Herne, Kent

Description
Herne, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands 1 1/4 mile S of Heme Bay station on the L.C. & D.R., and 7 miles NE of Canterbury, with a post, money order, and telegraph office under Canterbury. It took its name, or is said to have done so, from the former plenteonsness of herons on the adjacent coast, bears also the name of Herne "Street, is pleasantly surrounded by wood, and was once a market-town. The parish contains also the town of Herne Bay, and the hamlets of Beltinge, Haw, Hampton, Thornton, Strood, Huntersfostal, Eddington, Broomfield, and Underdown. Acreage, 4938; population of the civil parish, 5482; of the ecclesiastical, 1857. Part of the land is under hops. Blean Workhouse is on Heme Common. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £400 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is partly Early English, partly Perpendicular, consists of nave, aisles, and three chancels, with a square tower, and contains many tombs and brasses. There are a church and a Congregational chapel at Herne Bay, a Wesleyan chapel in Herne village, and some small charities. An hospital containing sixty beds was built in 1875. Bishop Ridley and the antiquary Duncombe were vicars.