Hithe or Hythe is about five miles west from Folkstone, is one of the principal cinque ports, and a place of considerable antiquity. It had formerly four churches, and according to Leland, "had bene a very great town in length." It is supposed to owe its origin to the ancient ports of Limne and West Hithe, the harbours of which successively became choaked up with sand. It has itself suffered the same fate, and at present scarcely deserves the name of a port, the sea-beach being nearly three quarters of a mile from the town. In the reign of Henry IV. above two hundred of the houses were destroyed by fire. Five of the ships belonging to the port were lost, nearly at the same time, and one hundred men were drowned; by which misfortunes the inhabitants were so much impoverished, that they had thoughts of abandoning the place, and building themselves a town elsewhere; but the King, by his timely interposition, prevented this, relieving them for some time from their service as a cinque-port.

Queen Elizabeth, in the 17th year of her reign, granted the townsmen of Hithe a charter of incorporation, by the style of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the town and port of Hithe. The corporation consists of the mayor and twelve jurats, twenty-four common council men, a town clerk, &c.

The houses of this town are chiefly situated in one long street running parallel with the sea, but having two or three lesser ones branching off at right angles. The court-hall and market place are nearly in the centre of the town; the latter was built by Philip Viscount Strangford, who represented this port in parliament in the 12th of Charles II. All the houses situated on the side of the hill have an uninterrupted view of the sea southward, Romney Marsh, and the adjacent country.

There was formerly a market on Saturdays, which has been long since disused, though the farmers have for some time held a meeting here on Thursdays, for the purpose of selling their corn.

Hithe, as one of the cinque-ports, has the privilege of returning members, usually styled barons, to parliament; the first returns of which are in the second of Edward III. The right of election is in the mayor, jurats, common council, and freemen, making together in number, at present, about one hundred and thirty. A striking alteration has been effected in this part of the coast, by that long range of martello towers which has been already noticed. A military canal commences at this place, and proceeds to the vicinity of Appledore.

There are two hospitals, or Alm's-houses, in the parish of Hithe: one called St. Bartholomew's, and the other St. John's. The former was founded by Haimo, Bishop of Rochester, about the year 1336, and is situated at a short distance southwestward from the church. There are ten poor persons in it, five men and five women. There are 100 acres of land belonging to this foundation of the yearly value of about 120l. It is under the management of three trustees, now called wardens, chosen by the mayor and corporation.

The hospital of St. John is situated at the east end of the town. Its revenues are at present derived from 54 acres of land. It is under the management of trustees, who are, in general, members of the corporation. The number and qualifications of the poor relieved are at the discretion of the trustees, and there are six apartments for their accommodation. It stands on the south side of the High Street.

The church is a spacious structure, consisting of a nave, chancel, two aisles, and north and south transepts, with a lower at the west end. From the centre rises a low tower, of early English architecture. This is a fine and interesting building, and occupies a very elevated situation on the acclivity of the hill above the town. The room over the porch is the Town Hall, where the mayor and other members of the corporation are chosen yearly. In the crypt, or vault, under the east end of the chancel, is piled up a vast quantity of human skulls and bones; the pile of them being 28 feet in length, and eight feet in height and breadth. They are supposed to have been the remains of the Britons, slain in a bloody battle fought on the shore between this place and Folkstone, with the retreating Saxons in the year 456; and to have attained their whiteness by lying for some length of time exposed on the seashore. Several of the skulls have deep cuts in them, as if made by the stroke of some heavy weapon.

About a mile north from Hithe is Salwood Castle, anciently a strong seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but alienated from that see by Archbishop Cranmer. It is now the property of Sir Brook Bridges, Bart., and occupied, in the only habitable part, by agricultural servants. The outer wall has towers and battlements, and a deep ditch. The keep, or gatehouse, which seems to have been almost wholly rebuilt by Archbishop Courtenay, is a noble pile, having two lofty round towers in front. The entrance hall is now divided into two rooms, and must have been formerly a magnificent apartment. The walls of the inner court are polygonal. On the northern side are the ruins of the chapel, and several other buildings. The walls of this, like those of the outer court, are defended by towers at different distances. Near the area is an ancient well, neatly steined. It is said that an anchor has been dug up near this place, and that the sea formerly came up to it.

HYTHE is a town, parish and watering place on the South East coast, a parliamentary and municipal borough, Cinque Port and the head of a county court district, with a station on a branch of the South Eastern and Chatham railway from Sandling junction to Sandgate, and is 66 miles from London by Tail and 71 by road, 12 south-west from Dover, 18 south from Canterbury, 25 north-east from Rye, 41 from Maidstone and 5 west from Folkestone, in the Eastern division of the county, lathe of Shepway, Elham union and petty sessional division, and in the rural deanery of Elham and archdeaconry and diocese of Canterbury. The name “Hythe” signifies a haven, and the town appears to have been formerly a place of great importance, since Leland states that it had four parish churches and a fine abbey. The town was incorporated by charter, 17 Elizabeth. 1574—5, under the name of the “Mayor, Jurats and Commonalty of the Town and Port of Hythe,” but it is now governed, under the provisions of the “Municipal Corporations Act, 1835” (5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76), by a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors and burgesses. The borough has a commission of the peace and separate court of quarter sessions. The municipal borough, which is divided into four wards, consists of the parishes of Hythe, St. Leonard and parts of West Hythe, Aldington, Saltwood, Cheriton and Newington (annexed in 1886 to Hythe parish under the “Divided Parishes Act, 1882”); these and the parishes of Folkestone, Cheriton, Saltwood, Hawkinge, Sandgate and Newington-next-Hythe form the parliamentary borough, which returns one member to Parliament. The Cinque Port of Hythe consists of Hythe, St. Leorfard, with parts of Aldington and West Hythe. The earliest Cinque Ports charter in the possession of the Corporation is dated 26 Edward I. (1297—8), but they claim that the town was added to the Cinque Ports by the Conqueror.

Hythe is pleasantly situated on the side of a hill stretching towards the sea, and its neighbourhood is enriched with several interesting ruins and other remains of antiquity, among which may be named Salt-wood, Lympne (the Portus Lemanis of the Romans), Studfall Castle and Westenhanger. The greater part of the town is built on shingle and the remainder on a declivity of Kentish rag, rising to some altitude on the northern side, and thus protecting it from cold winds. The whole of the southern and western sides of the town is lined with trees; the beach affords excellent bathing. The High street is paved and lighted with gas by a company formed in 1851. The water supply; derived from the lower greensand and from two natural springs on the side hills, is ample and of excellent quality and is supplemented from a well at Saltwood and by a supply from the Folkestone Waterworks Co. A system of drainage was carried out in 1876, with an outfall about 1 ½ miles distant.

The church of St. Leonard is a cruciform edifice of stone in the Noman and Early English style, with some later insertions: the chancel, which is very lofty, with triforium and clerestory, and vaulted in stone, is a beautiful example of the Early English style: the tower contains a clock and 8 bells: in the crypt is a large pile of human remains, said to be remains of Saxons and Britons who fell in a battle on this spot, A.D. 456: there is an interesting brass and a number of memorial windows: part of the church was restored in 1875, at a cost of over £4,000, and in 1886 the choir was restored at a cost of £6,000: there are 730 sittings. The register dates from the year 1566. The living is a vicarage, exempt from archidiaconal visitations, net yearly value £350, with glebe (£37) and residence, in the gift of the rector of Saltwood, and held since 1899 by the Rev. Herbert Dixon Dale, who is also a surrogate. The Mission Church of St. Michael and AH Angels, in Stade street, opened in Oct. 1893, is an iron building with a turret containing one bell, and has 300 sittings. The Catholic church, in Seabrook road, dedicated to the Virgin Mother of Good Counsel, and erected in 1893, at a cost of about £4,000, is in the Early English style, and consists of two floors; the lower portion is utilised as schools for children of both sexes. Both church and schools are under the direction of the Austin Friars, and some Fathers of the Order reside close by. There is a Congregational chapel, built in 1814, with 400 sittings, a Wesleyan chapel, Salvation Army quarters and one or two undenominational meeting rooms.

The Cemetery, which consists of the churchyard, together with half-an-acre of land added about 1881, covers an area of about two acres and is under the control of a burial board of nine members. The Town Hall, in High street, rebuilt by the Corporation in 1794, is a structure of brick resting on six stone pillars; the large room is capable of seating 250 persons; council meetings and quarter sessions are held here and the hall is also available for public meetings, entertainments &c.; it contains a portrait of Charles James Fox, d. 13 Sept. 1806, also one of Stewart Marjoribanks esq. of Bushey Grove, Herts, and M.P. for the borough 1818—47, who died Sept. 1863; the municipal insignia include two maces; the clock which overhangs the street was purchased by public subscription; near the hall is a drinking fountain, presented by the late Thomas Judge during his mayoralty and unveiled 12 May, 1886, by the late Lady Watkin. Quarter Sessions are held here before the Recorder, in the Town Hall. The Sessions Hall, Bank street, was erected in 1881 at a cost of £700. Here is a branch of the London and County Banking Co. Limited. A Dispensary was established in 1849; the average number of patients is about 200. St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (or almshouses) was founded in 1336, by Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, for five poor men and eight women, each of whom receives £5 10s. a quarter; St. John’s hospital supports two men and seven women, who receive quarterly £4 10s. each. A Masonic Lodge (Prince Edwin, No. 125) holds its meetings at Bank Buildings. The sea wall and parade between Hythe and Seabrook, about a mile and a half in length and now the property of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company, was opened Oct. 12Th 1881, and has since been extended to Sandgate: it is connected with the centre of the town, after crossing the canal, by a broad and pleasant path lined with wych elms, along which numerous seats are provided for the convenience of visitors. A tramway belonging to the railway company runs to Sandgate and partly along the sea front. The lifeboat house, on the Parade, erected in 1893, contains a boat transferred here from Sandgate. The Royal Military Canal, which begins at Seabrook, runs through Hythe and thence along the borders of Romney Marsh, to Rye, and affords very pleasant views as well as boating and fishing, and the banks are lined with trees for many miles. The Hotel Imperial, pleasantly situated on the sea front, facing due south stands in its own ground of 7 acres and has been luxuriously furnished and decorated, fitted with the electric light, electric passenger life and every modern improvement, and contains 120 rooms. A bathing establishment adjacent to the sea, with waiting rooms and guides’ residence, was erected by the Corporation in 1854, at a cost of upwards of £2,000. Early summer and autumn are the best times for visiting Hythe, and persons with pulmonary complaints or dyspepsia are generally benefited here, as also the chlorotic and those suffering from the diseases of childhood. The Institute, in the Avenue, built in 1891—2, at a cost of about £3,500, and endowed by the late A. Bull esq. of Hythe, is of red brick with stone dressings, and includes a library (of about 1,500 volumes), reading, smoking and game rooms, and a large hall on the upper floor capable of holding about 350 persons, and available for entertainments, meetings &c.; there are about 200 members, and the Institute is open to visitors on payment of a small fee. There is a local Cricket Club and a Golf Club. Links of 18 holes are situated on the hills near the railway station, and there is a commodious Golf house. In the town is a brewery, established in 1669. The Hythe School of Musketry, at the western extremity of the town, on the Ashford road, was established, in 1853, by Viscount Hardinge G.C.B. then commander-in-chief, and occupies a range of substantial buildings erected in 1807 and 1808; here officers and noncommissioned officers of the army receive instruction in the theory and practice of musketry by a selected staff, under a commandant; the premises afford room for 300 men, besides officers’ quarters, mess, lecture and other rooms; in 1894 a building for 20 officers was added; the officers’ mess-room, a fine hall, is hung with portraits of former commandants, and the lecture-room is adorned with a collection of ancient arms; the butts for practising extend for over a mile and a half across the shingle. Fort Sutherland is in this parish. The area is 2,615 acres of land, 2 of water and 81 of foreshore; rateable value, £29,256; the population of the parish and municipal borough in 1901 was 5,557, including 400 in the School of Musketry; the population of the municipal wards in 1901 was:-East, 1,203; Marine, 2,099; Middle, 916 and West, 1,339; the population of St. Leonard ecclesiastical parish in 1901 was 4,234; the population of the parliamentary borough in 1901 was 46,619.

The number of electors on the parliamentary register in 1902 was 5,883.

By Local Government Board Order 19,009, dated March 25, 1886, those parts of the parishes of Newington and Saltwood in Hythe municipal borough were annexed to it for civil purposes.

Petty Sessions are held at the New Sessions hall every alternate thursday at Hythe & the first monday in January, March, April, June, July, September, October & December, at Elham, at eleven a.m.

The following are the places included in the Petty Sessional Division:-Acrise, Aldington, Cheriton, Elham, Elmsted, Folkestone, Hawkinge, Hurst, Hythe, Lyminge, Lympne, Monk’s Horton, Newington, Paddlesworth Postling, Saltwood, Sandgate, Sellinge, Stanford, Stelling, Stelling Minnis & Stowting.

PLACES OF WORSHIP, with times of services

St. Leonard’s Church, Hill side, Rev. Herbert Dixon Dale, vicar; Rev. Arthur Spencer M.A. & Rev. Charles John James McCormick, curates; sundays: matins 11 a.m.; children’s service (2nd & 4th sundays) 2.45 p.m.; evensong 6.30 p.m.; week days: matins 8 a.m. (wed. & fri. 11 a.m. with litany); evensong 5.30 p.m.

St. Michael’s Mission Church, Stade street, served by clergy of parish church; sundays: children’s service (2nd & 4th sundays) 10 a.m.; matins 11 a.m.; evensong 6 p.m.; week days: wed. matins 11 a.m.; evensong & sermon 7 p.m.

Virgin Mother of Good Counsel, Catholic, Very Rev. Edward Dominic Reid O.S.A. prior; Rev. Richard Austin O’Gorman O.S.A. in charge of mission; sunday mass, 9 a.m. missa cantata (with serm.), 11 a.m. even. serv. 6.30 p.m. (with rosary), holidays of obligation, mass 8 & 10 a.m. even. serv. 6.30 p.m. daily mass 8 a.m. devotions, thurs. 6.30 p.m.

Congregational, High street, Rev. Joseph Harrison Brown, 11 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7.30 p.m.

Wesleyan (Folkestone Circuit), Rev. Ralph M. Spoor (supt.), Rev. Alfred Hardy & Rev. G. Russell James; 10 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; wed. 7 p.m.

Salvation Army, 29 Windmill street.

SCHOOLS

A School Attendance Committee of 6 members was formed in 1870; George S. Wilks, High street, is clerk to the committee; Thomas Watson, attendance officer, 3 West parade.

National, built in 1851 & enlarged in 1893 & 1894, for 240 boys, 180 girls & 180 infants; average attendance, 163 boys, 175 girls & 170 infants.

National, Seabrook, for girls & infants, built in 1897, for 120 children; average attendance, 80.

Catholic Public Elementary (mixed & infants); Miss Agnes Duffy, mistress; Miss Kathleen Scott, infants' mistress; the average attendance is between 60 & 70 children.

CONVEYANCE

Omnibuses from the Swan hotel to & from the station to meet every train.

Omnibuses & other conveyances to Folkestone & Sandgate, about every fifteen minutes during summer & every half-hour during winter months.

Trams to Sandgate, every 20 minutes during summer & about every hour during winter (S. E. & C. R. Co. proprietors); depot, Rampart road.

Motor cars to Folkestone at frequent intervals.

All conveyances are more or less regulated by the season.