WHITSTABLE, a parish in the hundred of WHITSTABLE,
lathe of ST-AUGUSTINE, county of KENT, 5miles
(N. N.W.) from Canterbury, containing, with the
hamlet of Harwich, 1611 inhabitants. The living is
a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Canterbury, endowed with £400 private benefaction,
and £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is dedicated
to All Saints. There are places of worship for Independents
and Wesleyan Methodists. This parish lies
near the entrance to the East Swale, opposite the Isle
of Sheppy. On the shore by Tankerton are several
copper-houses, where considerable quantities of copperas,
or green vitriol, are manufactured. Whitstable
bay is frequented by a number of colliers, from which
Canterbury and the surrounding places are supplied
with coal, by means of the Canterbury and Whitstable
railway. It is also the station of hoys, which sail to
and from London alternately, every week, with goods and
passengers. Many boats are employed in the fisheries,
Whitstable being a royalty of fishery, or oyster dredging,
appendant to the manor, and for the due regulation
of the trade a court is held annually in
February. There are fairs on Thursday before Whitsuntide,
near the water side; on Midsummer-day, at
Church-street; and on St. James' day, on Greeristedgreen,
in Whitstable-street, which is a thriving and populous
village, containing shops well stored with every
necessary article of consumption for those engaged in
the extensive traffic here carried on. Great quantities
of Roman pottery have been found in dredging for oysters
round a rock, now called the Pudding-pan, which
is supposed by some to have been the island Caunos of
Ptolemy, though now covered by the sea.