The town of Herne Bay took its name from the neighbouring village of
Herne, two kilometres inland from the bay. The word
herne, meaning a place on a corner of land, evolved from the Old English
hyrne, meaning corner. The village was first recorded in around 1100 as Hyrnan. The
corner may relate to the sharp turn in the minor
Roman road between Canterbury and
Reculver at Herne. One of the oldest buildings in Herne Bay is the late 18th-century inn The Ship, which served as the focal point for the small shipping and farming community that first inhabited the town. During this time, passenger and cargo boats regularly ran between Herne Bay and London and boats carrying coal ran from
Newcastle. From Herne, there was easy access by road to the city of Canterbury. The 1801 census recorded Herne Bay, including Herne, as having a population of 1,232. During the early 19th century, a smugglers' gang operated from the town. The gang were regularly involved in a series of fights with the preventive services until finally being overpowered in the 1820s. An
act of Parliament, the
Herne Parish Improvement Act 1833 (
3 & 4 Vict. c. cv), established Herne Bay and Herne as separate towns. Local landowner Sir Henry Oxenden donated a piece of ground for the site of the town's first church, Christ Church, which was opened in 1834. a narrow pulling boat about long. These boats were mainly used for fishing; however, with the advent of tourism and the decline of fishing, they became mainly used for pleasure trips. A document dated 1840 records the town as having the following schools, all of which are now defunct: Haddington (boarding school), Oxenden House, The British School, Prospect Place and Herne Street School. BBC scriptwriter Anthony Coburn, who lived in the resort, was one of the people who conceived the idea of a police box as a time machine for
Doctor Who. During World War II, a
sea-fort was built off the coast of Herne Bay and Whitstable, which is still in existence. The coastal village of Reculver, to the east of Herne Bay, was the site of the testing of the
bouncing bomb used by the "
Dam Busters" during the war. A shorter -long iron pier with a theatre and shops at the entrance was built in 1873. However, it was too short for steamboats to berth at. The pier proved to be unprofitable and in 1896 construction began on a replacement iron pier which would be longer and feature an electric tram. At , this pier was the second longest in the country, behind only the pier at
Southend-on-Sea. The town's heyday as a seaside resort was during the late Victorian era; the population nearly doubled from 4,410 to 8,442 between 1881 and 1901. Much of the resulting late Victorian seafront architecture is still in existence today. In 1910, a pavilion was added to the landward end of the pier. By 1931, the town's population had grown to 14,533. At the beginning of World War II, the army cut two gaps between the landward end of the pier and the seaward terminal as a counter-invasion measure. The pier's two gaps were bridged for pedestrians after the war. 1963 marked the end of steamboat services from the pier. In 1970, a fire destroyed the pier's pavilion and plans were made to replace it with a sports centre, which was opened in 1976 by former Prime Minister
Edward Heath. The centre section of the pier was torn down by a storm in 1978, leaving the end of the pier isolated in the sea. It has not been rebuilt due to the cost; however, residents and businesses in the town have campaigned for its restoration. The sports centre was demolished in 2012, leaving a bare platform. == Governance ==