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{{About|the village in England|people named Harty|Harty (surname)|the township in Ontario, Canada|Val Rita-Harty}}
{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=September 2022}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox UK place
|country = England
|static_image_name = Harty Church 1.JPG
|static_image_width = 220
|static_image_caption=Harty Church on the bank of the Swale
|coordinates = {{coord|51.364|0.891|display=inline,title}}
|official_name= Harty
|population = 
|civil_parish=[[Leysdown]]
|shire_district= [[Borough of Swale|Swale]]
|shire_county = [[Kent]]
|region= South East England
|constituency_westminster= [[Sittingbourne and Sheppey]]
|post_town=     [[Sheerness]]
|postcode_district = ME12 4
|postcode_area=      ME
|dial_code= 
|os_grid_reference=  TR023663
}}

'''Harty''' is a small hamlet in the [[civil parish]] of [[Leysdown]], on the [[Isle of Sheppey]], in the [[Borough of Swale|Swale]] district, in the county of [[Kent]], England. It consists of a few cottages, a church and a public house, the Ferry Inn (a {{Listed building England|1258222|grade=II|location=Kent|ps=}}).<ref>https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5409</ref>

==History==
The earliest recorded evidence of human occupation comes from a late [[Bronze Age]] hoard of axes, [[Chisel#Gouge|gouged]] bronze founder's appliances and metal.  The find has wider importance from the information it gives into methods used for casting in the late Bronze Age.{{sfnp|Historic England|463487}}  Evidence of Roman occupation also exists; finds of [[tesserae]], roof and flue tiles may indicate the site of a Roman villa.{{sfnp|Historic England|1316228}}

During the [[Middle Ages]] there were extensive salt workings.  Remains today consist of groups of ''salt mounds'' which are the waste left over from the process.{{sfnp|Historic England|463505}}  Park Farmhouse is a {{Listed building England|1258074|grade=II|location=Kent|ps=}} dating from the 16 century.

In 1798 [[Edward Hasted]] recorded that an earlier form of the name was 'Harteigh' which he presumes came from the Saxon Heord-tu, an island "filled with herds of cattle".{{sfnp|Hasted|1798}}  Other forms of the name have been Hertei (1086), Heartege (1100), Herteye (1242) and the modern Harty by 1610.<ref name=PP3>[[#{{harvid|Patience|Perks}}|Patience & Perks]] p. 3.</ref>  Hasted also noted that the islet was part of the [[Hundred (county division)|hundred]] of [[Faversham]] unlike the rest of the island of Sheppey which came within Milton Hundred.{{sfnp|Hasted|1798}}  There were also 4000 sheep and six cottages with 20 people, but of those 20 six were on permanent poor relief and another 3 occasionally so.{{sfnp|Hasted|1798}}

In 1961 the civil parish had a population of 55.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10193643/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Harty CP/AP through time|publisher=[[A Vision of Britain through Time]]|accessdate=19 May 2024}}</ref> On 1 April 1968 the parish was abolished to form [[Queenborough in Sheppey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/sheppey.html|title=Sheppey Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=19 May 2024}}</ref>

Harty is a few minutes walk from the Swale National Nature Reserve. Public footpaths run from Harty, along the southern extent of the reserve to the hamlet of [[Shellness]], and back around the reserve's northern perimeter to Harty.

==Church of St Thomas the Apostle==
{{main|Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Harty}}
The church of St Thomas the Apostle is a {{Listed building England|1258076|grade=II*|location=Kent}}  The date of founding cannot be fixed with certainty but the official listing dates it to late 11th or early 12th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CHURCH OF ST THOMAS THE APOSTLE, Leysdown - 1258076 | publisher= Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1258076 |access-date=2023-01-28 |website=historicengland.org.uk |language=en}}</ref> The church is unusual that there is no electricity or running water.  Lighting in the nave is provided by hanging paraffin lamps and by wall mounted lamps with reflectors.

==Ferries and bridge==
[[File:Saltworks in Harty Marshes - geograph.org.uk - 1023372.jpg|right|thumb| Saltworks in Harty Marshes Saltwork hillocks of medieval times, surrounded by cattle. Looking north towards Leysdown-on-Sea]]
Hasted also records the existence of the ferry across [[The Swale]] to [[Oare, Kent|Oare]] on the mainland.{{sfnp|Hasted|1798}}  The old ferry is reflected in the name of the adjacent Inn.  The rights to the ferry were, and still are, held by the landlord of the Ferry House Inn.{{sfnp|Taylor|2015}}  The southern, mainland, terminus was close to the villages of Oare and Uplees. Today the remains of the southern jetty are on the coast of the [[Oare Marshes]] nature reserve. A small cluster of buildings close by still bear the name Harty Ferry Cottages.  During [[World War I]] the [[Royal Engineers]] built a bridge across the Swale.<ref name=PP3/>{{efn|Patience & Perks refers to this as a [[bailey bridge]], but the bailey bridge was not developed until 1941.  The Swale at this point is {{convert|1|km|sigfig=1}} wide and so possibly some form of pontoon bridge is meant.}}  The last ferry boat fell to pieces around 1941 and has never been replaced,{{sfnp|Taylor|2015}} although the official list entry for the church mentions the ferry as being in use until 1946.{{sfnp|Historic England|1258076}}  An attempt to start a small hovercraft service between the Harty Ferry Inn and Oare Creek in 1970 by the then landlord, Ben Fowler, failed after a few days.

