Elmley on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Elmley is the local name for the Isle of Elmley, part of the
The village was a settlement and area that fluctuated between 1640 and up to 2341 acres by definition. The former civil parish at its height as recorded by decennial censuses had 219 residents at the 1891 census, falling to 50 in twenty years and to 8 in 1961, shortly before its abolition. It consisted of the Turkey Cement Works, which was the major employer for the area, as well as a school, a church, a public house and 30 dwellings. The ailing cement works closed in 1902 and then the population dwindled. Elmley School closed in the 1920s and the church was demolished in the 1960s leaving memorials of graves.
There was also once a ferry service crossing the Swale to Murston (near Sittingbourne).
The last surviving buildings of the village are the
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derived ...
in 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. It was also the name of a very late 19th century industrial village on the isle. Edward Hasted
Edward Hasted (20 December 1732 OS (31 December 1732 NS) – 14 January 1812) was an English antiquarian and pioneering historian of his ancestral home county of Kent. As such, he was the author of a major county history, ''The History and To ...
describes, in 1798, the isle as two-eighths of the Isle of Sheppey (in turn) estimated as 11 miles by 8 miles. Its present national nature reserve covers more than the easily traceable area of the former isle by extending to the east, over Windmill Creek, one of two Sheppey inlets, former internal tidal channels.
History
The village was a settlement and area that fluctuated between 1640 and up to 2341 acres by definition. The former civil parish at its height as recorded by decennial censuses had 219 residents at the 1891 census, falling to 50 in twenty years and to 8 in 1961, shortly before its abolition. It consisted of the Turkey Cement Works, which was the major employer for the area, as well as a school, a church, a public house and 30 dwellings. The ailing cement works closed in 1902 and then the population dwindled. Elmley School closed in the 1920s and the church was demolished in the 1960s leaving memorials of graves.
There was also once a ferry service crossing the Swale to Murston (near Sittingbourne).
The last surviving buildings of the village are the Grade II 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 ...
'Kingshill Farmhouse' and 'Kingshill Farmhouse Barn'
Elmley today
In the 1970s a bird reserve was established on the marshes, the centrepiece of the Elmley National Nature Reserve, owned and managed by Elmley Conservation Trust. It covers , more than the easily traceable area of the former isle and is one of the largest bird reserves in England.References
Isle of Sheppey Deserted medieval villages in Kent {{kent-geo-stub