Worth, Kent
Worth is a village and civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, England, situated south of Sandwich. It has two public houses, a church, and a school. According to the 2011 UK Census, Worth had a population of 992.
Worth was supposedly first inhabited due to its fertile soils. This eventually led to the cultivation of the land during Norman times by the Lords of the Eastry Manor.
History
According to Hasted in the 18th century, Worth was made up of three boroughs, only one of which makes up the current village of the 21st century, Worth Street. In the Gazetteer of the British Isles in 1887, John Bartholomew described Worth as coastal parish and village. During the sixteenth century, the area was known for its redbrick style of housing, however the parish church of St Peter & St Paul's, depicted on the left, shows the signs of Norman work from the twelfth century.Name
The parish name of Worth is said to relate to the word Enclosure, and incorporates a description of "elements and their meanings".Literature
C.S. Forester's fictional naval hero Horatio Hornblower was born in the village of Worth, according to Hornblower's biographer Cyril Northcote Parkinson in The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower. According to Parkinson, the name of the village varied in the 18th century from Word or Worde to Worth and that a farm called the Blue Pigeons was central to the smuggling business at that time. There is today a Blue Pigeon Inn in Worth.It is said by a local legend that Henry V was returning on 25 October, also known as St Crispin's Day, where he had claimed victory at Agincourt, disembarking at Worth. Here he fell in love with a local "ale-wife", where they ended up living together at the local inn. supposedly as to why the Crispin Inn of Worth is named as it is.