{{harvtxt|Hasted|1798}} records:
{{blockquote|... that there was formerly a bridge leading from hence [Harty] into Shepey, then called Tremseth bridge, which had been broken down by a violent inundation of the sea, and the channel thereby made so deep, that a new one could not be laid; and therefore the inhabitants of Shepey, who before repaired it, maintained in the room of it two ferry-boats, to carry passengers to and fro.
There is now no bridge here, and the fleet which divided this island from that of Shepey is become so very narrow, and has for several years past been so much filled up, that, excepting at high tides and overflow of the waters, Harty has ceased to have any appearance of an island.{{sfnp|Hasted|1798}}}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=The island of Harty {{!}} British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp276-283|access-date=2021-06-29|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref>

The "violent inundation" appears to have occurred in 1293.  The silting of the fleet rendering Harty a [[tidal island]] was complete by the time Hastead was writing in 1798.  A hundred years later (in 1893) during floods the fleet grew to be {{convert|100|yd}} wide but today is cut off from Windmill Creek by a causeway.<ref name=PP3/>

==In popular culture==

Author [[Russell Hoban]] repurposes the Isle of Harty as "Harts Ease" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel ''[[Riddley Walker]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.errorbar.net/rw/Places|title=Places - Riddley Walker Annotations|website=Errorbar|access-date=21 August 2022|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729025537/http://www.errorbar.net/rw/Places|url-status=live}}</ref>

==References==

===Notes===
{{notelist|notes=}}

===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Hasted
  | first = Edward
  | year = 1798
  | title = Parishes
  | url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62968
  | journal = The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent
  | publisher = Institute of Historical Research
  | volume = 6
  | pages = 276–283
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
<!-- Please keep the following in numeric order: they are all "English Heritage" -->
*{{PastScape
  | num = 463487
  | desc = Bronze hoard found c1873
  | mode=cs2
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
*{{PastScape
  | num = 463505
  | desc = Three salt mounds near Capel Gate
  | mode=cs2
  | fewer-links=yes
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}.  See also monuments numbers 463496, 463499, 463508, 463511, 463514, 463502, 463520, 463523, 463526, 463529, 463538 and 463517.
*{{National Heritage List for England
  | num = 1258074
  | desc = Park Farmhouse
  | grade = II
  | mode=cs2
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
*{{National Heritage List for England
  | num = 1258076
  | desc = Church of St Thomas the Apostle
  | grade = II*
  | mode=cs2
  | fewer-links=yes
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
*{{National Heritage List for England
  | num = 1258222
  | desc = Ferry House Inn
  | grade = II
  | mode=cs2
  | fewer-links=yes
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
*{{PastScape
  | num = 1316228
  | desc = Surface finds of Roman tesserae
  | mode=cs2
  | fewer-links=yes
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Love
  | first = Dickon
  | title = Full List of Bell Towers
  | website = Love's Guide to the Church Bells of Kent
  | url = http://kent.lovesguide.com/full_list.php
  | access-date = 20 September 2018
}}
<!-- Due to no date use<ref>[[#{{harvid|Patience|Perks}}|Patience & Perks]] p. 6.</ref> -->
*{{Citation
  | last1 = Patience
  | first1 = Colin
  | last2 = Perks
  | first2 = Hugh (ARICS)
  | title = St, Thomas the Apostle, Isle of Harty
  | publisher = published by the church
}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Pevsner
  | first = Nicholas
  | title = North-East and East Kent
  | work = Buildings of England
  | year = 1977
}}
*{{Citation
  | last = Taylor
  | first = Lisa
  | title = Back in the day
  | work = The Ferry House Inn
  | year = 2015
  | url = http://www.theferryhouseinn.co.uk/fhi-history.html
  | access-date = 10 October 2015
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [https://www.stthomasharty.org/ Church web site]
*{{Cite web|last=GENUKI|title=Genuki: Harty, Kent|url=https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/KEN/Harty|access-date=2021-06-29|website=www.genuki.org.uk|language=en}}

{{Swale}}

[[Category:Hamlets in Kent]]
[[Category:Former civil parishes in Kent]]
[[Category:Isle of Sheppey]]