Place:Sandwich, Kent, England

Watchers
NameSandwich
Alt namesSandwicsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 142
Sandwich St. Clementsource: ancient and civil parish within Sandwich until 1935
Sandwich St. Marysource: ancient and civil parish within Sandwich until 1935
Sandwich St. Petersource: ancient and civil parish within Sandwich until 1935
TypeCivil parish, Borough (municipal)
Coordinates51.283°N 1.333°E
Located inKent, England
See alsoDover District, Kent, Englanddistrict municipality into which it was absorbed in 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the non-metropolitan District of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, England. In the UK census of 2011 it had a population of 4,989.

Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including several listed public houses and gates in the old town walls, churches, almshouses and the White Mill. While once a major port, it is now two miles from the sea due to the disappearance of the Wantsum Channel. Its historic centre has been preserved.

Sandwich gave its name to the bread snack by way of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. The word sandwich is now found in many languages.

Sandwich was originally an ancient borough, a self-governing walled town, made up of three ancient and civil parishes: Sandwich St. Clement, Sandwich St. Mary and Sandwich St. Peter, which merged as the civil parish of Sandwich in 1935. For the century previous the three parishes together had been classified as a municipal borough. On the formation of Dover District, only the classification of civil parish remained.

History

The description of Sandwich from A Vision of Britain through Time from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is a much longer passage than those commonly reproduced. It provides a picture of the town in the latter half of the nineteenth century and some statistics of the time.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Sandwich, Kent.

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):
  • 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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Sandwich, Kent. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.