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Some Common Saxon Elements in Place-Names.

--ING, in the middle or end of a name means "sons of." A final ling is also a patronymic when the name ends in ol or ele. Thus Donnington is the settlement of the sons of Donna, and as Didling or Dudelyng in Sussex was derived from Dyddeling as descendants of Dyddel, this may throw some light on Detling in Kent.

Denu is a valley, and denn a retreat, but these often interchange in early forms with dun, which survives in our downs, and Down, the village.

Ford.--Here we have to distinguish between the Saxon ford , and fiord, which is purely coastal, and comes from our Norse marauders. Thus Ashford and Deptford come from quite different words.

Gr?f, in Saxon, is our grove, so that Ashgrove is pure Saxon, AEsc-graf.

Heall means a hall, or larger house, and may be simply the Latin aula, especially as place-names ending in hall are more frequent near Roman centres. But there is also halk, a corner or angle, which may suit other places. Our several Whitehalls would indicate the former word.

The Saxon HEATH survives unaltered in some cases, and also as Hoath, and perhaps as Hoth in Hothfield.

Hlinc, a slope, accounts for the Linch and Linchfield in Detling, a cultivated slope at the foot of the Downs. More common in Sussex. Golfers will recognise the word.

Hyrcg is our ridge, and names Eridge, and Colbridge, and Sundridge.

Ofer and Ora are difficult to distinguish in use, the former meaning bank or shore and the latter bank of a stream. Bilnor and Oare may come from the former, and Bicknor and Denover from the latter.

Ell, WIELL, WYLL, as a prefix, becomes our well.

Apuldor, as for appletree, remains in Appledore; Birce or beorc, perhaps in Bearsted, Birchington , Bekehurst.

Box, or byxe names many places, and early forms in Bex, Bix, Bux, are found both as to Boxley and Bexley, as with Boxhill and Bexhill in other counties.

Elm, borrowed from the Latin Ulmus. The Witch-elm, called Wice in Saxon, is indigenous, the other elm imported. We have Elmley, Elmstead, and Elmstone.

Crocc and Hweras are both Saxon for pots. Few know what pure Saxon they use when they talk of crockery-ware. Pottery was always a great industry from Sittingbourne to Sheppey, and the Romans appreciated and extended it. This may account for our Crokham Hill, Crockham, Crockhurst Street, and Crockshard.

Boley Hill, near Rochester, was undoubtedly a place of civic importance in very early days. It was a Danish meeting place corresponding to our shire-mote at Pennington Heath, and we may best trace its name to a Danish word which we still use--the bole of a tree. This is found in various parts of the Danish district of Lincolnshire, and the reference may be to the hill with a famous tree under which the court of the community was held. Trees, as well as cromlechs or great stones, were common landmarks in Saxon times--hence our various Stones in Kent. Others, however, consider it a corruption of Beaulieu, a name given by the Templars to the sites of their preceptories, and they instance a Boley or Bully Mead in East London, which belonged to the Templars. And others, because of its ancient legal associations, think it should be Bailey Hill, and refer us to the Old Bailey in London.

Farleigh.--On a clear day from Detling Hill we can see, not only Farleigh, near Maidstone, but Fairlight Church, near Hastings. In Saxon days and documents these place-names were the same, and so in Domesday , each is Ferlega, the passage or fareing through the pastures or leys, just as our modern Throwley is Trulega, with the scribes' variations in 12th century deeds of Thruleghe, Trulleda, Trulea, Thrulege, and Trudlege. Fairlight, therefore, is simply a modern corruption after a fashion which once corrupted the name of Leigh, near Tonbridge, which I find written Legh in 1435, Ligth in 1513, Lyghe in 1525, and Lyght in 1531. It has been suggested that the first syllable may indicate a personal name, Faer; but this seems less tenable.

Plaxtol, near Sevenoaks.--In many Kentish parishes the name Pleystole or Playstool clings to a piece of land on which miracle and other plays were acted when amusements had to be mainly home-grown. So at Lynsted, Herbert Finch, in the sixth year of Queen Elizabeth, bequeathed the "Playstall et Playstollcroft" fields. A variant of the name we may find in Plaistow, by Bromley. So in Selborne the Plestor is the old playground. Would that in all villages, especially since the looting of old commons, there might be a field thus consecrated to healthy recreation.

