St Peters Village was in early times the largest village in the area, Broadstairs being a small fishing village on the coast. Thanet, which was an island in Roman times, is the major conurbation on the far north-east tip of Kent. It has a population of 122.660 (c.f. Maidstone 102,300 and Canterbury City 40,700).

In mediaeval times there were three late Norman churches, St John, St Laurence and St Peter serving what were to become the three towns of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs.

As Broadstairs developed during Victorian times, the residents living near the harbour at the bottom of the town petitioned for a chapel of ease to be provided. Holy Trinity was built in 1830 and became a separate parish in 1850.

Subsequent development has taken place largely "up the hill" around the ancient village of St Peter. The parish of St Peter-in-Thanet surrounds Holy Trinity and has more than three-quarters of the population of the present town, which is properly named Broadstairs and St Peter's. St Peters is a parish of two churches, St Peters and St Andrews. The church of St Andrews was built on a site in Reading St in 1911.