Place:Shoreham, Kent, England

Watchers
NameShoreham
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates51.333°N 0.183°E
Located inKent, England
See alsoCodsheath Hundred, Kent, Englandancient county division in which it was located
Sevenoaks Rural, Kent, Englandrural district of which it was a part 1894-1974
Sevenoaks District, Kent, Englanddistrict municipality which has covered the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog

NOTE: There is a much larger place named Shoreham by Sea in the county of Sussex, further west on the English Channel coast.

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Shoreham is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish includes the settlements of Badgers Mount and Well Hill, and is located north of Sevenoaks. It is located in the Darent Valley and is far from being on a shore. Shoreham is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It had a reputation as a smuggling area. Shoreham was the most bombed village in the United Kingdom during the Second World War due to the fact the Army took over several manor houses for operational use.

The probable derivation of the name is "estate at the foot of a steep slope". "Steep slope" was from the Saxon word scor (pronounced "shor", but written "sore") by Norman scribes.

Papermaking was once a local industry; the mill closed finally in 1925.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Shoreham was a civil parish in Sevenoaks Rural District from 1894 until 1974, and since 1974 has been part of the non-metropolitan Sevenoaks District. Originally it was an ancient parish in the Codsheath Hundred.

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 Shoreham, 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.