STURRY

THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT MEWS—FRIDAY, 15 AUGUST, 1002.
OUR VILLAGES

LXV.—STURRY

Sturry is an ancient village on the banks of the Stour, known in the past as the first stage on the coach road from Canterbury to Margate. Now it has a station on the railway from Canterbury, which reaches Ramsgate and Margate via Minster. It is still a halting place on the coach road from Canterbury to Herne Bay.

EARLY HISTORY.

By diligent search the history of Sturry might be carried back very far. The name | itself is suggestive. Sturry was, as late as the ‘Norman era, written Esturia, which indicates that up to that point had flowed the sea, and that between there and Canterbury was the navigable estuary which in its earliest days made the City of Canterbury a sea port. This was prior to the establishment of the adjoining town and port of Fordwich, for it was not until Canterbury ceased to be a port that Fordwich came into existence. The cause of the recedence of the sea from Canterbury and the estuary now called Sturry was two-fold. For some reason, probaby the broadening of the upper part of the English Channel by the submerging of the Goodwin sands, the level of the sea and the height of the tide was reduced; on the other hand, the level of the ground at Canterbury had been raised a good many feet between the time the City was first built and the erection of the Cathedral and its other principal structures now existent. Excavations and the digging of wells have disclosed that there are piles and the_wooden foundations of primitive buildings twenty feet, or more below the present ground level, so that the gradrnd filling up of the vallev of the Stour has co-operated with the fall of the sea level in effecting the physical change which has caused the site of Sturry to cease to be the arm of the sea which washed the walls of the ancient City and flowed over the land which at Sturry is now verdant pasture.

SAXON STURRY.

Apart from facts which may be safely deducted from physical changes, records of ¦the past in early British and Saxon times may be gleaned from the discovery of a Saxon burial place near Sturry, md the unearthing in the gravel bed adjoining What-mer Hall a coffin containing human remains supposed to be Roman. The written history of the village commences with the dawn of the seventh century, coeval with 1he revival of Christianity by St. Augustine. King Ethelbert. on his founding the Monasterv of St. Augustine in the year 605, gave to it this parish of Sturigao—the name of the place being so spelled in the deed of gift; and the parish of Sturry continued as a part of the possessions of St. Augustine’s up to the Norman period.

STURRY IN NORMAN DAYS.

The Domesday Book affords sure ground from which to survey Sturry from the beginning of the Norman period. It is there written: “The Abbot himself holds Esturia, which, was taxed at five sulings, but discharged. The arable land is 12 carucates. In demesne there are two carucates and thirty-nine, with thirty-two borderers having 12 carucates. There is a church and ten mills of eight pounds and seven fisheries of five shillings, and 28 acres of meadow. Of pannage sufficient for 30 hogs.” The foregoing entry reveals much to anyone taking trouble to read between the lines—a well-developed state of feudalism—the church at that far-off date—the ten mills, suggesting much preparing of bread stuff both for the Manor and the Monastery—the fisheries existing for the same purpose, and the hogs -to give the Abbot a fat larder. This estate being near the Monastery, it does not appear that anyone lived upon it except the working bees, the drones finding the pleasant places within the walls of St. Augustine’s Monastery more agreeable for residence. There being one undisturbed tenure from the Conquest to the Reformation, there is left on record very little; Sturry history between those two periods, except a few entries in the Courts of Record as to the Abbot obtaining grants and renewals of Free Warren and Frank Pledge in successive reigns.

AFTER THE ABBOTS.

The last of the Abbots was John Essex, and he appears to have been a person who found grace in the sight of Henry VIII., for although the Monastery was disestablished and disendowed, the lands in Stuny were re-granted to him for the term of has life, or until he should be appointed to one or more benefices of the value of 200 marks or upwards, besides which the Abbot had a pension of £61 11s. 9d. These royal favours he only lived for a short time to enjoy. Within a year, the Abbot dying, the pension and the Sturry estates reverted to the Crown. The King leased the Sturry Manor to Sir Thomas Cheney, and in the reign of Edward VI. it was granted in fee with the rectory to Sir Thomas, who was then Treasurer of the King s Household; and bir Thomas Cheney died possessed of them in the first year of the reign of Elizabeth. Soon after that time the Cheney family sold the estate; and shortly after, a second sale brought it into the hands of Thomas Sxmth, of Westenhanger, commonly called the Customer. ‘ He having amassed great wealth as a farmer of Customs in the reign ol Elizabeth, was the founder of a large and influential family. His thrf« 6°ns were knighted, and his grandson, Sir Thomas Smith was raised to the peerage as Vis-count Strangford, Philip, the second Viscount resided at Sturry Court until his death in“he year 16fi3. The Court at that time was a large brick mansion, which had been built in the reign of James I., and in the reign of Charles II. was of sufficient size and stateliness for the residence of a Peer of the Realm.. Since that time it has been reduced in size and Practically re-built The arched entrance, which still

stands adjoining the west wall of the church vard is some indication of it^anci'ent irran-deur By the marriage of irjnry Roper, the eighth Baron Teynham, with Catherine eldest daughter of the second Viscount Strangford, the Sturry estate pissed to Lord Trvnham, who also resided :i short time bore After tlmt the mansion degenerated into a farm house, the next owner Mr .John Foote, having his residence at CTarlton

Place. Bishonshourne. There was ano ner

ATinnr in Sturrv named Mayton. or Max on the north west side of the p*msh Thi«s also was anciently a possession of the Abbot of St. Aueustine’s. but bemg granted hv the Abbot for knights service to tne

C ohhams. it ultimately beea-ne tbeir pn vafe nronertv. In the time of Fdward 111. it was sold to the Cbiches. then to the Marlons from whom its name is t«k«n. lt nevt was owned bv the Diggs, of Barham, and sifter some intermediate owners, about the ?me of Ovie*n Anne it beWed to Mr Thomas Dawkins. of descending

bv morriae* to Mr Chiles U.ihm«nn. MP.. and Recorder for the Citv of Canterbury. STURRY A CENTURY AGO.

