Place:Preston next Faversham, Kent, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"PRESTON-NEXT-FAVERSHAM, a parish in Faversham [registration] district, Kent; on the London, Chatham, and Dover railway, at Faversham [railway] station, adjacent on the Sto Faversham. Post-town: Faversham. Acres: 1,547. Real property: £6,327. Population in 1851: 1,135; in 1861: 1,535. Houses: 297. The increase of population arose from employments in connection with [Faversham railway] station. The manor was originally called Coppanstone; was given, in the 9th century, by King Kenulf, to Christchurch, Canterbury; and afterwards took the name of Priest's Town or Preston. Preston House is the seat of G. Hilton, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value: £324. Patron: the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is early English; has a small tower; and contains a fine monument of Roger Boyle, and some brasses. Charities, £17."

This is a description of Preston next Faversham presented by the Faversham Society (www.faversham.org)

"Preston-next-Faversham, to give it its full name, which distinguishes it from Preston next Wingham, east of Canterbury, is an ancient parish whose original boundaries, valid till the late 19th century, meant that it adjoined the parish and borough of Faversham both on the south and the northwest (see the Parish Boundaries Map [on the website)."

This is the start of a very informative article which is not copied in full due to possible copyright infringements. It is worth reading by users with family history in the area.

Preston next Faversham was an ancient and civil parish that was located just outside the boundaries of Faversham, Kent, England. It ceased to exist in 1894 when Faversham was made a municipal borough. At the same time the parish of Preston, which appears to have originally surrounded Faversham, was split into several parts:

• Faversham Within,
• South Preston Without (which had two parts detached from each other), and
• North Preston Without.
• Faversham itself was also divided into Faversham Within and three detached parts of Faversham Without.

The Brents was a settlement in the northern part of Preston next Faversham and later within North Preston Without.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

St Catherine's Church in Preston next Faversham is an Anglican church located in the town of Faversham in Kent, England. Sir John Betjeman in the Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches has described St Catherine's as, "high and distinguished among the railways and breweries". The Church in its current form originates from the Norman period, though there was extensive restoration work done in the 1860s.

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.