Tye.--"An extensive common pasture, such as Waldershare Tie and Old Wives' Lees Tie, and in a document of 1510, a croft called Wolves' Tie." I would add the places called Olantigh, one near Wye and another near Fordwich. Teig-r is really a Norse word meaning a piece of grassland, and when borrowed or used by the Saxons it became Tigar, Tig and Tey in such place-names as Mark's Tey.

Yokelet.--"An old name in Kent for a little farm or manor." Cake's Yoke is the name of a farm in Crundale. The yoke was a measure of land, probably such as one yoke of oxen could plough. Thus it corresponds to the Latin jugum, which means a yoke, and also a land measure. We have also West Yoke in Ash-next-Ridley; Yoklet, a borough in Waltham; land so named in Saltwood; and Ickham was of old Yeckham or Ioccham, from the A.S. yeok, a yoke of arable land. Iocclet is also given in the dictionary as a Kenticism for a small farm.

Bodge.--"A measure of corn, about a bushel." May this suggest a derivation for Bodgebury, some land with a cottage thereon, part of the old glebe of Detling?

Brent.--"The Middle-English word Brent most commonly meant burnt; but there was another Brent, an adjective which signified steep." Thus Brentwood in Essex is the same as Burnt Wood in Detling, but the Brents or North Preston near Faversham, and the Brent Gate therein refer to the steep contour of the land. A Celtic root, found in Welsh as bryn, a ridge, accounts for many such names as Brendon Hill, Birwood Forest, Brandon, a ridge in Essex, Breandown near Weston-super-Mare, and many Swiss and German names for steep places.

Court, or Court Lodge.--"The manor house, where the court leet of the manor is held." So in Detling we have East Court and West Court because, in default of a son, the old manor was divided between two co-heiresses in the 16th century. So we have as place-names North Court in Eastling, a Court at Street in Lympne, besides very many names of old houses, such as Eastry Court, Selling Court, etc.

Down.--"A piece of high open ground, not peculiar to Kent, but perhaps more used here than elsewhere. Thus we have Updown in Eastry, Hartsdown and Northdown in Thanet, Leysdown in Sheppey, and Barham Downs." I may add Puttock's Down , three villages called Kingsdown, Derry Downs, Downe, Hackemdown, Harble Down, Housedown, Kilndown, two Underdowns, besides probably some of the names ending in don. The Celtic dun, a hill-fortress, found all over Europe, is directly found in our Croydon, as in London, Dunstable, etc., and the Saxon extended its use, especially in the plural, to high ground, whether crowned with a fort or camp or not. Trevisa wrote in 1398 "A downe is a lytel swellynge or aresynge of erthe passynge the playne ground ... and not retchyng to hyghnesse of an hylle."

Fright or Frith.--"A thin, scrubby wood." So the Fright Woods near Bedgebury. And I learned to skate as a boy at the Fright Farm on Dover Castle Hill. This may account for Frith by Newnham, and possibly also for Frittenden.

Polder.--"A marsh: a piece of boggy soil." A place in Eastry now called Felder land was of old Polder land, and nearer Sandwich is a place still called Polders. Poll , Pool , Proll , is a common prefix to the name of a brook. Polhill, however, in Harrietsham, is more likely to come from the great Kent family of the Polhills. So we have Polhill Farm in Detling, and a Polhill was Vicar in 1779.

Rough.--"A small wood; any rough, woody place." So Bushy Rough in the Alkham Valley, where rises one of the sources of the river Dour. Hence also Rough Hills in Hernhill; Rough Common near Canterbury; and perhaps Roughway in Plaxtol, the wood being used in the Kentish rather than the usual sense.

Saltings, or Salterns, or Salts.--"Salt marshes on the sea-side of the sea-walls." A North Kent word, naming Saltbox, and Salterns, both in Sheppey, and probably Seasalter near Whitstable. We must find, however, if we can, another derivation for Saltwood Castle.

The Northmen in Kent.

