Stourmouth - The Place

The Domesday Monachorum, a medieval document describing Canterbury estates (considered by some to be a copy of the original returns from which the Domesday Book was later compiled), refers to Stourmouth as Ezilamerth and Sturmude.

Stourmouth is actually two small villages--East Stourmouth where the Greater Stour River meets the Little Stour, and West Stourmouth (map) . Once both villages were the entrances to the two rivers before the Wantsum Channel, which separated the Isle of Thanet from the Kent Coast, silted up. In the late 18th century Edward Hasted wrote, in his The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, that the parish "is a lonely unfrequented place, having no road through it elsewhere, and lying so close to the marshes is not a very healthy situation".

Between 1662 and 1689 the English government levied, twice yearly (at Lady Day and Michaelmas), a tax on its people based on the number of fireplaces in a house. It was assumed that the number of fire hearths and stoves in a house could be viewed as a reflection on the occupier's wealth. Some types were exempt from taxes (such as kilns, furnaces and ovens in private houses already charged for), others weren't. The Lady Day 1664 Kent Hearth Tax Returns show the following information.

East Stower Mouth Borough
Chargeable:
Edward Browne, John Chandler, Joseph Clarke, William Dead, Thomas Wilkinson - 1 each
Thomas Hogben, Richard Norwood, James Wood - 2 each
George Culmer - 3
William Smithson, Lawrence Stadder - 4 each
Not Chargeable:
Henry Cladis, Thomas Foreman, Michaell Harris, Thomas Lukecock, Thomas Pointer - 1 each
Edward Smyth - 2
Joseph Clerke, borsholder

West Stowermouth Borough
Chargeable:
James Kennett 1
Richard Harlow, John Penny - 2 each
Widdow Harrison, Henry Jenkin - 4 each
Thomas Spaine - 5
John Reader - 6
Dr. Parkhurst - 7
Not Chargeable:
David Halams - 1
Thomas Knowler, Widdow May - 2 each
Richard Horlow, borsholder
Robert Knowler, constable

In the county of Kent, 22 per cent of households had three or four hearths; 11 per cent had between five and nine hearths. Those Kentish households less well off, with one or two hearths, were comprised of 36 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively. Note: borsholder was a local name for the parish constable, or petty constable.

In 1828 W.H.Ireland's A New and Complete History of the County of Kent was published. He wrote "the fields in the vicinity are large, consisting of common and unenclosed lands, the soil being fertile and rich, and appropriate for the growth of corn. To the northeast of the parish is a ferry, thence into the Isle of Thanet, for foot passengers only; there is no fair appertaining to Stourmouth." By 1841 there were 253 persons in Stourmouth, primarily agricultural workers. A plaque outside the church today mentions that there were 51 houses in the combined villages of East and West Stourmouth at that time.

The rivers teemed with otters, water voles, and crayfish. Kingfishers flashed in the trees and snipe wandered the marshes. The floodplain of the Stour Valley held reedbeds, and marshy grasslands where early spider orchids, Kentish milkwort and meadow clary flourished.

Old directories are full of information. The 1913 edition of Kelly's Directory states: The Stour, either an Iberian or British name (the "Sturius" of the Romans), consists of the Greater and Lesser Stour. The Lesser Stour rises near Lyminge and passing by Eltham and Barham, above which it sometimes becomes dry, proceeds by Bekesbourne and Ickham to Stourmouth, where it joins the other Stour. The Greater Stour rises near Lenham and proceeds to Ashford, where it receives another stream and proceeds by Chilbarn to Canterbury, and thence to the junction of its sister stream; the two then form a channel, flowing by two mouths to the sea, so as to separate the Isle of Thanet from the mainland; this channel, called the "Wantsum", was formerly 3 or 4 miles over, but in the time of Bede 3 furlong, and commonly passable only at two places, Sarre and Stopar, where ferry-boats plied.

In Six Walks Along The Stour from Canterbury to Sandwich (publ. Meresborough Books, 1985), Christopher Donaldson writes: "West and East Stourmouth form an island that stands nine feet above the surrounding sea and marsh as in the middle ages. It is a most significant place for there is a dead straight line on the one way to Richborough and on the other from Grove Ferry to Reculver and Canterbury."

I visited the church of All Saints in West Stourmouth (photograph courtesy of Pat Kendell) in the spring of 1999. It's surrounded by large trees; walking around the churchyard one can physically feel the peaceful silence, if that's possible. The church was a substantial building in Saxon times, and Roman bricks are included in the west wall. All Saints was damaged by an earthquake in 1382 and it is assumed that considerable rebuilding was required after that event. Most of the interior of the church is nineteenth century. I confess to standing before the font for some time, just thinking of the generations before me who were baptised over it.

Inside the church is a war memorial with names engraved on a white marble tablet. Only two of the deceased are actually buried on the grounds - Pte Griggs and Able Seaman Morris. The tablet reads:

Commemorative information of these ten men can be viewed at the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission . See these details for a slightly different persective.

I have transcribed some entries from the Stourmouth parish registers, including marriages from 1754-1836 (112 entries - marriages from 1837 on can be located on the GRO marriage registration indexes) and baptisms from 1794-1902. Please remember that these are transcriptions and should be verified for accuracy. The records I worked from were films of parish records, and the handwriting is not always as clear as one would like!

The following is a list of the incumbents of All Saints, according to a plaque in the church.
1281 Ricardus de Hoo
1354 William de Draicote
1365 Edmund de Malmeshall
1377 Henry de Litlyngton
1378 John Innocent and John Russell
1382 Hugo Waughton
1384 John Whitechurch
1390 John Byshop
1392 John Beaugraunt
1393 William Agelf
1394 Nicholas Julian
1418 John Keeme
14-- John Orley
1441 John Ffourney
1449 William Tugilton
14-- Thomas Margo
1472 William Flown
1481 William Perys
1509 Nicholas Metcalfe
1510 Radulph Houghton
1513 Thomas Nunne/Nonne
1539 Wililam Ffilstede
1549 Henry Harvey
1550 Humphrey Churden
1554 Walter Jones
1580 John Flower
1599 William Richards
William Daunton
1608 John Bancroft>
1610 George Huntley
1629 Walter Carter
1630 Robert Carter
1645 Edward Wardle
1662 Richard Burns (ejected)
1662 Henry Pankhurst
1669 John Powell
1680 Samuel Grascombe
1690 Christopher Harris
1719 Francis Stannard
1726 Thomas Harris
1729 Hopton Williams
1743 Philip Bearcroft
1761 John Nairn
1806 Cooper Willyams
1816 Thomas Wodehouse
1840 Richard Drake
1883 William J. Smallwood
1896 Nathaniel G. Wilkins
1913 Joseph Frederick Teakle
1932 Arthur H. Culmer
1936 Harry V. Whitehouse
1946 Athur W. Malony
1951 Richard A. Etches
1959 Kenneth F. Watts
1961 C. Terence Spurling


Please contact the site owner with comments or questions:

Lesley M. Huppert
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

Page content last modified Sunday, 2 November 2008