A View of the Parish

Your Online Parish Clerk for Bridge is:  VACANT.  

Bridge is in the archdeaconry of Canterbury and in the deanery of Bridge.  The church is named for St. Peter with registers commencing 1579.

Bridge is a village, a parish, a district, and a hundred in Kent.  The village stands on Watling Street, and on the Little Stour river, near the Beaksbourne station of the Canterbury and Dover railway, 3 miles southeast of Canterbury;  and has a post office under Canterbury.  The parish comprises 1,161 acres.  Real property, £3,339.  Population in 1861 was 893.  Houses 149.

The manor belonged to an ancient abbey, on the ground now occupied by the church;  and passed to the Dutch family of Braeams.  Bridge-Hill House was the seat and death-place of the Baron de Montesquieu, grandson of the famous president.

The living is a vicarage, annexed to the vicarage of Patrixbourne, in the diocese of Canterbury.  The church is Norman and early English;  and contains a remarkable monumental effigies, supposed to be of a steward of the ancient abbey, and some singular carvings, representing the creation and fall of man.

There are a Wesleyan chapel, a literary institute, and a national school.  The artist Jansen resided much in Bridge;and painted here his protrait of the lady popularly called the "Star in the East".

The district comprehends the sub-district of Barham, containing the parishes of Barham, Bridge, Patrixbourne, Beaksbourne, Bishopsbourne, Kingstone, Womenswould, Adisham, Ickham, Wickhambreux, Stodmarsh, Littlebourne, and Fordwich;  and the sub-district of Chartham, containing the parishes of Chartham, Waltham, Petham, Upper Hardres, Lower Hardres, Nackington, Thanington, Milton Chapel and Harbledown, the extra parochial tracts of Mint and St. Nicholas Hospital, and part of the parish of Holy Cross Westgate.  Acres, 41, 394.  Poor rates in 1866, £8,219.  Population in 1861, 11,316.  Houses, 2,308.  Marriages in 1866, 55;  births, 344, of which 9 were illegitimate;  deaths, 200, of which 54 were at ages under 5 years and 7 at ages above 85.  Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 690;  births 3,539;  deaths, 2,041.

The places of worship in 1851 were 23 of the Church of England, with 5,059 sittings;  1 of Independents with 160 sittings;  7 of Wesleyan Methodists with 680 sittings;  and 2 of Primitive Methodists with 50 sittings.

The schools were 20 public day schools, with 1,054 scholars;  17 private day schools, with 277 scholars;  and 18 Sunday schools, with 830 scholars.

The workhouse is in Bridge and cost £5,000.

The hundred bears the name of Bridge and Petham;  is in the lathe of St. Augustine and contains eight parishes.  Acres 13,369.  Population, 3,009.^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
• Burials 1776-1900
• IGI batch #s, Boyds, Pallots, BVRI, NBI
• Published Records

• 1801-1831


• 1841


• 1851


• 1861


• 1871


• 1881


• 1891


• 1901

• Settlement Certificates
• Removal Orders
• Bastardy Examinations
• Parish-assisted Immigrants
• Churchwarden's Accounts
• Overseer's Accounts
• Surveyor's Accounts
• Workhouse Records
• Pew Rents
• Donors' Rolls
• Vestry Minutes
• Bishops' Visitations
• Parish Magazines
• Parish Histories

• AD index 1448-1857
• CC index 1448-1857
• PCC 1338-1858
• PPR 1858-1925
• Depositions
• Quarter Sessions
• Militia Lists
• Muster Rolls
• Description Books
• Tithe Apportionment c1830s
• Transportations
• Protestation Rolls c1641-1643
• Oaths of Allegiance c1720s

• Poll Tax
• Hearth Tax
• Window Tax
• 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
• Manor Tenancy Rolls
• Manors, Castles & Holdings of Significance

• War Memorials
• Apprenticeships
• Immigration
• School Records
• Notable Events
• Nefarious Activities
• Newspapers