RAINHAM, a village and a parish in Milton district, Kent. The village stands near the London, Chatham, and Dover railway, 4 miles E S E of Chatham; and has a station on the railway, and a post office‡ under Sittingbourne. The parish extends to the Medway; and comprises 3, 608 acres of land and 260 of water. Real property, £6, 671. Pop. in 1851, 1, 155; in 1861, 1, 422. Houses, 270. The increase of pop. arose from the sale offreehold land for the erection of houses. The manor belongs to Sir R. Tufton, Bart. Berengrove House is the seat of W. Walter, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £520.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is partly of the12th century; has a nave, a N aisle, and two chancels; and contains a carved rood-screen, three stone sedilia, and monuments of the Tuftons. The burial vaults of the Earls of Thanet are beneath the N chancel. There are chapels for Independents and Wesleyans, a national school, and charities £22.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))