The town of Faversham is situated on a navigable arm of the Swale, and principally consists of four long, and well-paved streets, forming a somewhat irregular cross, in the centre of which stands the Guildhall and market place. "Faversham," says Leland in his Itinerary, "is encluded yn one paroch, but that ys very large. Ther cummeth a creke to the town that bareth vessels of xx tunnes; and a myle fro thens north-east, is a great key cawled Thorn, to discharge bygge vessels. The creke is fedde with bakke water, that cummeth fro Ospring." In the survey of maritime places in Kent, made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, this town is stated to have 380 inhabited houses; eighteen ships, or vessels, from five to forty-five tons burthen, and of persons occupied in merchandise and fishing, fifty.

The quay mentioned by Leland, called the Thorn, has been out of use for many years; but in room of it three new quays, or wharfs, have been made close to the town, where all the shipping belonging to the port, take in and discharge their cargoes. The navigation of the creek has also, since Leland's time, been greatly improved; and vessels of 100 tons burthen can now come up to the town at common tides; whilst, at spring tides, the channel is deep enough for ships drawing eight feet water. The management, and preservation of the navigation, are vested in the corporation, the expenses being paid out of certain port dues. Upwards of 40,000 quarters of corn are shipped here annually for the London markets; considerable quantities of hops, fruit, wool, oysters, &c. are also sent from this port, to which upwards of thirty coasting vessels belong (besides fishing smacks), of from forty to 150 tons burthen each : the imports are principally coals, and fir-timber, iron, tar, &c. from Sweden and Norway. A branch both of the excise and of the customs is established in this town; the former under the direction of a collector, surveyor, and other officers; the latter, under a supervisor and assistants.

The town of Faversham lays claim to considerable antiquity. It seems probable that the Saxon kings had a palace here, and that a market and other privileges had been granted to the inhabitants long previous to the Norman conquest. About the year 930, King Athelstan and his great council of parliament, archbishops, bishops, &c. met here to enact laws, and to constitute methods for the future observance of them; which shews the town then to have been a place of much traffic and resort. King Stephen, his queen and family, were so well pleased with this town, that they built here an abbey, which was endowed with considerable estates, and protected by many privileges. The buildings of this abbey were magnificent and extensive, but most of them have been long destroyed. The two gateways of entrance remained till within the last fifty years, when, having become ruinous, they were taken down; and some traces of outer walls are now the only vestiges of this once-splendid structure. At the Dissolution, the clear yearly revenues of the monastery amounted to 2861. 12s. 6 1/2d. Although the greatest part of these estates was soon after disposed of to different persons, yet the manor, and the most considerable part of the site, and its demesnes, continued in the crown tilt the reign of Charles I. who, in his fifth year, granted them to Sir Dudley Diggs, of Chilham Castle, master of the rolls, by whose will they came to his son John Diggs, Esq. who conveyed them to Sir George Sondes, afterwards created Earl of Faversham; upon whose death they descended to his daughter Catharine, married to Lewis, Lord Rockingham, afterwards Earl of Rockingham; whose eldest son, George Lord Sondes, dying in his father's life time, they came, upon the death of his grandfather, to the Right Honourable Lewis, Earl of Rockingham, who dying without issue, in 1745, was succeeded by his brother Thomas, Earl of Rockingham, upon whose decease, which happened soon after, the Right Honourable Lord Sondes became the possessor of them.

Faversham has been favoured by various kings of England, in not less than 17 charters, confirming ancient privileges or granting new ones; these were King Henry III. Edward I. Henry V. Henry VI. Edward IV. Henry VIII. Edward VI. and James II. The charter under which it is now governed was granted by Henry VIII. The local jurisdiction is vested in 12 jurats, one of whom is Mayor; 24 commoners; a steward; a town-clerk, and other officers.

