In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Elham like this:
ELHAM, a village, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in Kent. The village stands on the river Stone, near the Elham Valley railway, 6 miles NNE of Hythe; has a post office under Canterbury; is a seat of petty sessions; and was once a market-town. The E. Valley railway was authorised in 1866, goes from Canterbury to Hythe, and has connecting branches. ...
The parish comprises 6, 570 acres. Real property, £7, 855. Pop., 1, 159. Houses, 241. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged, at the Conquest, to Earl Hugh; and passed, through the Leybournes and others, to the Oxendens. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £390.* Patron, Merton College, Oxford, under nomination by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is early and later English. There are a Wesleyan chapel and an endowed school, the latter with £65.—The sub-district contains also the parishes of Swingfield, Acrise, Paddlesworth, Lyminge, Stelling-Minnis, Stelling, Elmsted, and Stouting. Acres, 20, 916. Pop., 3, 841. Houses, 715.—The district comprehends also the sub-district of Folkestone, containing the parishes of Folkestone, Hawkinge, and Cheriton; and the sub-district of Hythe, containing the parishes of Hythe-St. Leonard, Monks-Horton, Standford, Postling, Saltwood, Newington-next-Hythe, Lympne, and Sellinge. Acres, 43, 197. Poor-rates in 1862, £10, 716. Pop. in 1851, 18, 780; in 1861, 26, 925. Houses, 3, 904. Marriages in 1860, 149; births, 721, -of which 30 were illegitimate; deaths, 438, -of which 149 were at ages under 5 years, and 20 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1, 489; births, 6, 656; deaths, 4, 017. The places of worship in 1851 were 21 of the Church of England, with 7, 075 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 620 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 643 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 425 s.; 9 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1, 406 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 60 s.; 2 of Bible Christians, with 264 s.; and 1 undefined, with 144 s. The schools were 25 public day schools, with 1, 962 scholars; 43 private day schools, with 951 s.; and 26 Sunday schools, with 2, 189 s. The workhouse is in Lyminge.
Elham through time
Elham is now part of Shepway district. Click here for graphs and data of how Shepway has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Elham itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Elham, in Shepway and Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/4476
Date accessed: 05th November 2024
Not where you were looking for?
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time, and maybe some references to other places called "Elham".