Hasted, in bis History of ^ent gives a description of Sturrv as it w*b at the o se of the eighteenth century. He ms. me
village called Sturry Street stands on the north east side of the Stour, and consists of about 140 houses built on each side of the high toad leading to the Isle of Thanet. The church stands on the west side of it, and near it the Court Lodge, now called Sturry Court, which appears to have been a handsome brick mansion seemingly of the time of James I. It has for many years been made use of as a farm ho.use, and has lately been much deformed by some modern windows being put in different parts of it; also, it has been recently much reduced in size. At a small distance is a corn mill, belonging to the Lord of the Manor, and a little below it a lofty brick bridge, built over the ancient ford here in the year 1776, for the greater safety ot travellers, the river here, from the depth and continued floods, being frequently very dangerous to be passed. But there appears to have been an rncient bridge over the river here, belonging to the Abbot, as early as King Edward II.'s reign. A little higher up in this parish is an ancient fulling mill, and adjoining to it a newly-erected corn mill. . . On the opposite side of the village, about half a mile* eastward on the Margate road, is Whatmer Hall, in the possession of Mr. Thomas Denne, who lives in it. . . In the year 1755. as some workmen were digging* gravel in the land at Whatmer Hall, they discovered at the depth of five feet a large broad stone, and under it a stone coffin with a leaden one enclosed, containing the remains of a person seemingly of a short stature, which was decaved excepting the teeth, which seemed perfect.” Antiouaries have pronounced this coffin to be a Roman

STURRY OF TO-DAY.

Sturry has not so much changed in a hundred years as some places have, but it has grown in size and population. While its near neighbour Fordwich has dwindled from a corporate town to a small village, Sturry has increased its houses from 140 to 268, and its population has proportionately grown, now numbering 1184. The older and more central part of the village is in the form of a hollow square, having the church, Court, mill ,and bridge on the western side, the main street on its east, and newer connecting streets on south and north. The main street extends beyond the quadrangle, on the north leading up to the railway station, and thence over a level crossing towards Thanet and Herne Bay, and southward over Tanquery Island to Fordwich. The main street has a quaint old-time look, but in other parts Sturry has many pretty modem residences. The one thing that has revolutionised Sturrv has been tbe advent of the railway, which directlv connects it with Canterbury, Ramsgate. Margate, Sandwich. Deal. Dover, and Folkestone; while it also makes Sturry a station on a very pleasant circular tour round-the Stour valley, the East coast, and the Elham valley. The village is also expecting soon to be on the line of the Li^ht Electrical Railway from Canterbury to Heme Bay. The streets have a Tegular anpearance, which gives it the semblance of a small town, and it is nrohoble that in the not far distant future it will either be merged in the City of Can-erburv or have urban powers and an Urban Council of its own. The ancient, ehurch has been well restored in 1«69. and elem®n-tarv schools were built and enlarged. The village has good postal and telegraphic convenience. The. parish has places nf wor-shin for WesWans. Bantists. and Conere-irntionolists. Tn sborf. Sturrv offers rural attractions combined with most of the conveniences of urban life.

8TURRY CHURCH.

The church of Sturry, now under the vicarship of the Rev. Herbert Perry Brewer, M.A., is a centre of interest. It is a handsome large building dedicated to St. Nicholas, but whether any portion still remains that existed at the close of the Saxon period is not quite certain. The existing edifice is undoubtedly very ancient ; but it is in the Early English style, with later insertions, and consists of a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, a large north porch, and a western embattled tower having t clock and five bells. The nave is separated from the north and south aisles by arcades consisting of four Early English arches, supported by square massive piers. The windows in the south aisle are Perpendicular, and in the north decorated. Marks of pre-Reformation times are left in various parts of the church. There is on the south side of the chancel a piscina, and on the north an aumbry. West of the third south pier is a nich under a trefoil arch, indicating that there has been a shrine or an altar there. In the gangway leading from the north entrance is a font against the second south pier. It is evidently very ancient, and has an octagonal basin, round which is a banding with roses at. irregular distances. At the east end of the south aisle is a piscina under a trefoil arch, with a rude cross cut in the back of it. At the top of the north aisle is a recess under the window like an aumbry. The pulpit, standing on the north side of the aisle just outside the chancel arch, consists of seven marble pillars supporting a circle of granite, and is in memory of Thomas Rammel, who died in 1864, aged 58 years. The chancel arch is lofty, while that at. the western end supporting the tower is low, both pointed. The nave is divided from the chancel by an oak screen, and over it in the span of the chancel arch is the organ. The church was thoroughly restored and re-seated in the year 1869, but there have evidently been very radical alterations at much earlier dates. The Decorated windows on the north and the Perpendicular ones on the south are much more modern than the walls in which they are inserted, while the arcades between the nave and the aisles have been changed from Norman to their present form, parts of the Norman arches being still distinctly visible. Many of the windows are now stained glass memorials, the east win-1 dow being a memorial of the Rev. Charles Wharton, vicar of this parish, 1867, presented by Mrs. Pope in 1889. The living, which is in the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been held by the present vicar since 1898, following the Rev. George Billing, M.A.. who had held it from 1891. The present vicar is a young man, energetic, and much appreciated in the parish.