In the Domesday Book of 1086 East Stour and West Stour together were recorded as Stur or Sture,[REF] which had 73 households and administratively was in Gillingham Hundred [REF].
East Stour village was the original settlement in the parish, with study of field boundaries suggesting that encroachment on the "waste" or common land subsequently occurred eastwards, initially immediately east of the village, then further east in post-medieval times.