Herne is a village in the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Herne and Broomfield, in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

district, in the county of

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. It is divided by the Thanet Way from the

seaside resort A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

of Herne Bay. Between Herne and Broomfield, is the former hamlet of Hunters Forstal. Herne Common lies to the south on the A291 road. The

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Bullockstone is about one mile to the west.

History

Medieval history

Archaeological excavations inside St Martin's Church at Herne in 1976, indicated that the first church there was similar to the earliest,

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

examples in Kent, such as those at Rochester,

, Reculver and Lyminge, and consisted of only a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and an apsidal

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. The historian Nicholas Brooks noted that the '' Domesday Monachorum'' of 1087 or soon after lists Herne as the location of a minster, which is recorded nowhere else. Brooks speculated that this referred to the church excavated in 1976, and that it may have been founded in the 7th or 8th century, but perhaps as late as the 11th century. However, he regarded it as "perhaps most likely that the foundation of a insterat Herne should be attributed to the tenth century when attempts were being made to recover from the devastation of the Viking incursions." A church at Herne is recorded as having been a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

belonging to St Mary's Church, Reculver, until 1310, when it became a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 2269. On 1 April 1934, the parish was abolished and merged with Herne Bay.

Early modern history

In the 15th century Matthew Phillip, of a family based at nearby Greenhill, became a

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), plat ...

in London, rising to become warden of the goldsmiths' guild there, and was

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

from 1463 to 1464. He also owned Hawe Manor, a little under half a mile (733 m) north-east of Herne. His second wife Christina was probably buried in a chapel dedicated to St

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, on the north side of the church, where a

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved church monument, sepulchral memorial once found through Western Europe, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional church monument, monuments and effigy, effigies carve ...

was placed in her memory, dated 1470. Hawe Manor was later home to John Fineux, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1495 to 1526. Nicholas Ridley was appointed

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of Herne in 1538 by Archbishop

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...

, who frequently occupied nearby Ford Palace, and collaborated with Ridley on the Forty-two articles of Religion; Ridley held the position until 1550.

Amenities

Herne has infant and junior schools, and a post office. The Butchers Arms micropub opened in Herne, in 2005.

In popular culture

Author Russell Hoban repurposes Bullockstone as "Bollock Stoanes" in his 1980, post-apocalyptic novel, '' Riddley Walker''.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Herne and Broomfield Parish Council website
{{authority control Villages in Kent Former civil parishes in Kent City of Canterbury