sub-district contains alsoten other parishes. Acres, 20, 671. Pop., 2, 882. Houses, 585.
New Romney through time
New Romney is now part of Shepway district. Click here for graphs and data of how Shepway has changed over two centuries. For statistics about New Romney itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of New Romney, in Shepway and Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/385
Date accessed: 19th April 2024
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