The Church at Faversham is dedicated to St. Mary of Charity, or, as others record it, to the Assumption of our Lady of Faversham. When it was originally founded is unknown, but it was certainly prior to the Norman times; and it was given, by William the Conqueror, to the Abbey of St. Augustine at Canterbury, together with all the tythes of the manor, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in coin. The present Church is a spacious and handsome fabric, built of flint, in the form of a cross, and coigned with stone. It consists principally of a nave, with aisles, chancel, and transept, with alight tower at the west end, ornamented with pinnacles, and terminated by an octagonal spire, seventy-three feet high. The outer walls are sustained by strong buttresses, and appear of the age of Edward the Second, or Third; but the interior parts of the west were rebuilt in the year 1755, from the designs, and under the direction of the late George Dance, Esq. at the expense of about 2,500l. partly raised on the inhabitants by assessments, and partly subscribed by the Corporation : the tower and spire have been erected since. The length of the Church is 160 feet, and its breadth, sixty-five; the length of the transept is 124 feet. In the former Church were two Chapels, respectively dedicated to St. Thomas and to the Holy Trinity; besides various altars and obits. At the west end of the south aisle, to which it formerly opened by semicircular arches, is a large room, now used as a school; and beneath this is a Crypt, or Chapel, divided in the centre by three round pillars, sustaining pointed arches. Adjoining to the north side of the tower is a square apartment, fitted up with strong timbers, and otherwise secured; this is supposed to have been the treasury, where the altar vessels, vestments, &c. were deposited.

The sepulchral memorials in this Church are very numerous, yet not many of them are particularly interesting.

On the north side of the Churchyard is A Free Grammar School, founded in the reign of Elizabeth. It will, however, be observed that the first foundation of a school was laid by Dr. Cole, a Kentishman, and warden of All Soul's College, Oxford; who, by indenture dated the 10th of December, in the 18th year of Henry VIII. gave to the abbot and convent of Faversham divers lands in the neighbourhood, for a school, wherein the novices of the abbey were to be instructed in grammar; but, the Dissolution happening soon after, the lands became vested in the crown, where they continued till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the charter was granted. By this charter the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of Faversham, and their successors, were appointed governors of the revenues of the school, and it was directed that they should have a common seal to use in all matters relating to the same. The master is appointed by the warden, or sub-warden, and six senior fellows, of All Soul's College, Oxford.—Here are, also, two Charity-schools for educating and clothing poor boys and girls, which are chiefly supported by the voluntary subscriptions of the inhabitants.

The Market-house was built in the year 1594. This building, which is supported by pillars, is forty-four feet long, and near twenty broad, and is paved underneath. The market is well supplied with fish, butcher's meat, poultry, eggs and butter. The market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The only manufactory carried on in this towu is the making of gunpowder, the works for which are very extensive. The quantity of powder made annually is computed to amount to between twelve and thirteen thousand barrels. These works were private property till about the year 1760, when they were purchased by government, and are under the superintendence of a branch of the ordnance established here, the principal officers of which are a storekeeper, a clerk of the cheque, and a master fire-worker, who have all respectable houses. In 1767 a stove with twenty-five barrels of gunpowder blew up, which did considerable damage to the, town; but the most dreadful explosion that has happened, took place on April 17, 1781, when the corning mill and dusting-house belonging to the royal works, were torn to atoms by the blowing up of about 7000lb. weight of powder, by which the workmen lost their lives. The noise was heard at twenty miles distance; all the surrounding buildings, both in Faversham and the adjoining village of Davington, were wholly or in part unroofed, the ceilings and chimneys thrown down, the window-frames forced out, the glass broken, and in many houses the furniture destroyed.

A sum of money was granted by parliament, for relief of the sufferers; and, under the provision of an act passed for the greater safety of the powder works, the stoves were removed into the marsh, at a considerable distance below the town.

The Oyster Fishery of Faversham is of great consequence, and forms the principal source of its trade. The dredgers, or oyster-fishers, are under the jurisdiction and protection of the lord of the manor, who appoints a steward, which officer holds two admiralty courts annually, where all matters relating to the good government of the society are transacted. No person is admitted as a free-dredger, unless he has served an apprenticeship of seven years to a freeman, and is a married man. In times of peace great quantities of Faversham oysters are exported to Holland.

According to the returns made under the population act in the year 1811, Faversham then contained 682 houses, and 3,872 inhabitants.

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FAVERSHAM, anciently “Fafresham,” is a port, municipal borough, market, union town, and head of a county court district, 7 miles south-west from Whitstable, 7 ½ east from Sittingbourne, 9 west from Canterbury and 47 from London, with a junction station (locally in Preston) on the South Eastern and Chatham railway, from which branches the line to Margate and Ramsgate. The borough comprises that part of the old Faversham parish formerly known as the in-liberty, and part of Preston parish.

Under the provisions of the “Local Government Act, 1894,” by an Order of the County Council, confirmed by Local Government Board, No. 31,634, which came into operation September 15, 1894, Faversham parish has been divided into two, respectively named Within and Without, the former being the old in-liberty comprised within the municipal borough.

