St Margarets / St Margaret At Cliffe

"ST. MARGARET AT CLIFFE, a parish in the hundred of Bewsborough, lathe of St. Augustine, county Kent, 3 miles N.E. of Dover. This place received the adjunct to its name from its high situation on the chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel. It contains St. Margaret's Bay, where is a small wooden pier or jetty, chiefly used by the fishing craft. The village, which is small but neatly-built, commands a sea-view, and is noted for its lobsters, which are said to be the finest-flavoured in England. The appropriate tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £380, and the vicarial for £105. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury, value £160, in the patronage of the archbishop. The church is an old Norman edifice. The charities produce about £7 per annum, of which £1 is for ringing the curfew bell."

"SOUTH FORELAND, a headland in the parish of St. Margaret at Cliffe, on the coast of Kent, about 3 miles N.E. of Dover, in N. lat. 51∞ 8', and E. long. 1∞ 22'. It is nearly opposite the S. end of the Goodwin Sands, and has two fixed lights about a mile apart, one 380 the other 275 feet above the sea, visible for 23 miles."

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]