Place:St. Dunstan, Kent, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

St. Dunstan is an Anglican church in Canterbury, Kent, at the junction of London Road and Whitstable Road. It is dedicated to St. Dunstan (909-988) and gives its name to the part of the city on the left bank of the River Stour. The parish has been held in plurality with others nearby at different times, in a way that is confusing and difficult to document. In 2010 the parish was joined with the parishes of the City Centre Parish in a new pastoral grouping, City Centre with St. Dunstan.

The church dates from the 11th century and is a grade I listed building. It was restored in 1878-80 by church architect Ewan Christian. Its association with the deaths of Thomas Becket and Thomas More make it a place of pilgrimage.

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

"DUNSTAN (St.), a parish in Blean [registration] district, Kent; on the river Stour, and on the Canterbury and Whitstable railway, ¼ of a mile NW of Canterbury. Post town: Canterbury. Acres: 365. Real property: £5,955. Population: 1,520: Houses: 331. The property is much sub-divided. A number of new houses have been erected, and the Clergy Orphan asylum established, since 1851. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value: £120. Patron: the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is very good; and there are charities £145. See Canterbury."

St. Dunstan was originally an ancient parish in the Westgate Hundred. In 1894 it was divided into the two parishes of St. Dunstan Within (420 houses) and St. Dunstan Without (18 houses). St Dunstan Within was immediately absorbed into the civil parish of Canterbury, while St. Dunstan Without, being the more rural part of the original parish, became a part of Blean Rural District. In 1934 St. Dunstan Without was again divided with 95 acres being absorbed into Canterbury and 29 acres being transferred to the civil parish of St. Cosmus and St. Damian in the Blean. Since 1974 the area is covered by the non-metropolitan City of Canterbury 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.