The town has four principal streets, diverging from the market place and forming an irregular cross, besides a number of small streets.

Davington and Preston are adjoining parishes; all the parishes are in the North Eastern division of the county, Faversham hundred and union, lathe of Scray, and in the rural deanery of Ospringe and archdeaconry and diocese of Canterbury. Faversham was a place of considerable note at a very early period: in 812 it is called in a charter of Athelstan “the King’s little town of Fafresham.” In 930, a witenagemote was held here by Athelstan. Mary, widow of Louis XII. of France, sister of Henry VIII. sojourned here. Henry VIII. and Queen Catherine visited Faversham in 1519 and the King twice afterwards. King Philip and Queen Mary passed through the town in 1557. Queen Elizabeth slept two nights here in 1573, and King Charles II. dined with the mayor on his restoration in 1660.

The oldest charter now extant is that granted 36 Hen. III. (1251—2), in which the freemen are styled “barons,” Faversham being a member of the Cinque Port of Dover: this was confirmed, and the privileges of the borough extended by succeeding monarchy, including Hen. VIII. who in 37 of his reign (1545—6) granted a new charter, which remained in force until the reform of the municipal body by the “Municipal Corporations Act 1835” (5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76): the town is now governed by a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors; it has a commission of peace, and a court of quarter sessions.

The town is paved, lighted with gas from works situated in Flood lane, the property of a company established in 1888, and supplied with water by a company from deep chalk wells at Copton, in Preston parish, about a mile distant; the works, erected in 1864, at a first cost of £6,000, have since been extended at a further cost of £4,000; there are two reservoirs capable of holding 360,000 gallons, the daily consumption being about 180,000 gallons. In addition to the ordinary means of pumping by steam, there is an auxiliary windmill of 15-horse power, raising, if needed, 10,000 gallons per hour.

Faversham is a port on the Swale, within the liberties of the Cinque Port of Dover, having a navigable creek, with about 11 feet of water at the sluice bridge at ordinary spring tides. The creek has cost about £33,000 in improvements and is under the control of 30 commissioners, whose meetings are held on the second Tuesday in February, when the managing committee is selected for the year. Vessels of 200 tons register can get up to the town. In 1901, 119 British and foreign sailing and steam vessels entered with a tonnage of 12,182, and 41 cleared of 2,762 tons. In the general coasting trade 486 sailing and steam vessels entered, with a tonnage of 60,389, and 189 cleared of 15,581 tons.

The number of vessels registered as belonging to the port on Dec. 31, 1901, was 228 of 18,293 tonnage. The number of fishing boats belonging to the port on the same date was 122, of 1,184 tons, employing 381 men and boys. Fishing boats and their implements are distinguished by the letters “F. M.” or “F.”

The total value of the imports in 1901 was £31,067.

The value of the exports of British and Irish produce in 1901 was £10,053.

At Faversham is the principal custom house of the district, which includes Herne Bay, Whitstable and Milton.

The oyster fisheries are worked by the Company of Free Dredgermen of the manor and hundred, as tenants under the jurisdiction and protection of the lord of the manor, whose steward annually holds a court, at which the general interests of the fishery are considered and regulations for its benefit, if necessary, laid down.

The church of St. Mary of Charity, which occupies the site of an earlier structure, is of flint and stone, in the Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles, and has a tower of stone and flint with a stone spire, and containing a clock and 8 bells: there is a crypt of very Early English work, sixteen ancient oak stalls, and two chests of the 14th century remain: there are also various sepulchras memorials of interest, including brasses, and twenty stained windows, and the church is adorned with a number of mural paintings: according to “Hollingshead's Chronicle,” the bones of Bang Stephen (who founded the abbey here) were recovered and deposited in the church, and ther is an inscription to that effect: in 1755 the nave was rebuilt at a cost of £2,500: the exterior underwent a complete restoration in 1854 and 1874, the latter at a cost of £4,500: there are 1,400 sittings, 300 being free. The register dates from 26th March, 1620. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, and held since 1900 by the Rev. James Oakley Coles, of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge & B.D. Cantuar and hon. canon of Canterbury and chaplain to Faversham union.

St. Saviour’s, in Whitstable road, a mission church to St. Mary’s, was opened in 1885 and affords 260 sittings.

The Mission church of St. Andrew, in Water lane, erected in 1872 and enlarged in 1874, will seat 300 persons.

