Sturry

infobox UK place

country = England
official_name= Sturry
latitude= 51.3036
longitude= 1.1211
static_

static_image_caption=Sturry High Street
population = 4,843
civil_parish= Sturry
shire_district= City of Canterbury
shire_county= Kent
region= South East England
constituency_westminster= Canterbury
post_town= CANTERBURY
postcode_district = CT2
postcode_area= CT
dial_code= 01227
os_grid_reference= TR176606

Sturry is a village on the River Great Stour three miles north-east of Canterbury in Kent. It is a large parish incorporating the former mining village of Hersden and several hamlets.

It lies at the old Roman junction of the road from the city to Thanet and Reculver: at the point where a fort was built to protect the crossing of the river. Sturry railway station was opened in 1848 by the South Eastern Railway: it is on the line between Canterbury west and Ramsgate. The station was until the 1860s the stage coach point for Herne and Herne Bay.

Sturry was one of the most badly bombed villages in England during the Second World War, the greater part of the High Street being destroyed by a parachute mine in 1941, which killed 15 people. Nonetheless a number of interesting buildings remain, including St Nicholas Parish Church, which is predominantly Norman in style, with the oldest parts dating to about 1200. The Manor House, built in 1583, is now the junior school of The King's School, Canterbury. Famous alumni include Antony Worrall Thompson and Orlando Bloom . There is also an oast house which is used as the pre-preparatory school. Nearby, on the river, is the remains of a large village water mill, and even the High Street retains some charming historic buildings. The village virtually adjoins one of the smallest towns in England, Fordwich, where there are further historic buildings, including the historic Town Hall. Fordwich itself is smaller in size than Sturry. A rare survival, a small granary, constructed with wooden weather-boards is located at Blaxland Farm and has nine staddle stones supporting it. A barn from Vale Farm, Calcott has been re-erected at the Museum of Kent Life, Sandling.

Since the 1960s a large number of satellite housing estates have been built on the north side of the village, mostly in former woodland, which have turned Sturry into one of the major dormitary villages for Canterbury. Nonetheless, the village is still overwhelmingly rural, with fields for arable farming and livestock grazing, and large amounts of coppice woodland. A number of market gardens can also be found in the countryside around the village. Large and deep quarries are still worked on the edge of the village, with the old workings flooded to provide recreational lakes used primarily for fishing.

External links

* [http://freespace.virgin.net/r.cornish/ A photographic tour of St Nicholas Church, Sturry]
* [http://www.visionwebsites.co.uk/Contents/Text/Index.asp?SiteId=203&SiteExtra=1937122&TopNavId=400&NavSideId=2006 Sturry Parish Council website]