Place:Pembury, Kent, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Pembury is a large village in Kent in the southeast of England, with a population of around 6,000. It lies just to the northeast of Tunbridge Wells.

The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a conservation area.

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

"PEMBURY, a village and a parish in Tonbridge [registration] district, Kent. The village stands 3 miles S E of Tonbridge [railway] station, and has a post-office under Tonbridge. The parish contains also the hamlet of Lower Pembury Green, and comprises 3,481 acres. Real property: £6,308. Population in 1851: 1,114; in 1861: 1,257. Houses: 265. The manor belongs to Marquis Camden. Kennards is the seat of Sir John K. Shaw, Bart.; and Grovehurst, of H. G. W. Sperling, Esq. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Trinity, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value: £353. Patron: the Rev. G. S. Woodgate. The parish church stands about 1½ mile from the village, includes Norman portions, and contains several very old and curious monuments. Trinity church stands in the S; was erected recently, at a cost of about £2,500; and is in the later English style, with tower and spire. There are a national school, alms-houses, and charities £70."

Pembury's boundaries were considerably altered in 1934 when it absorbed part of the parish of Tonbridge Rural (which was abolished that year) and relinquished an even larger acreage to Tunbridge Wells parish. There may be references to Pembury residents in sources for both Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells parishes.

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.