Reculver - Governance

Governance

In the 10th century charter by which King Eadred gave Reculver to the archbishops of Canterbury, the boundary of the mainland part of the estate was about the same as those for the parishes of Reculver, Hoath and Herne, and the estate included part of the Isle of Thanet. In 1086, Domesday Book named Reculver as a hundred, meaning that it was then the meeting-place for the hundred court. As well as Reculver itself, the hundred of Reculver included Hoath and Herne, and it may also have included the neighbouring area of Thanet. The parishes of Herne, to the west of Reculver, and St Nicholas-at-Wade on the Isle of Thanet were created from parts of Reculver parish in 1310, though these new parishes continued to have a subordinate relationship with the parish of Reculver into the 19th century, while Hoath remained a perpetual curacy of Reculver. By 1377, the local hundred was named after Bleangate, in a detached part of Chislet parish, and, by the 17th century, it included Chislet, Herne, Hoath, Reculver, Stourmouth, Sturry and Westbere.

Reculver parish was recorded as tithings – known in Kent as "borghs" – under various names in Bleangate hundred for the purposes of the Hearth Tax, levied between 1662 and 1689. In 1663, it was divided into Reculver Street borgh and Brookgate borgh, which were recorded under a parish heading for Reculver, together with Hoath borgh. In 1673, Reculver borgh and Brookgate borgh were recorded under a heading for Herne parish, and Hoath was recorded under its own parish heading. However, borghs in Kent, and tithings generally, were related to the manorial and hundredal administration of the county, rather than to the parishes in which they lay. By the time of the Hearth Tax, Bleangate hundred had been divided into two half hundreds, and the constable of the northern half hundred was chosen at the court leet of the manor of Reculver, though by 1800 this court was usually held at Herne.

Reculver's parish boundary, enclosing an area of about 2 square miles (5 km2), remained the same for both ecclesiastical and civil purposes from its division in 1310 until 1934. Included were Reculver, Hillborough, Bishopstone and Brook (now Brook Farm), and the parish extended west almost to Beltinge, in Herne parish, and to Broomfield in the south-west – where the boundary with Herne parish ran along the centre of the main thoroughfare, now Margate Road – and it was bounded in open country on the south-east and east by the parish of Chislet. In 1934, the civil functions of the parish were merged into the civil parish of Herne Bay. Conversely, Reculver is now in an electoral ward of the same name, in the local government district of Canterbury, which includes Beltinge, Bishopstone, Brook Farm, Hillborough and most of the eastern part of the town of Herne Bay. This ward has three seats on Canterbury City Council, and, in the local elections of 2011, these seats were won by the existing holders Jennie Edwards, Gillian Reuby and Ann Taylor, all Conservative.

At the national level, Reculver is in the English parliamentary constituency of North Thanet, for which Roger Gale (Conservative) has been MP since 1983. In the general election of 2010, Gale won 22,826 votes (52.57%), giving him a majority of 13,528. Labour won 9,298 votes (21.42%), the Liberal Democrats 8,400 (19.35%), and the United Kingdom Independence Party 2,819 (6.5%). For European elections, Reculver is in the South East England constituency. MEPs elected in the European election of 2009 were Daniel Hannan, Richard Ashworth, Nirj Deva and James Elles (Conservative); Sharon Bowles and Catherine Bearder (Liberal Democrats); Nigel Farage and Marta Andreasen (United Kingdom Independence Party); Caroline Lucas (Green Party; replaced by Keith Taylor in 2010); and Peter Skinner (Labour).