A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Blean is:  VACANT.  

Blean is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Canterbury, in the archdeaconry of Canterbury.  The church is named for St. Cosmas & St. Damian with registers commencing 1558.

Blean, a parish, an ancient forest, and a district, in Kent.  The parish is called also Blean Church, St. Cosmus, and St. Damian-in-the-Blean;  lies on the Whitstable railway, 2 miles northwest-by-north of Canterbury;  and has a post office, of the name of Blean, under Canterbury.  Acres, 2,260.  Real property in 1860, £4,414.  Population in 1861, 626.  Houses, 130.  The property is subdivided.  Much of the land in the north is under coppice.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £523.  Patron, Eastbridge Hospital.  The church is small.

The forest belonged anciently to the Crown;  extended from the vicinity of Herne to the vicinity of Chatham;  was given away piecemeal, both before and after the Conquest, till nearly all was alienated;  and lost gradually the character of a forest, till it became known simply as the Blean.  Wild boars abounded in portions of it so late as the Reformation;  and the yellow pine marten is still occasionally found.

The district comprehends the sub-district of Herne, containing the parishes of Herne, Reculver, and Chislett;  the sub-district of Whitstable, containing the parishes of Whitstable, Swalecliff, and Seasalter;  and the sub-district of Sturry, containing the parishes of Sturry, Blean, Westbere, Hoath, St. Dunstan, and St. Stephen or Hackington, the villes of St. Gregory and Staplegate and the precincts of Archbishop’s Palace and Christ Church.  Acres, 32,221.  Poor rates in 1866, £8,099.  Population in 1861, 16,161.  Houses, 3,291.  Marriages in 1866, 144;  births, 673 of which 20 were illegitimate;  deaths, 345 of which 122 were at ages under 5 years, and 6 at ages above 85 years.  Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,048;  births, 5,245;  deaths, 2,820.

The places of worship in 1851 were 14 of the Church of England, with 6,324 sittings;  3 of Independents, with 757 sittings;  7 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 780 sittings;  1 of Primitive Methodists, with 57 sittings;  and 1 of French Protestants, with 30 sittings.

The schools were 9 public day schools, with 939 scholars;  41 private day schools, with 885 scholars;  and 16 Sunday schools, with 1,366 scholars.

The workhouse is in Herne.^1
1John Marius Wilson, comp. The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales.  (London, England:  A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

• Monumental Inscriptions
• Christenings 1558-1640
• Christenings 1641-1700
• Christenings 1701-1775
• Christenings 1776-1900
• Marriages 1558-1640
• Marriages 1641-1700
• Marriages 1641-1700
• Marriages 1776-1900
• Burials 1558-1640
• Burials 1641-1700
• Burials 1641-1700
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• Published Records

• 1801-1831


• 1841


• 1851


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• Settlement Certificates
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• Churchwarden's Accounts
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• AD index 1448-1857
• CC index 1448-1857
• PCC 1338-1858
• PPR 1858-1925
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• Tithe Apportionment c1830s
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• Oaths of Allegiance c1720s

• Poll Tax
• Hearth Tax
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• Hair Powder Tax
• Land Tax Assessments 1780-1831
• Land Tax Assessments 1799-1805

• Pigot's Directory of Kent, 1824
• Illustrated Guide to the London and Dover Railway, 1846
• History, Gazetteer & Directory of Kent, Vol. II, 1847
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 1: Counties & Localities]
• Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Kent ... , 1855. [Part 2: Court & Trade Directories]
• Melville & Co.'s Directory of Kent, 1858
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1882
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891. [Part 1. Kent: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, Surrey & Sussex, 1891. [Part 2. Kent: Court & Trade Directories]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1903. [Part 1: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1903. [Part 2: Private Resident & Trade Directories]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1913. [Part 1: County & Localities]
• Kelly's Directory of Kent, 1913. [Part 2: Private Resident & Trade Directories]

• Parish Map
• Deeds, Mortgages, etc.
• Rated Property Returns
• Returns of owners of land, 1873
• Manor Court Baron
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