There is a temporary Catholic chapel dedicated to St. Theodore.

There is a Baptist chapel, built in 1867, with 350 sittings; a Congregational chapel, erected in 1789, seating 800; also Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels, and a Gospel mission hall.

A Cemetery, of 12 acres, was formed in 1898 near the Whitstable road, and is under the control of the Borough Council.

The Town Hall, or Guildhall, in the Market place, is a rectangular building supported on 19 octagonal oak pillars, and its lower stage is said to be of Elizabethan date; it contains portraits of the late George Beckett and Henry Wreight esqrs. great benefactors to the town; here are held the petty sessions, county court, corn market and general meetings in connection with the borough; the open basement serves as a market for fish and general commodities, and the building has an illuminated clock tower.

The Faversham Institute for the Encouragement of Literature, Science and Art, established in 1854, in East street, is a structure of brick, opened in June, 1861, and has on the ground floor a library with upwards of 7,000 volumes, a reading room, class and committese rooms and a minor hall seating 300; above is a large hall, licensed for theatricals, and seating 500 persons. The institute is managed by a body of 14 directors.

The Workmen’s Club, in East street, was erected in 1879, at a cost of £1,500, and is well adapted for its purpose.

The market days are Wednesday for corn and Saturday for meat, vegetables and general commodities; the fair is held on the 11th October and two following days. A cattle market, held fortnightly on Tuesdays, in Whitstable road, was established in 1863.

There are manufactories of gunpowder, Roman: and Portland cement and bricks; also two extensive breweries, those of Messrs. Shepherd, Neame and Co. and Messrs. W. E. and J. Rigden. The gunpowder mills of Messrs. John Hall and Son, established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and now incorporated with those of Messrs. Curtis’s and Harvey Lim. cover a large extent of ground and are contiguously situated in the parishes of Faversham, Davington, Luddenham, Oare, Ospringe and Stone. The Cotton Powder Company Limited have extensive premises, covering an area of about 300 acres, chiefly in the adjoining parish of Oare; the buildings were erected in 1873 and are for the manufacture of tonite, gun cotton, nitro cotton, gelatine dynamite, blasting gelatine, geloxite, cordite, Faversham powder, fulminate of mercury, detonators and electric detonators, firing tubes and socket distress signals, electric sounding signals, submarine charges for removal of wrecks &c.; the company also manufacture alarm signals for the Trinity Board and Northern Lights and Irish Lights. The cement works of the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (1900) Limited are situated on the creek, where are also timber and coal wharves, shipwrights' yards and storehouses, and a large steam flour-mill. Hops and cherries are largely grown in the neighbourhood.

A considerable trade is done in coal and timber; and agricultural produce, corn, hops, fruit and wool are exported by London hoys.

The A Troop of the A Squadron of the Royal East Kent Imperial Yeomanry (Duke of Connaught’s Own) (Mounted Rifles), and a detachment of the 1st Kent Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers), consisting of No. 3 and 4 Companies, numbering about 113 men, have their headquarters here; the battery is at Harty Ferry, and the drill hall and armoury, together with the gun repository and drill room, in Preston street; in connection with these corps there is a club.

A cottage hospital and dispensary was established in 1888, and contains 10 beds and 2 cots; 121 patients were treated in 1901.

The isolation hospital, for the Borough of Faversham, at Kennaways, about 2 miles distant, was erected by the Corporation in 1892, at a total cost of £1,500, enlarged in 1895, and is available for 16 patients.

The Isolation Hospital at Beacon hill was erected by the Rural District Council in 1889, at a cost of £1,500, and contains 20 beds.

The charitable benefactions are numerous and produce an annual rental of about £3,500, principally derived from bequests by Henry Hatche and Henry Wreight, bequeathed in 1840; in pursuance of a scheme, settled in 1856, thirty almshouses on the Ospringe road, with a chapel, were erected on a site comprising about two and a half acres: these are of red brick, with a colannade round the basement and a chapel in the centre, opened for Divine service in 1866, and containing about 150 free seats in addition to those allotted for the inmates of the almshouses. The chaplaincy, yearly value £150, has been held since 1881 by the Rev. Henry Eldridge Curtis M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge. The almshouses are as follows:-Thomas Menfield’s, for six poor widows, each receiving £15 yearly; John Foade's, for three poor old widows, each receiving £15 yearly; Thomas Napleton’s, for seven poor men, who receive £26 yearly; Henry Wreight's, for six freemen of the Company of Fishermen and Dredgermen of the manor and hundred of Faversham (or the widows of any such freeman), each receiving £15 yearly; also for six poor widows or single women, each receiving £15 yearly; also for two poor men or women, each receiving £15 yearly.

