Greatstone History

Welcome to our Greatstone history pages. Please use either the index on the left or the timeline on the right to find out about Greatstone's past in words and pictures.

Greatstone at the Beginning

Greatstone is a recent name taken from a shoreline feature, since eroded by coastal changes, known as the Great Stone.

Less than 200 years ago the village of Greatstone did not exist. As recent as 1816 the land on which the present village now stands was no more than just part of the seabed in Romney Bay, washed over by the tides of the English Channel. 
See 1816 Ordnance Survey map on the right.

Great Stone, as it was known in c1800, was just a shingle headland, being the land point that marked the southern entrance to the bay that extended almost as far west as New Romney. The sea had been retreating from New Romney, once a harbour and port, ever since the 13th century.

The same shingle headland existed in 1617. It was the northern extremity of the Dungeness shingle and was known as Stone Point/End. In about pre-1800 shingle moved south from Dymchurch (to the north of Greatstone, south of Hythe) and started to form a barrier to the sea. This was know as Little Stone.

Silt started to build up behind this barrier and in 1839 a wall was built to exclude the sea just to the north of the present Littlestone, which accelerated this silting process. Around 1900 a further sea all was built that resulted in the gap between Greatstone and Littlestone being closed.

This was the beginning of Greatstone. And for shingle read 'stone' as in Greatstone.

 Map showing location of Greatstone in 1816