Sandwich is a historic town in Kent, south-east England. It was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original mediaeval buildings.
The Port of Sandwich is no stranger to odd events in English history, and it was in the year 1255 that the first captive Elephant was landed in England. The prize beast arrived at Sandwich quay side, delivered as a gift to the English monarch Henry IIIrd, from the French king, and then curiously taken on foot to the kings zoo at the Tower of London. The journey through Kent is reported to have proceeded without incident, except when in passing a bull in a field adjacent to the roadside the Bull took umbrage to the great beast passing and attacked it whereby in one move the poor animal was thrown by the elephant and killed outright. (Hidden Kent: Alan Major).
In 1385 before Sandwich became a Cinque Port the ancient Saxon town of Stonar located on the opposite bank of the Wantsum estuary, at the mouth of the river Stour, had already become well established, and remained a place of considerable importance until it disappeared almost without trace in the c14.
Stonar was also sometimes called Lundenwic, indicative of its extensive trade with London, a position contested fiercely by Sandwich which was in time to replace Stonar as the major port from about 1365, when Stonar was flooded, and Sandwich adopted the name Lonenwic for a while.
It was in the year of 1365 Stonar was overwhelmed by the sea in a great storm. Exactly 20 years later the town was burnt to the ground in a raid by the French. An earlier battle known to have occurred on these shores was fought at Stonar by the Saxon king Edmund Ironside against the forces of Toekill the Dane in 1009, and an exceptional victory for the home team.
In 1457 after four years of uneasy peace in England the king presided over a wasting realm, with feudal barons lauding over the population of the north and the west of the realm, and thus the French sent a raiding party to Kent burning the Cinque Port of Sandwich to the ground.
A force of 4000 men form Honfleur, under the command of marshal de Breze came ashore to pillaged the town, in the process murdering the mayor, John Drury. It thereafter became an established tradition which survives to this day, that the Mayor of Sandwich wears a black robe in mourning for this ignoble deed. The Battle of Sandwich is sometimes said to have been fought in 1460, but although the rebel English raiding party did land here, over 30,000 local supporters are said to have accompanied Warwick and his party to London, offering support to his cause during the Wars of the Roses.
Sandwich was later to gain significantly from the skills brought to the town by many Dutch settlers, who were granted the right to settle by queen Elizabeth I in 1560. These Dutch settlers, brought with them techniques of market gardening, and were responsible for growing the first English celery. The Huguenot refugees also brought over Dutch architectural techniques that are now as much a part of Kent as the thatched cottage. In addition techniques of silk manufacture were imported enhancing the Kent cloth industry.
The local economy has benefited from significant investment by Pfizer, a US pharmaceuticals company, which has built a research & development centre near Sandwich, employing over 3,000 people, but the laboratory experiments witnessed at the site have aroused resentment and suspicion by animal rights activists who doubt the sincerity of this multi- national giant. Viagra, Pfizer's treatment for erectile dysfunction, was discovered here.
Sandwich has a world-class golf course.
The town's connection with the snack of the same name is that John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich allegedly invented it; see his entry for further details.
There is another village in Kent called Ham Street, or just Ham. A road sign[1] some miles away pointing to both villages, thus:
has had to be replaced several times because people keep stealing it.
There is a bird observatory at Sandwich Bay.