The recreation ground, on the east side of the town, was purchased and laid out by the trustees of the Faversham Public Charities in August, 1860, at a cost of upwards of £5,500: the grounds cover 20 acres.

In 1147 King Stephen built here an abbey for Cluniac monks, dedicated to St. Saviour, in which, that king and his Queen Matilda were interred; his son, Eustace, was also buried here, with many other noble personages: the abbot was mitred and during the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. sat in thirteen several parliaments; the abbey had right of sanctuary, and its revenues at the Dissolution were £355 15 s. 2d.; portions of the outer wall still remain.

Earl Sondes is lord of the manor.

The area of Faversham Within parish is 548 acres of land and 6 of water, 3 of tidal water and 18 of foreshore; rateable value, £44,376; the population in 1901 was 10,539, including 14 officers and 231 inmates in the workhouse and 56 on board vessels.

The area of Faversham Without parish is 1717 acres of land, 5 of water, 82 of tidal water and 47 of foreshore; rateable value, £7,834; the population in 1901 was 1,036.

The area of Preston Within parish is 122 acres; rateable value, £5,780; the population in 1901 was 751.

The area of the municipal borough is 686 acres; the population in 1901 was 11,290.

Petty Sessions are held the first & third thursdays in each month at the Guildhall, Faversham, at 11 o’clock The following places are in the division:-Badlesmere, Boughton-under-the-Blean, Buckland-next-Faversham, Davington, Doddington, Dunkirk (Ville), Eastling, Faversham Without, Faversham Within, Goodnestone, Graveney, Hernhill, Leaveland, Lynsted, Luddenham, Newnham, Norton, Oare, Ospringe, North Preston Without, South Preston Without, Selling, Sheldwich, Stansfield, Stone-next-Faversham, Teynham, Throwley.

FAVERSHAM UNION

Board day, Wednesday, at the Workhouse at 12 noon.

The Union comprises the following 27 parishes, viz.:-Badlesmere, Boughton-under-Blean, Buckland, Davington, Doddington, Dunkirk, Eastling, Faversham Within, Faversham Without, Goodnestone, Graveney, Hernhill, Leaveland, Luddenham, Lynsted, Newnham, Norton, Oare, Ospringe, Preston Within, Preston (North) Without, Preston (South) Without, Selling, Sheldwich, Stalisfield, Stone next Faversham, Teynham & Throwley. The population of the Union in 1901 was 26,415; area, 44,654 acres; rateable value in 1902, £153,817.

The Workhouse, a structure of brick, is available for 400 inmates, Mathew Henry Moss, master.

PLACES OF WORSHIP, with times of services

St. Mary of Charity Church, Faversham, Rev. Canon James Oakley Coles B.D. vicar; Rev. Willis Fleming Aston Lambert M.A., F.L.S. Rev. Frank Wm. Snaith & Rev. Wm. Waite, curates; Allan Tassell, vestry clerk; 11 a.m.. & 3.30 & 6.30 p.m.; holy communion, 8 a.m. & 1st & 3rd sundays 12 noon; daily, 10 a.m. (except wed. & fri. when it is at 11 a.m.) & 6 p.m.; on holy days, 7.15 & 11 a.m. & 6 p.m.

St. Catherine’s Church, Preston, Rev. William Carus-Wilson B.A. vicar; Rev. Arthur Cecil Henry Qarusp Wilson M.A. curate; 8 & 11 a.m. 3 & 6.30 p.m.; daily, 10 a.m. & 6 p.m.

St. John the Evangelist, Brents, Rev. Nathaniel Jones Milner Stuart Amies, vicar; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; thurs. 7 p.m. in winter.

St. Mary Magdalene Church, Davington, Rev. Arthur Allen B.A. incumbent; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.

SS. Peter & Paul Church, Ospringe, Rev. William Almack M.A. vicar; Rev. Frederick William Bidwell B.A. curate; 8 & 10.30 a.m. &; 3 p.m.; daily, summer, 8 a.m.; winter, 4.30 p.m.

St. Saviour’s (Iron) Church, Whitstable road, Rev. Frank Wm. Snaith curate-in-charge; 8 & 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7.30 p.m.

