A History of Murston

A History of Murston is a photographic guide through a century of change, revealing the true character of a community that has grown from a small agricultural parish into a burgeoning industrial area. Between 1845 and 1880, the industrial village of Lower Murston was built by entrepreneur George Smeed in a gradual conversion of ancient farmland into brickfields.

By 1875, George Hambrook Dean, a farmer who married Smeed’s eldest daughter, set up the Smeed Dean Company in partnership with his father-in-law, producing cement as well as bricks by 1900. But times changed and, in 1930, the parish of Murston, established in Saxon times, was disbanded and the community became a part of Sittingbourne. The village of Lower Murston was demolished in the 1960s and the inhabitants were re-housed in a new Murston estate leading off Tonge Road. Nowadays, houses are still being built and the town is expanding.