Hersden is a village east of

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. ...

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 ...

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...

. It was established as a planned coalmining village in the 1920s and is on the

A28 road The A28 is a trunk road in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in south east England, connecting Margate, Canterbury, Ashford and Hastings. Starting at the seaside resort of Margate at the north-east point of Kent, the A28 runs inland and we ...

between Canterbury and the

Isle of Thanet The Isle of Thanet () is a peninsula forming the easternmost part of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island. Archaeological remains testify to its settlement in an ...

. Work in the Kent Coalfield was the main source of employment in the village until the closure of the Kent colliery in the 1980s. The parish was formed on 1 April 2019 from parts of

Sturry Sturry is a village on the Great Stour river situated northeast of Canterbury in Kent. Its large civil parish incorporates several hamlets and, until April 2019, the former mining village of Hersden. Geography Sturry lies at the old Roman junc ...

Chislet Chislet is an English village and civil parish in northeast Kent between Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet. The parish is the second largest in the district. A former spelling, 'Chistlet', is seen in 1418. The population of the civil parish incl ...

and

Westbere Westbere is a small village and civil parish in Kent, England, centred north-east of Canterbury city centre along the A28 road to the Isle of Thanet. Geography The relatively small area parish in this district is agricultural in most of its land ...

. The Ashford to Ramsgate railway line runs through the parish to the south of the village. This formerly served the colliery and a station,

Chislet Colliery Halt railway station Chislet Colliery Halt was a minor station on the Ashford to Ramsgate line. It opened in September 1919 and closed in 1971. History Chislet Colliery started production in 1919 and halt was opened that year as local housing was inadequate for em ...

, operated between 1919 and 1971.

History

A 5th–6th century cemetery of Frisians and Jutes was discovered nearby in 1931. Exploratory works for a

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

Shakespeare Cliff Shakespeare Cliff Halt is a private halt station on the South Eastern Main Line. It is located to the western end of the dual bore Shakespeare Cliff tunnel on the South Eastern Main Line to Folkestone, England. It never appeared in any pub ...

near Dover led to the identification of the Kent Coalfield in 1890. Its northern extension came after coal was discovered at

in 1918. Initially the miners lived in

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

but in 1924 the Chislet Colliery Housing Society was formed to build a mining village of 300 houses. In 1929 the village was renamed from Chislet Colliery Mining Village to Hersden. The mine closed in 1969 but the Chislet Colliery Welfare Club remains.

Amenities

Village facilities include a village hall, which houses a social club, the former Anglican and Methodist church, which is now a community centre, and St Dunstan Roman Catholic church which opened in 1935. The village has a primary school and a doctors surgery. Sports facilities include a bowls club and a

BMX track BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation. History BMX began during the earl ...

. Canterbury Industrial Park is located to the west of the village on the site of spoil heap associated with the colliery. With the “Hoplands” estate, there will be a new primary school, a Co-Op, a Harvester, a pharmacy, a community square, a Canterbury College Centre, a dentist, and some business parks.

References

External links

Sturry Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Kent Mining communities in England Civil parishes in Kent City of Canterbury