St. Lawrence is a village and a parish in Thanet district, Kent.   The village stands near the coast, adjacent to the St. Lawrence and Canterbury railway, at the junction station of Pegwell, 1/2 a mile west of St. Lawrence.

The parish was at first a chapelry of Minster;  was made parochial in 1275;  and included what is now St. Lawrence parish till 1827.  It contains the tythings of Ozengell and Newlands;  the hamlets of Southwood, Pegwell, Chilton, Little-Cliff's-End, Great-Cliff's-End, Manston, Poleash, Spratting-Street, Coldswood, Haine, Newington, Puddle-Dock, and Whitehall;  part of Ellington hamlet;  and parts of Northwood, Poisons, Holycondane, Dumpton, and Hereson.

Post town, St. Lawrence.  Acres, 4,431;  of which 1,185 are water.  Real property, £17,439.  Pop. in 1851, 3,015;  in 1861, 3,287.  Houses, 636.

Cliff House is the seat of Sir William Curtis, Bart.  East Cliff Lodge is the seat of Sir Moses Montefiore.  Curious subterranean passages lead from East Cliff-Lodge gardens to the sands.   West Cliff is the seat of J. H. Warre, Esq..  Southwood is the marine residence of the Ladies Ashburnham.  Pegwell House is the seat of T. N. Harris, Esq.  Ellington is the seat of the Garrett family.  Little-Cliff's-End and Great Cliff's-End belong to Mr. Petley.  Manston Court is an ancient mansion, now a farm house, with ruins of a chapel.  Pegwell is noted for shrimps and lobsters, and carries on trade in the potting of shrimps.

There is a coast guard station.

Joy, the strong man of Kent, who could lift a ton and pull against a horse, was a native.¹

The parish was effected by the operation of the Divided Parishes Acts, but the Registrar-General failed to obtain particulars of every such change.  The changes which escaped notification were, however, probably small in area and with little, if any, population.  Considerable difficulty was experienced both in 1891 and 1901 in tracing the results of changes effected in civil parishes under the provisions of these Acts;  by the Registrar-General's courtesy, however, reference has been permitted to certain records of formerly detached parts of parishes, which has made it possible approximately to ascertain the population in 1921 of parishes as constituted prior to such alterations, though the figures in many instances must be regarded as partly estimates.³

Churches

The living of St. Lawrence, the parish church, is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury.  Value, £162 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The church is Norman, in good condition;  has a central tower, with external arcade;  and contains monuments of the Spracklings and the Manstons.¹

Trinity-St. Lawrence is a separate benefice;  and was constituted, as a chapelry, in 1845.  Pop. in 1861, 1,351.  Houses, 253.  The living is a perpetual curacy;  the value, not reported;  the patron, the Vicar of St. Lawrence.¹

Schools

None.

Charities

The endowed charities in the parish amount yearly to about £100.¹

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

²Edward Hasted, ed. and comp.  The town and parish of St. Lawrence, Thanet: Town and manors, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4 (1798), pp. 260-307.

³William Page, 1861-1934, ed.  The Victoria County History of Kent, vol. 3, p. 360.(London, England: The St. Catherine Press, Stamford Street, Waterloo, S.E., 1932).

Bibliography

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Location of Records

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