I am with Dave1 on this. I live in Whitfield and I have always classed it as a suburb of Dover. There is nothing villagey (is that a word) about it. I think it is all to do with snobbishness. Lots of people like to think that they live in a village and there is a sign just before the roundabout saying "drive carefully through the village" so they believe it.
I did live in a proper village for a time in the late 60's called Rowhedge in Essex. The road came in from Colchester and just petered out into the marshes, end of the line. It still had four pubs mind you and a thriving boatyard, a general store, greengrocers, butchers and a thriving Post Office. That to me was a village, everybody knew everybody. (not that that is a good thing in some respects
) and there was a church Howard.
Regards...Alec.