Harty comes from the Old English ‘heorot’ meaning a ‘hart, stag’ with the Anglian
word ‘ēg’ as an ‘island’; therefore, ‘hart island’. The Domesday Book records Harty
as Herte.
Harty parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Thomas the
Apostle. The Normans built it in the late 11th or early 12th century, with the extension
of a north aisle and enlarged chancel 100 years later. Renovation and refurbishment
became necessary in the late 14th century. In 1798, Edward Hasted described the church
of St Thomas as a ‘small building, consisting of a body, chancel, and two side chantries,
with a pointed turret at the west end’. In 1880, Joseph Clarke sympathetically restored
the church, in collaboration with George Austin – the Canterbury diocesan architect.
