Littlebourne comes from the Old English ‘burna’ meaning a ‘river’ - in this instance
the Little Stour – with ‘lytel’ as ‘little, small’; therefore, a ‘little part of
the estate called Burna’. Several parishes and estates on the Little Stour river
share the name ‘Burna’ - Bekesbourne, Bishopsbourne and Patrixbourne - and as Littlebourne
split away first, it is thus ‘little’ in comparison with the then intact remainder
of the estate. The Domesday Book chronicles Littlebourne as Liteburne.
Littlebourne parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Vincent,
- Spain’s first Christian martyr. The Normans built the church early in the 12th
century, with much rebuilding and extending in the 100 years that followed. Around
1550, an unknown founder added a bell to the one already in the tower. Robert Mot
cast a bell in 1597, with Joseph Hatch adding another in 1610, and in 1650, William
Hatch hung a tenor. In 1800, Edward Hasted described St Vincent’s church as consisting
of ‘three isles and a chancel, having at the west end a low pointed steeple, in which
hang five bells. The church is kept very neat. It is a good sized building, and is
handsomely ceiled. The chancel is lostly, and has four narrow lancet windows on each
side, and three at the end; in the former are the remains of good painted glass,
and in the latter some years ago were the seven sacraments, &c. very handsomely done,
with rich borders, but they have been some few years since removed’. The Victorians
heavily restored the chancel in 1865 and added a new south porch in 1896. Charles
Carr added a treble in 1900 to complete six bells…. more
