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MARKET TOWNS OF KENT (from SDUK Penny Cyclopedia)

Sittingbourne in 1836

Sittingbourne is in the hundred of Milton and the lathe of Scray, 40 miles from London on the road to Canterbury. The parish contains 1260 acres, and had, in 1831, a population of 2,182, about one-eighth agricultural. It consists chiefly of one main street. There are some good inns, and the prosperity of the place depends in a great degree on the passage of travellers between London and Dover. The church is a spacious edifice, rebuilt, with the exception of the tower and the external walls, since A.D. 1762, when it was accidentally burnt. It has some curious windows of decorated character, and some fine ones of perpendicular date. Queen Elizabeth granted, in two successive charters, a weekly market and two fairs ; she also incorporated the town and granted the privilege of returning members to parliament. Communication with London is maintained by hoys from a quay on Milton creek in this parish.

The weekly market has been long discontinued, the fairs remain and the other privileges were never exercised. The present market is held monthly. The living is a vicarage and diocese in the archdeaconry of Canterbury, of the clear yearly value of £212, with a glebe-house. There were, in 1833, two dame-schools, with 29 children ; nine boarding and day schools, with 186 children ; one national school, with 160 children ; and one Sunday-school, with 233 children. Sittingbourne is one of the polling-places for East Kent.