In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Lydd like this:
LYDD, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Romney-Marsh district, Kent. The town stands near the coast, 3½ miles SW by S of New Romney, 4 NW of Dungeness, and 7½ SW of Appledore r. station; is a member of Romney cinque-port, and a borough by prescription; is governed by a bailiff, jurats, and freemen, -the bailiff and jurats elected annually; is a seat of petty sessions; had, till recently, a weekly market; and has a post office‡ under Folkestone, a neat market-house, a church, a Wesleyan chapel, a national school, breweries, and a fair on the last Monday of July. ...
The church is later English, and large; has a lofty handsome tower, supposed to have been erected by Cardinal Wolsey, who held the benefice in right of the abbey of Tintern; contains an altar-tomb to Sir W. Meynell of the time of Edward III., and a number of brasses; and was given, by one of the De Clares, to Tintern abbey. The parish comprises 11,788 acres of land, and 1,715 of water. Real property, £16,889. Pop. in 1851,1,605; in 1861, 1,667. Houses, 360. The land is of varions character; a great portion appears to be of more recent formation than the adjacent marshes; and parts, called the Rype and Midrips, run out in narrow tongues; yet reaches of the beach are suffering inroads by the sea, and are cut by it into pits or water-holes. A long tract, called the Holmstone, was once covered with sea-holly, locally termed holm, and of an unusual size. A heap of stones, at Stone-end on the shore to the E of the town, was long traditionally regarded as the tomb of Sts. Crispin and Crispianus, who were alleged to have been shipwrecked and buried here. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £1,450.* Patron, the Archbishop of Cauterbury. Charities, about £130. See DUNGENESS.—The sub-district contains also seven other parishes. Acres, 26,114. Pop., 2,826. Houses, 593.
Lydd through time
Lydd is now part of Shepway district. Click here for graphs and data of how Shepway has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Lydd itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Lydd, in Shepway and Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/548
Date accessed: 24th April 2024
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