Our forefathers in Kent should have our sympathy for the continuous state of alarm in which they were kept. In 832 Scandinavian pirates ravaged Sheppey. In 838 they won a battle in Merscware , and slew many in Canterbury. In 851 nine of their piratical ships were taken in battle at Londovic by AEthelstan, the under-king of Kent; but they remained to winter in Thanet for the first time, and in the same year 350 of their ships entered the Thames and took both Cantwaraburg and Lundenburg . In 853 the men of Kent, under the Alderman Ealchere, with the men of Surrey, fought in Tenet , but were worsted. Next year they wintered in Sceap-ige . In 865 the men of Kent tried to buy off the heathen invaders, who, however, ravaged all East Kent.

Then arose the great man, Alfred, who in 871 had eight battles with the Danes south of the Thames. In 885 they besieged Hrofceastre , but King Alfred relieved it, and the Danes took to their ships, having lost all their horses. In 893 two hundred and fifty Danish ships came to Limenemouth , took their fleet four miles up the river, and made a strong fort at Apuldore, while Hasting with 80 ships entered the Thames estuary, made a fort at Milton, and later one at Sceobyrig . In 969 Eadger orders Tenet land to be pillaged, and in 980 Thanet is overrun by the Danes. In 986 the bishopric of Hrofceastre was devastated. In 993 a fleet of nearly four hundred ships came to "Stone," which may be the one in the Isle of Oxney, or another near Faversham on the Watling Street, or another on the Swale, and went on to Sandwic, which was their chief southern haven, and embodies in its name the Scandinavian wic or bay .

In 994 Anlaf, King of Norway, and Sweyn, King of Denmark, with a fleet of nearly 500, failed to take London, but ravaged Kent and other counties. In 998 they sailed up the Medway estuary to Rochester, and there beat the Kentish army. In 1005 a fleet came to Sandwic and despoiled the country.

In 1007 England despaired, and paid a tribute of ?36,000, while Thurkell's army came to Sandwich and thence to Canterbury, where the people of East Kent bought peace at the cost of ?3,000, while the Danes spent the winter in repairing their ships. In 1012 they took Canterbury and martyred the Archbishop AElfheah, better known to us as S. Alphege. In 1013 Sweyn came again to Sandwich; but in 1014 Eadmund attacked the Danes in Kent, drove them into Sheppey, and met their leader in battle at AEglesforda . But in 1016 Cnut became King of all England, and to him in 1018 ?72,000 was paid in tribute.

In 1203 the body of S. Alphege was allowed by Cnut to be taken to Canterbury, and England remained a Danish province. In 1040 Harda-Cnut was brought from Bruges to succeed Harold as King, and landed at Sandwich. In 1046 Thanet was ravaged again by the Northmen; but in 1049 King Edward gathered a great fleet at Sandwich against Sweyn, and later this fleet lay at Daerentamutha . In 1051 King Edward's brother-in-law, Eustace, lost some followers in a fracas at Dofra .

But a great change was imminent, and England was to change one domination for another, and in 1052 Wilhelm visited King Edward the Confessor with a great host of Normans, and he exiled Earl Godwin, who came from Bruges to Noesse was driven back. Returning with his son Harold to Dungeness, they took all the ships they could find at Rumenea , Heda , and Folcesstane. Thence to Dofra and Sandwich, ending up with ravaging Sheppey and Middeltun . Then, in 1066, Harold dies in battle at Hastings, and William begins our Norman dynasty, Northmen being succeeded by Normans.

We have, however, certain records of their piratical visits, as at Deptford and Fordwich, where the termination is not the Anglo-Saxon ford, meaning a passage across a river, but the Norse fiord, a roadstead for ships. Deptford is the deep fiord, where ships could anchor close to the bank, and Fordwich, the smallest "limb" of the Cinque Ports, was once the port of Canterbury on the Stour, and gives us wic, the Norse for station for ships, a small creek or bay. So, in Kent, we have also from the same source Wick in Romney Marsh, Greenwich, Woolwich, and Sandwich. Inland, however, Wich or Wick, is an Anglo-Saxon borrowing from the Latin vicus, and means houses or a village.

The suffix "gate" may be either from the Saxon geat or the Scandinavian gata, but when we find Ramsgate, Dargate, Margate, Westgate, Kingsgate, Snargate, and Sandgate, all on the coast, while in Romney Marsh "gut" takes the place of "gate," as in Jervis Kut, Clobesden Gut, and Denge Marsh Gut, we may incline to a Scandinavian origin.

