Place:Worth, Kent, England

Watchers
NameWorth
TypeChapelry, Civil parish
Coordinates51.256°N 1.347°E
Located inKent, England
See alsoEastry, Kent, Englandancient parish of which it was a chapelry
Eastry Hundred, Kent, Englandancient county division in which it was located
Eastry Rural, Kent, Englandrural district of which it was a part 1894-1974
Dover District, Kent, Englanddistrict municipality which has covered the area since 1974
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Worth is a civil parish located in the shire county of Kent, England and in the non-metropolitan Dover District. Worth is situated two miles south of Sandwich, Kent. According to the 2011 UK Census, Worth had a population of 992.

Worth was supposedly first inhabited due to its fertile soils. This then eventually led to the cultivation of the land during the Norman times by the Lords of the Eastry Manor.

According to Hasted (see reference below) in the 18th century, Worth was made up of three boroughs, only one of which makes up the current village of the 21st century, Worth Street. In the Gazetteer of the British Isles in 1887, John Bartholomew described Worth as coastal parish and village. During the sixteenth century, the area was known for its redbrick style of housing, however Worth Church shows the signs of Norman work from the twelfth century.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Worth was originally a chapelry in the ancient parish of Eastry in the Eastry Hundred. From 1894 until 1974 it was a civil parish in the Eastry Rural District which wrapped around Sandwich on the seaward side. In 1935 its acreage was reduced considerably to expand Sandwich Municipal Borough. The rest of the parish remained in Eastry Rural District and, since 1974, has been part of the Dover District. There is a considerable change in the coastline between that shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1935 and that of more recently drawn maps. The centres of Sandwich and Worth are much more inland than they were.

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

"WORTH, or Word, a parish, with a small village and two hamlets, in Eastry [registration] district, Kent; on the coast, 1½ mile SSE of Sandwich [railway] station. It has a post-office under Sandwich. Acres: 7,431; of which 1,285 are water. Real property: £7,753. Population: 430. Houses: 87. The property is much subdivided. Upton house is the seat of J. Henderson, Esq. There are two coastguard stations. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value: £375. Patron: the Archbishop. The church is ancient but good."

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Worth, 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 Worth, 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.