Place:Shepway District, Kent, England

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NameShepway District
TypeDistrict municipality
Coordinates51.08°N 1.17°E
Located inKent, England     (1974 - )
See alsoFolkestone, Kent, Englandmunicipal borough which was transferred into the district in 1974
Lydd, Kent, Englandmunicipal borough which was transferred into the district in 1974
New Romney, Kent, Englandmunicipal borough which was transferred into the district in 1974
Elham Rural, Kent, Englandrural district which was transferred into the district in 1974
Romney Marsh Rural, Kent, Englandrural district which was transferred into the district in 1974

Type of Government: non-metropolitan district
Population in 2011 (rounded): 108,200

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Shepway is a local government district in Kent, England which takes up the southeast corner of the county. Its council is in the town of Folkestone.

Most of the population live in the coastal towns of Folkestone and Hythe. In the north of the district villages are interspersed with woods along parts of the North Downs. In the south is a coastal expanse of lower lying, villages periodically reclaimed over the centuries in the less forested Romney Marsh where there are a number of communities extensively built in the medieval period and 17th century as centres of the Romney Marsh wool trade.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the municipal boroughs of Folkestone, Lydd and New Romney along with Elham and Romney Marsh Rural Districts.

The map indicates the changes in the makeup of the Shepway area over time. In 1900 all the coloured area was covered by the municipal boroughs and rural districts listed above. By 1974 some parishes neighbouring Dover had been absorbed into Dover Town and Elham Rural District had been divided between the Districts of Ashford and Shepway.


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 Shepway. 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.