Hoo St Werburgh

infobox UK place

country = England
latitude= 51.4233
longitude= 0.5583

official_name= Hoo St Werburgh
civil_parish = Hoo St Werburgh
static_

static_image_caption = Hoo seen from across the Medway
population = 7356
unitary_england= Medway
lieutenancy_england = Kent
region= South East England

constituency_westminster= Medway to be replaced 2007 by Rochester and Strood
post_town= ROCHESTER
postcode_district = ME3
postcode_area= ME
dial_code= 01634
os_grid_reference= TQ783722

Hoo St Werburgh is one of several villages on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England to bear the name "Hoo". It constitutes a civil parish in the borough of Medway, which according to the 2001 census had a population of 7,356. The surrounding countryside is beautiful, and ranges from farmland, to ancient woodlands, meadows and marshes.

St. Werburgh was the daughter of King Wulfhere of Mercia, and niece of King Æthelred, his brother and successor. She was born between 640 and 650.

The first church of Hoo St Werburgh may have been built in the reign of the 8th century King Æthelbald of Mercia, though presumably a monastery existed nearby at an earlier time. [ [http://www.aschart.kcl.ac.uk/content/charters/text/s0233.html Anglo-Saxon Charter S 233 Archive Peterborough] . British Academy ASChart project. Retrieved on May 11 2008.] This, together with land at Hoo All Hallows, is likely to have been placed under the rule of the leading Mercian monastery of Medeshamstede, now known as Peterborough. [Brooks, N. P., "The Early History of the Church of Canterbury", Leicester University Press, 1984, 193-7, 205.]

A feature which is found in the church, and is considered to be unique, are the two royal coats of arms belonging to King James I and Queen Elizabeth I. Recently these have been restored, and they can be seen in the church.

The parish records of 1851 give the population as 1,065.

Thomas Aveling , of Aveling and Porter, the first British manufacturer of steamrollers, is buried in the cemetery.

A workhouse was in use here until the 1930s, and the secondary school bears the name "Hundred of Hoo School".

"Broad Street" appeared as "Brodestrete" in 1478."The Place Names Of Kent", Judith Glover, 1976, Batsford ISBN 0905270 614. "Broad Street".] "Jacobs Lane" is named after the family of Stephen Jacobe of Hoo (1480).

References

See also

*Æthelred of Mercia
*Medeshamstede
*Werburgh
*Wulfhere of Mercia

External links

The History And Topographical Survey Of Kent Volume 4: Survey Of Hoo St. Werburgh (1798)
* http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53793

Hoo Saint Werburgh Parish Council http://www.hoosaintwerburgh-pc.gov.uk/

Hoo Marina http://www.hoomarina.com/