1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Herne Bay

HERNE BAY, a seaside resort in the St Augustine’s parliamentary division of Kent, England, 8 m. N. by E. of Canterbury, on the South Eastern and Chatham railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 6726. It has grown up since 1830, above a sandy and pebbly shore, and has a pier 3/4 m. long. The church of St Martin in the village of Herne, 11/2 m. inland, is Early English and later; the living was held by Nicholas Ridley (1538), afterwards Bishop of London. At Reculver, 3 m. E. of Herne Bay on the coast, is the site of the Roman station of Regulbium. The fortress occupied about 8 acres, but only traces of the south and east walls remain. In Saxon times it was converted into a palace by King Ethelbert, and in 669 a monastery was founded here by Egbert. The Early English church was taken down early in the 19th century owing to the encroachment of the sea, and parts of its fabric were preserved in the modern church of St Mary. But its twin towers, known as the Sisters from the tradition that they were built by a Benedictine abbess of Faversham in memory of her sister, were preserved by Trinity House as a conspicuous landmark.