Eastry is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, around southwest of

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

. It was voted "Kent Village of the Year 2005". The name is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''Ēast-

rige ''Reich'' (; ) is a German noun whose meaning is analogous to the meaning of the English word " realm"; this is not to be confused with the German adjective "reich" which means "rich". The terms ' (literally the "realm of an emperor") and ' (li ...

'', meaning "eastern province" (c.f. '' Sūþ-rige'' "southern province"), also recorded as ''Ēastregē'', from ''ēasterra gē'' (lit. "more easterly area").

Historical legends

Eastry lies on the

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

north from

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Richborough Castle Richborough Castle is a Roman Saxon Shore fort better known as Richborough Roman Fort. It is situated in Richborough near Sandwich, Kent. Substantial remains of the massive fort walls still stand to a height of several metres. It is p ...

. It was here that a royal palace of the Saxon kings of Kent stood. One of Kent's oldest legends concerns King

Ecgberht of Kent Ecgberht I (also spelled Egbert) (died 4 July 673) was a King of Kent (664-673), succeeding his father Eorcenberht. He may have still been a child when he became king following his father's death on 14 July 664, because his mother Seaxburh was ...

and the murder of his young cousins,

Æthelred and Æthelberht Saints Æthelred and Æthelberht (also ''Ethelred'', ''Ethelbert'') according to the Kentish royal legend (attested in the 11th century) were princes of the Kingdom of Kent who were murdered in around AD 669, and later commemorated as saints an ...

, within the palace walls. According to the legend, the royal residence was passed to the priory of Christchurch in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

as penance for the crime. The site of this ancient palace is believed to now be occupied by Eastry Court, adjacent to the church. An archaeological dig by

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

in 2006 failed to find the royal palace.

Parish church

Eastry's

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Anglican church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. Within the church is a brass standard

bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agricult ...

measure given in 1792.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches south to

Sutton, Kent Sutton is a village and civil parish near Dover in Kent, England. In 1935 this village became a parish when the small settlements of Studdal, Sutton, Ashley, Little Mongeham and Maydensole joined to become the Parish of Sutton-by-Dover. Prior to ...

with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 5,199.

East Kent Light Railway

The

East Kent Light Railway The East Kent Light Railway was part of the H. F. Stephens, Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager. The line ...

was opened to freight traffic in 1911 and passenger traffic in 1916. Its purpose was to serve the new coal mines which were being opened up in the area. Among the stations opened were 'Eastry' and 'Eastry South'. It was one of Colonel Stephens' lines, but was nationalized in 1948 becoming part of British Railways, Southern Region. Both the colliery and the line failed and the section north of

Eythorne Eythorne is a civil parish and small village located 7.3 miles north-northwest of Dover in Kent, with a combined population of approximately 2,500 residents including nearby villages Barfrestone and Elvington. Although not classed as one of the ...

completely closed by 1951. The village is also on the

Miner's Way Trail The Miner's Way Trail is a long-distance circular footpath in England, starting at Sholden, Kent. Linking up the coalfield parishes of East Kent. Including; the parishes of Deal, Ash, Aylesham, Chillenden, Eastry, Eythorne, Elvington, Goodnes ...

. The trail links up the coalfield parishes of East Kent.

Mills

Eastry has had a number of windmills over the centuries. There were four mills marked on the 1819 - 1843

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

map, one of which, the Upper Mill, has been converted into a house. Currently there are three windmills in Eastry.

Notable people

Cyril Randolph Cyril Randolph (9 February 1826 – 29 May 1912) was an English first-class cricketer and clergyman. The only son of the Reverend George Randolph and his wife, Catherine Elizabeth Drummond, he was born on 9 February 1826. He was educated at Eto ...

(1826–1912), cricketer and clergyman * Sir James Broadwood Lyall (Resting Place )GCIE KCSI (1838 – 4 December 1916) was a British administrator in the Indian Civil Service during the British Raj ,

Lyallpur Faisalabad (; Punjabi/ ur, , ; ), formerly known as Lyallpur ( Punjabi, Urdu: لائل پور), named after the founder of the city, but was renamed in 1977 in honour of late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. It is the 3rd largest city of Pak ...

, is the third-most-populous city in Pakistan, and the second-largest in the eastern province of Punjab Named after him.

References

External links

Notes on the villageEastry Cricket ClubEastry Parish Council Website - Village news, weather and InformationEastry Church Website - Church news and info
{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent