Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for GREENHITHE

GREENHITHE, a hamlet in Swanscombe parish, and a chapelry in Swanscombe and Stone-near-Dartford parishes, Kent. The hamlet lies on the river Thames, and on the North Kent railway, 3 miles E by N of Dartford; and has a station with telegraph on the railway, a postoffice‡ under Dartford, and a good pier for passengertraffic by the steamers on the river. A number of villa residences are in it, and have recently been increased; and a handsome row of them, semi-detached and in the Italian style, forms a picturesque terrace, and commands a charming view. Ingress House-on an eminence originally called Ince Grice, and once belonging to the Dartford nuns-is an elegant mansion, in the Tudor style; was built, by the late Alderman Harmer, with materials from Old London bridge; passed into the possession of S.Umfreville, Esq.; and stands amid tastefully disposed grounds. Cliff House, the residence of the Rev. Fuller Russell, contains a choice collecting of Italian and German pictures of the early Christian school. Market gardening, the making of Roman cement, and the working of chalk and lime are carried on. The chalk pits are very extensive; and some of them have depths of from 100 to 150 feet. The Erebus and Terror, under Sir John Franklin and Captain Crozier, sailed on their wellknown fatal expedition, in 1845, from Greenhithe.—The chapelry was constituted in 1856. Pop., 1, 039. Houses, 207. Pop. of the Swanscombe portion 850. Houses, 176. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £250. Patron, Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge. The church was built in 1856, and is in the decorated English style. There are chapels for Independents and Wesleyans, and an infant school.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a hamlet"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Kent AncC
Place: Greenhithe

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