Birchington, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands 3 1/2 miles W by S of Margate, and has a station on the L C. & D.R., 71 miles from London. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. It occupies a gentle declivity, with extensive prospects by sea and land, and is about a mile long. The parish is within the Cinque-Ports liberty of Dover, and comprises 1679 acres of land and 448 of foreshore and water; population of the civil parish, 1822; of the ecclesiastical, with Acol, 2050. The manor belonged from the beginning of the 15th century to the family of Quex, and passed by marriage in the time of Henry VII. to the Crispes. One of its owners, a distinguished Puritan, in 1657 was carried off from it to the Continent by the Royalist captain, Golding, and long kept prisoner at Ostend and Bruges. William III. frequently rested at the manor house on his excursions to Holland. The present mansion is modern, and bears the name of Great Quex. The living is a vicarage, annexed to the chapelry of Acol, in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £232 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church consists of nave, chancel, and aisles, with tower and spire, and on the north side of it is a chapel of the manor, containing some firie monuments and ancient brasses. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels.
