Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for TUNBRIDGE

TUNBRIDGE, a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Kent. The town stands on the river Medway, and on the Southeastern railway, at the intersection of the Sevenoaks and Hastings railway, 30 miles by road SW of London; was held, at Domesday, by Richard Fitzgilbert, who assumed the name of De Tonebridge or De Clare; acquired, in his time, a castle and a Premonstratensian priory; sent two members to parliament in the time of Edward I.; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; publishes three weekly newspapers; occupies ground rising from the Medway, which is navigable hither for barges of 40 tons, and divides here into several branches; contains one long old street, some parts of which are wide; includes a new town on the S, in the vicinity of the r. station; and has a head post-office,‡ a large r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a town hall and market house, a chief bridge built in 1775, several smaller bridges, a police station, an ancient spacious parochial church, two modern churches, four dissenting chapels, a literary and scientific institution with reading room and library, a mechanics' institution, a great grammar-school, national and infant schools, a workhouse, two suites of alms houses, and other charities £168. The castle was taken by William Rufus; was taken again by Prince Edward, son of Henry III.; was seized by Hugh de Audley, in the time of Edward I., and taken from him; was forfeited to the Crown, by the Staffords, in the time of Henry VIII.; was given by Elizabeth to the Careys; and is now represented by some interesting remains. The priory's refectory remained till the forming of the railway, and was then swept away. The parochial church, or St. Peter's, was given, in the time of Henry II., to the Knights of St. John; has been very much disfigured; and shows, in the nave and the tower, decorated and later English features. St. Stephen's church was built in 1852; and is in the early English style, with tower and spire. The grammar-school was founded in 1153; is an extensive building, with old centre and modern wings; has £4,500 a year from endowment, and 16 exhibitions of £100 each to various colleges; and had the poet Cawthorne and V. Knox for masters, and Sir Sydney Smith for a pupil. A well-attended market is held on the first and third Tuesdays of every month; a fair is held on 11 Oct.; the manufacture of "Tunbridge ware," in toys, snuff-boxes, dressing-cases, and other articles, from soft woods, is largely carried on; and there are maltings, breweries, corn mills, an iron-foundry, a tannery, and gunpowder mills. Pop. in 1861, 5,919. Houses, 1,165.

The parish includes Lower Haysden, Upper Haysden, Southborough, and part of Tunbridge-Wells. Acres, 15,235. Real property, £103,032; of which £1,135 are in gasworks, and £170 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 16,548; in 1861, 21,004. Houses, 3,942. The living of St. Peter is a vicarage, and the livings of St. Stephen and St. Thomas are p. curacies, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value of St. P., £832;* of St. S., £259;* of St. T., not reported.* Patron of St. P., Mrs. Deacon; of St. S., Trustees; of St. T., Mrs. Pugh. The p. curacies of Hildenborough and Southborough also are separate benefices.—The sub-district excludes part of T. parish, but includes three other parishes. Pop. in 1861, 11,129. Houses, 2,136.—The district contains also Tunbridge-Wells and Brenchley sub-districts, and comprises 46,179 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £16,271. Pop. in 1851, 28,545; in 1861, 34,271. Houses, 6,507. Marriages in 1863, 303; births, 1,140,-of which 48 were illegitimate; deaths, 663,-of which 234 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 2,685; births, 10,226; deaths, 6,356. The places of worship, in 1851, were 16 of the Church of England, with 9,420 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 1,363 s.; 8 of Baptists, with 1,626 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with 1,682 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 135 s.; 1 of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, with 402 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 260 s. The schools were 25 public day-schools, with 2,964 scholars; 58 private day-schools, with 1,384 s.; and 29 Sunday schools, with 2,679 s.-The hundred bears the name of Tunbridge-Lowey; is in Aylesford lathe; contains two parishes and a part; and formed a tract around T. Castle, with two great chases for deer-hunting. Acres, 15,235. Pop. in 1851, 16,548. Houses, 2,939.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Tonbridge AP/CP       Tonbridge CP       Tonbridge SubD       Tonbridge RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Tonbridge

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