SITTINGBOURNE, a market town in the Faversham par liamentary division of Kent, England, on a navigable creek of the Swale, 444 m. E.S.E. of London by the Southern Ry. Popula tion (1931) 20,175 with Milton. It consists principally of one long street (the Roman Watling street) and the northern suburb of Milton Regis, a separate urban district (pop. 7,481), celebrated for its oysters, the fishery of which used to employ a large num ber of the inhabitants. Brick and cement making is an important industry employing about 6,000 hands, and there are corn and paper mills and a jam factory. The export trade in corn and import trade in coal is considerable. An earthwork known as Castle Rough, in the marshes below Milton, was probably the work of Hasten the Dane in 892, and Bayford castle, a mile dis tant, occupies the site of one said to have been built in opposi tion by King Alfred. Tong castle is about 2 m. E. of Sitting bourne. It consists of a high mound surrounded by a moat, and is said to have been erected by Hengest. Fragments of masonry
exist about the mound. The story of the founding of the castle resembles that connected with the city of Carthage. Vortigern is said to have granted Hengest as much land as an ox-hide could encompass, and the hide being cut into strips the site of Tong castle was accordingly marked out. The same tradition attaches to Tong castle in Shropshire. Tradition also asserts, according to the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, that it was in Tong castle that Vortigern met Rowena, Hengest's daughter, and became so enamoured of her as to resign his kingdom to her father. In the time of Richard II. Tong castle belonged to Edmund Mortimer, earl of March.
Sittingbourne is mentioned in Saxon documents in 989 and frequently in contemporary records of the 13th and 14th cen turies. The first charter was obtained in 1573 ; a second in 1599.