The Islands of Kent.

Most islands are attached portions of the nearest mainland, severed in prehistoric times by subsidence of the intervening soil and the action of strong currents. Thus even England is a portion of the Continent, as its fauna and flora proclaim, while Ireland was severed earlier still. Thus also the Isle of Wight is Hampshire. So our Kentish islands, now only two and neither now to be effectually circumnavigated, are practically absorbed in the mainland. "Sheppey, Thanet--what else?" most would say. Yet the early geographer Nennius, writing in the eighth century, has the following quaint passage:--"The first marvel is the Lommon Marsh" , "for in it are 340 islands with men and women living on them. It is girt by 340 rocks, and in every rock is an eagle's nest, and 340 rivers run into it, and there goes out of it into the sea but one river, which is called the Lemn." Truly a picturesque account of the numerous spots, where dry land first appeared in the shallow bay, and the countless sluices which intersected them.

Coming now to Sheppey, still an island, washed on the north by the estuary of the Thames, on the west by that of the Medway, and insulated by the Swale , crossed by a railway bridge and two ferries, the Celtic name is said to have been Malata, from Mohlt, a sheep, which the Saxon conquerors translated into Sceap-ige, Sheep Isle. It includes Elmley and Harty, once its little islands, and now peninsulas. An old name for Harty was Hertai, in which we may perhaps find the Saxon Heorat--stag, hart--as in Hartlip and Hartbourne, and ea--island. And Elmley, which island would simply denote the ley or glade in the forest in which elms were frequent, might here be Elm-isle. And another islet was Graven-ea, the grain island, on the opposite side of the Swale, now in the Faversham marshes.

Variations in the Spelling of Place-Names.

As a general rule the earliest form will be best and most likely to indicate why a name was given. To illustrate this source, both of information and of error, let me take two Kentish place-names--Westenhanger and Tenterden--giving the dates at which I find the various forms.

Westenhanger.--There is a Teutonic stem hanh which means to hang, with the Anglo-Saxon later forms, H?n, H?ng, from which we get our place names of hanger, Ongar, etc. A hanger is a wood or copse hanging on the side of a hill, and in Kent we find Betteshanger, Hangherst, and Ackhanger, as well as Westenhanger, concerning which Leland in his Itinerary writes of "Ostinhaungre ... of sum now corruptly called Westenanger." I find it spelled Ostrynghangre in 1274 and 1291, Westynghangre in 1343, Westingangre in 1346, Ostrynhangre in 1376 and 1381, Estynghangre in 1383, Westynganger in 1385, Ostynhangre in 1409, Ostrynghanger in 1468, Westinganger in 1472, Ostrynhanger in 1478, Westynghanger in 1511, Westhanger in 1519, and Oystenhanger in 1541. The changes of the first syllable illustrate the continuance of the Saxon Woest and the Norman Ouest until there is the reversion to the Saxon form in our West.

Tenterden, again, has a long list of variants. Probably its Saxon name indicated the place where the Theinwarden, or Thane's Warden or Guardian, looked after the rights and dues of various other dens where his swine had pannage and his tenants tended them. It is not mentioned in Domesday, as not of sufficient importance or taxability; but in 1190 I find it as Tentwarden, in 1252 as Thendwardenne and Tentwardenn, in 1255 as Tentwardene--this early and probably original form cropping up at intervals for another three hundred years. But in 1259 we get nearer to the extant form, as Tendyrdenn. In 1300 there is Tenterdenne, and in 1311 Tentredenne. From this point I take the spellings from the Archbishop's register of the institutions of its parish priests, and here the earliest record is Tenterdenne in 1311. Thenceforward Tent'denne and Tant'denn in 1322, Tentrdenn in 1327, Tenterdenne in 1333, Tentwardene in 1342, Tenterdenne in 1346, Tentwardyn in 1390, Tynterden in 1394, Tent'den in 1404, Tenterden in 1407, Tendirden in 1436, Tentwarden at various dates from 1464 to 1531, Tentreden in 1501 and 1525, Tenterden in 1511, 1523, 1539, and 1546, "Tentwarden alias Tenterden" in 1541, Tynterden in 1546, Tenterden in 1556, Tentwarden in 1560, Tenterden in 1571 and 1615, Tentarden in 1619, Tendarden in 1626, Tentarden in 1627 and 1636. Henceforth it is always Tenterden in the Lambeth Registers. These variations are the more noticeable as all occurring in one office, where one would have expected a settled and continuously adopted form, whereas in such documents as wills the testator, or even the scrivener who wrote the will, would have only the current or the personal idea as to the right spelling of a name.

