Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for RECULVER

RECULVER, a village and a parish in Blean district, Kent. The village stands on the coast, 3 miles E by N of Herne-Bay r. station; takes its name from the Romanstation Regulbium; and was once a market-town. The parish comprises 1, 248 acres of land and 405 of water. Post-town, Herne-Bay, under Canterbury. Real property, £2, 939. Pop., 254. Houses, 52. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Part of the land, in the E and the N E, ismarsh. The coast is partly bluff cliff, partly marsh, protected by a sea-wall; and has suffered much encroachment by the sea. The Roman station of Regulbium was on a cliff overhanging the Thames estuary; guarded astrait dividing the Isle of Thanet from the mainland, and formerly navigable; was garrisoned by the first cohort of the Vetasii, Belgians from Brabant; occupied about 8acres; is still represented by the S and the E walls, originally about 12 feet thick, and now much shattered and covered with ivy and brush-wood; and has yielded manycoins, utensils, and other relics. A palace was built on the station by Ethelbert, king of Kent; and is traditionally, but incorrectly, said to have been his burial-place. A monastery also was founded here in the 7th century; and was annexed to Christchurch, Canterbury. Coast-guard stations are at Reculver and Bishopstone. The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Hoath, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £198. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The old church includedsome Roman masonry; was partly Norman, partly early English; suffered much damage by erosion of the sea; was mainly taken down in 1809; and is now represented only by two towers, called the Sisters, and serving as landmarks to mariners, and by a small part of the walls. The new church stands about a mile from the shore.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Reculver CP/AP       Blean RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Reculver

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