Upchurch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Upchurch | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Population: | |
| Ordnance Survey | |
| OS grid reference: | TQ845675 |
| Administration | |
| District: | Medway |
| Region: | South East England |
| Constituent country: | England |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Other | |
| Ceremonial county: | Kent |
| Historic county: | Kent |
| Services | |
| Police force: | Kent Police |
| Fire and rescue: | {{{Fire}}} |
| Ambulance: | South East Coast |
| Post office and telephone | |
| Post town: | |
| Postal district: | |
| Dialling code: | |
| Politics | |
| UK Parliament: | Sittingbourne and Sheppey |
| European Parliament: | South East England |
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Upchurch village is situated at the junction of numerous minor roads on the edge of the Medway marshes, to the east of Gillingham. It is now within the Medway Borough.
The area has an ancient history. It lay on a pre-Roman trackway; the many linking roads are the result of Roman occupation, who had built a community of ex-soldiers who wanted to settle in England. A Roman cemetery has been discovered here. There were also several Roman pottery works sited here. It is probable that, although today the land is low-lying and marshy, it was once higher than it is today.
A more recent pottery was established here before World War I in 1909: it is now closed. This was the famous Upchurch Pottery retailing through such outlets as Liberty & Co..
The village prizes a connection with Sir Francis Drake whose father became its vicar in 1560 after having been prayer-reader to the Medway fleet.
Under the 14th century church is a small crypt, a charnel-house, where bones were kept if the churchyard was full. It was discovered in 1877, and the bones re-interred. The church is also notable for its very unusual 'candle-snuffer' steeple: an octagonal pyramid appears to have been stacked on top of a square one as if they were a couple of inverted ice-cream cones.
