Place:Hollingbourne, Kent, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Hollingbourne is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the North Downs to the east of the county town, Maidstone. The parish population is around 900 and has three conservation areas: Upper Street in the village centre and the outlying hamlets of Broad Street (Hollingbourne) and Eyhorne Street.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Hollingbourne was a civil parish in Hollingbourne Rural District from 1894 until 1974. Originally it was an ancient parish in the Eyhorne Hundred.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Hollingbourne from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HOLLINGBOURN, a village, a parish, a [registration] sub-district, and a [registration] district in Kent. The village stands 5 miles E of Maidstone [railway] station; was known at Domesday as Hoilingeborde; and has a post office under Maidstone, and a fair on 16 June. The parish contains also the hamlet of Eyhorne-Street, and the places called New Englands, Woodcut-Hill, and Greenway-Court. Acres: 4,560. Real property: £6,108. Population in 1851: 1,302; in 1861: 1,190. Houses: 189. The decrease of population arose from emigration, caused by want of employment. Most of the property is divided among seven. The manor belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. There were formerly paper mills; and these were converted into flour mills. There are brick and tile works. Very curious relics, of unique character, supposed to be Roman, and including a wooden club scarcely 2 feet long and a small wooden sword or dagger, were found about 3½ feet below the surface, during the enlargement of a mill pond, in 1862. The living is a vicarage in the [diocese] of Canterbury; and, till 1868, was united with Hucking. Value: £349. Patron: the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is early and later English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with low square tower; and contains many monuments of the Culpepers, of the 17th and 18th centuries. There are an endowed national school, a charity for widows with £100 a year, and other charities with £22. The district workhouse is in the parish; and, at the census of 1861, had 241 inmates. ...."

The entry continued with descriptions of the registration sub-district and the registration district.

Research Tips

• Kent County Council Archive, Local Studies and Museums Service. James Whatman Way, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1LQ. This incorporates the Centre for Kentish Studies in Maidstone and the East Kent Archives Centre near Dover.
• Canterbury Cathedral Archives see the Archives web pages on the Canterbury Catherdral site.
• For information on the area around the Medway Towns, have a look at Medway Council's CityArk site.
• Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Kent illustrates the parish boundaries of Kent when rural districts were still in existence and before Greater London came into being. The map publication year is 1931. An earlier map of 1900 may also be useful. The maps blow up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
• Census records for Kent are available on FamilySearch, Ancestry and FindMyPast. The first site is free; the other two are pay sites but have access to microfilmed images. Steve Archer produced a very useful round-up of the available sources, but this information may not be up to date.
• Registration Districts in Kent for the period 1837 to the present. By drilling down through the links you can follow any parish through the registration districts to which it was attached.
• England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911 The full database from Kent Archives Office, Maidstone, has been available online from FamilySearch since June 2016.
• Kent had five family history societies (now only four):

• Kent FHS (serves the whole county)
• Folkestone & District FHS (serves the southeast corner)
• North West Kent FHS (serves the western area of present-day Kent)
• Tunbridge Wells FHS (ceased operation 31 Dec 2016; see North West Kent)
• Woolwich & District FHS (serves eastern sections of Greater London which were in Kent until 1966)

• Volume 2 of the Victoria County History of Kent (published 1926) is available online through the auspices of British History Online. It includes accounts of the early history of Canterbury and Rochester cathedrals, and of several sites now within the conurbation of London.
• Volume 3 of the Victoria County History of Kent (published 1932) This includes the text of, and the index to, the Kent Domesday survey. It has been provided by the Kent Archaeological Society.
• In place of the other volumes of the Victoria County History, British History Online has transcriptions of the numerous volumes of The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent by Edward Hasted (originally published 1797)
• English Jurisdictions 1851, a parish finding aid provided by FamilySearch, is particularly helpful in locating parishes in large ancient towns and cities like Canterbury.
• Kent Probate Records Numerous links provided by Maureen Rawson
• GENUKI lists other possible sources, however, it does not serve Kent so well as it does some other counties.