St. Andrew’s Mission Church, Water lane, Rev. William Waite, curate-in-charge; 6.30 p.m.

Almshouse Chapel, South road, Rev. Henry Eldridge Curtis M.A. chaplain; 11 a.m.. & 6.30 p.m.; 11 a.m. daily.

St. Theodore Catholic (Temporary), Rev. Francis Mahoney; 8.30 & 11 a.m. & 3 & 6 p.m.; holidays of obligation, 8 & 10 a.m.; daily, 8 a.m. & 4.30 & 7 p.m.

Baptist, St. Mary’s road, Rev. George Stanley; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; tues. 8 p.m.; sat. 7 p.m.

Bible Christians, Stone street, Rev. Wm, Frederick Charlton; 10.45 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; tues. 7 p.m.

Congregational, Newton road, Rev. James Beeby A.T.S.; 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 8.15 p.m.; & Partridge lane, 6.30 p.m.; mon. 7 p.m.

Wesleyan, Rev. Wm. Edward Gardner (supt, ) & Rev. John W. Faraday Boughton; 10.30 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; mon. & thurs. 7 p.m.

Gospel Mission Hall, Tanners street, H. Howland, superintendent; 11 a.m. & 3 & 6.30 p.m.

SCHOOLS

School Attendance Committee, consisting of 9 members of the Corporations Francis Frederick Giraud, 50 Preston street, clerk to the committee; Chas. Richard Filmer, Chapel street, attendance officer.

Faversham Educational Board; chairman, Rev. Canon J. Oakley Coles B.D. vicar; R. B. Tritton, hon. sec.; Jabez Smith hon. treasurer.

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School was founded by Dr. Cole, who, in 1527, bequeathed lands to the Abbot & Convent of St. Saviour, at Faversham, for the foundation of a Grammar school, under the management of that society: at the time of the dissolution of the monastery the school lands were sequestered to the Crown; but in 1576 Queen Elizabeth by royal charter, reconstituted the school & endowed it with a portion of the lands previously given to it by the founder: the income for the year ending May 18Th 1876, wan £492; the school was reorganized & its endowments increased by a scheme framed by the Endowed Schools Commissioners in 1876; the management is now vested in 15 governors, who have power to erect convenient school premises & create free scholarships tenable at Faversham, & exhibitions to places of higher education; there already exist two exhibitions of £60 each, tenable for three years, at Oxford or Cambridge University: a school to hold 40 boarders & 40 day scholars, with master’s house, has been erected at the south end of Ospringe road, at a cost of about £6,000. Rev. Frederick Maximilian Crapper M.A.Oxon.

A School Board of 7 members was formed 15 June, 1880, for the united district of North Preston Without, South Preston Without, Davington & Oare; Allan Tassell, 20 West street, clerk to the board; Edwin Honess, 35 Ospringe road, attendance officer.

Board School, Davington (boys, girls & infants), for the parishes of North Preston Without, South Preston Without, Davington & Oare, erected in 1882, with residence for the master & mispresses, at a cost of about £6,000, for 650 children; average attendance, 179 boys, 171 girls & 165 infants.

Wreight’s School (Church of England), built in 1857, at a cost of £3,200, obtained from Wreight’s charity, & since greatly enlarged at a further cost of £3,000: there are entrance scholarships & others tenable at the school & exhibitions to any place of higher education; average attendance, 100.

William Gibbs’s School for Girls, Orchard place, built in 1884, for 72 girls; attached to the school are three scholarships of the annual value of not less than £6 nor more than £9; also exhibitions value £10 to £30.

District National, built in 1853 by the Trustees of Public Charities, at a cost of £7,700, including site; infants’ school added in 1867, at a cost of £747 & in 1874 the schools were further enlarged at a cost of £815; & wall now (1902) hold 1,209 children average attendance, 416 boys, 325 girls & 358 infants.

District National (Branch) (girls), Tanners street, was originally founded in 1848 & then occupied premises in West street; the present buildings were erected by the late Colonel Hall, of Syndale Park, in 1861, for 218 children; average attendance, 199.

Painters Forstal (mixed), Ospringe, erected in 1871, for 80 children; average attendance, 42.

National, Ospringe (mixed), erected, with a mistress’s residence, in 1851, for 260 children; average attendance, 225.

Wesleyan (mixed & infants), Preston street, for 565 children; aiverage attendance, 287 boys & girls & 118 infants.