Elsewhere I have given variations of the places we now know as Edenbridge, Cuxton, Shepherdswell, Bethersden, Eastry, Throwley, etc. One might add the cases of Freondesbyry , Frandesberie , Frenesbery, and Frendesbury, for our Frindsbury; of Estbarbrenge, Barmyage, Barmling, Barmelinge, and Berblinge, for our Barming; AEpledure , Apeldres , Apoldre , Apeltre, Appledrau, and Appuldre, for our Appledore; of Poedlewrtha , Pellesorde , and Pallesford, for our three Paddlesworths; Hertlepeshille , Herclepe, Hertelepe, and Harclypp , for our Hartlip; and Ok'olte , Ocholte, Sud-Acholt, Scottesocholt, and Nokeholde, for our Knockholt. The etymological advantage of going back is seen in the case of Ringwould, which becomes more intelligible when down to the time of Henry 3rd it was known as Ridelinwalde or Rydelynewelde , whereas not till 1476 do I find Ringeweld, and Ringewold in 1502.

Ecclesiastical Place-Names.

There are not so many as one would expect considering the importance and power and the possessions of the Church in Kent. Taking some as they occur to me, there are All Hallows, in Sheppey, so named from the dedication of its church to All Saints'. The Latin Sanctus and the Teutonic Helige are the same in meaning. So we have, too, in Lower Halstow the Saxon helige stow--the holy place. In a list of Jack Cade's Kentish followers, in 1450, the parish of Omi Scor is mentioned, which puzzled me for a moment until I saw it was a contraction for Omnium Sanctorum, All Saints'.

S. Margaret's Bay and S. Margaret's at Cliffe retain their Norman dedications. The church originally belonged to S. Martin's Priory at Dover. Lillechurch House, near Higham, marks the site of the old Priory of Higham. The Hundred of Lesnes is the district once attached to the Augustinian Abbey founded in 1178 by the Chief Justice and Regent Richard de Lucy.

Brenzett, in Romney Marsh, does not suggest in its present form either a Celtic or a Saxon origin; but as its old church was dedicated to S. Eanswith, a popular Saxon Saint, also commemorated in the S. Mary and S. Eanswith of the original church at Folkestone, it has been suggested that Brenzett has been evolved in process of time out of Eanswith. Bresett and Brynsete are variants of the place-name. There is also the parish of S. Mary in the Marsh hard by. Newchurch, also in the Marsh, is Neucerce in Domesday , but as there is no Norman work in the church, which is of Early English architecture, it is supposed that shortly before Domesday an older church had been pulled down. Then and still it gives its name to the Hundred of Newchurch in the Lathe of Limea or Limowart, which was re-named Shepway in the time of Henry the Third. Also in the Marsh is Dymchurch, earlier Demchurche. But earlier still it is said to have been called simply Dimhus or Dimhof, which would mean in Saxon the dark or hiding place; so that "church" may be a later addition to an old name. Eastchurch, in Sheppey, was, and is, the easternmost church in the island.

Place-Names from Persons.

We have seen how common in Kent are place-names derived from patronymics of the name of a family or clan, such as Kennington, the settlement of the Cennings, but there are others, mainly more modern, which include the name of an individual, who usually would be the lord of the manor. Thus some have imagined that Swingfield, near Dover, is Sweyn's Field, as if the Saxons would have named a place after their piratical enemy. The older forms, Swonesfelde and Swynefelde, would more naturally point to swine, the keeping of which was the chief pastoral pursuit of the Saxons in the dens and clearings of the forest. Queenborough, or Quinborowe, however , was named by Edward the Third in honour of Queen Philippa in 1368. Rosherville is very recent, being named after Jeremiah Rosher, lord of the manor in the nineteenth century. Sutton Valence was Town Sutton until 1265, when it became part of the possessions of William de Valence, half-brother of Henry the Third.

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