Swine, Salt and Seafood: a Case Study of Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Settlement in North-East Kent
SWINE, SALT AND SEAFOOD: A CASE STUDY
OF ANGLO-SAXON AND EARLY MEDIEVAL
SETTLEMENT IN NORTH-EAST KENT
TIM ALLEN
Archaeological works undertaken during the summer of 1999 by the
Canterbury Archaeological Trust in Chestfield, a mile east of
Whitstable, exposed the remains of ditched enclosures dating to the
Late Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods. Animal bones, principally
of pig, along with other domestic refuse, including large quantities of
datable potsherds, were recovered, suggesting that the enclosures
were animal pens (almost certainly swine pens). The Chestfield enclosures
were situated close to dwellings which probably comprised the
eastern part of the embryonic settlement. The results of documentary
research were consistent with the archaeological findings in showing
that Chestfield originated as a small, impoverished Mid to Late
Anglo-Saxon settlement (then apparently unnamed) which eventually
developed into a prosperous manorial estate.
The archaeological works exposed part of a droveway which led
into the enclosure complex and which separated it from the dwellings.
The droveway appeared to represent the northern termination of
Radfall Road, an ancient road surviving to the north and east as an
extensive but only partly intact embanked woodland track (Map 1).
Archaeological and documentary evidence suggest that the Chestfield
drove road/Radfall Road, along with the Radfall, another embanked
woodland trackway, formed part of an Anglo-Saxon and early
medieval road system, and that these roads may have originated as
Anglo-Saxon droveways leading from small agricultural settlements
such as Chestfield to the swine pastures of the Blean. It may also be
inferred from documentary evidence that the Radfall served as a
major salt way, as well as for the transport of seafood, and that many
of the other drove roads extending south to the Blean from the North
Kent Coast were similarly used.
Radfall Road enters the Blean south of Chestfield at Broomfield
Gate, from which point it survives variously as an embanked way, a
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TIM ALLEN
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Map 1 Churchwood Drive, Chestfield: site location in relation to the
Blean area.
modern tarmacked road, a footpath and an embanked forest trail.
Between Chestfield and Broomfield Gate, two linear embanked tracts
of woodland, Rabbit Shaw and Crow Park (see below), appear to
represent surviving sections of the old drove way. South of
Broomfield Gate, Radfall Road extends as far as Gypsy Corner,
where it turns west, crossing the parish of Blean and then continuing
as an embanked way into North Bishopsden Wood, beyond the main
Canterbury/Whitstable Road, a total distance of approximately seven
miles. From a place called Crooked Oak in Bishopsden Wood it is no
longer traceable. The Radfall runs north-east from Park Farm at Tyler
Hill through Thornden Wood towards Herne via Bleangate.
Hackington Road, a modern road, leads to Canterbury to the north
and also joins Radfall Road with the Radfall. However, modern
Hackington Road follows the approximate route of a still clearly
visible earlier embanked way.
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SWINE, SALT AND SEAFOOD
The archaeological and historical background
The archaeological site at Chestfied lies on the Bogshole Levels,
immediately north of the Blean, a largely wooded London Clay
upland which in turn lies north of the Stour valley. The levels were
long considered to be of low archaeological potential but have been
shown by recent investigations to have been widely occupied during
the later Bronze and Iron Age, usually in the form of small, shortlived
agricultural settlements (Allen 1999b). Settlement activity
appears to have declined dramatically during the Later Iron Age (c.
300 BC to c.150 BC) but resumed on a large scale during the Late preRoman
Iron Age (c.150 BC - AD 43). However, an extensive settlement,
which was continuously occupied from the Late Bronze Age to
the Early Roman period, occupied high ground on the western margin
of the levels just south of Whitstable, and a Late Bronze/Early Iron
Age settlement, subsequently re-occupied during the Late Iron Age,
was situated at Highstead, on the eastern margin of the levels
(Macpherson-Grant, forthcoming). During the period immediately
following the Roman invasion, the levels were apparently largely
depopulated.
Little evidence exists for the re-occupation of the levels during the
Early Anglo-Saxon period. During the Late Anglo-Saxon period,
Chestfield was probably part of a 'multiple estate', then of a 'fragmented
estate' (Reynolds 1999, 83-4). Up to and beyond the Norman
invasion, it almost certainly comprised the unnamed part of the ecclesiastical
parish of Swalecliffe (see below), referred to as a 'yoke' in the
following:
Vitalis also holds 1 yoke from the Bishop in this Hundred; he has ½
plough in lordship, with 4 smallholders [Latin 'bordarii'] who pay 6s.
Land for \/2 plough. Woodland, 10 pigs. Value before l 066 and later
10s, now 20s. Wulfsi held it from King Edward. (Domesday Book
1086, 5, 140).
The Hundred referred to here is Whitstable Hundred. The modern
town of Whitstable was originally known as 'Whitstable Street', a
name derived from its hundred name. It is noteworthy, and again
indicative of its Anglo-Saxon origin (or earlier), that the Radfall
comprises part of the boundary between the adjacent Hundreds of
Whitstable and Reculver (Morris 1983, Map 2).
Following Odo's disgrace in 1088, Swalecliffe appears to have
reverted to the crown, to be sold off in parts, the unnamed estate at
Chestfield being one (Hasted 1800, VIII, 521 ). During the Early
Medieval period and beyond, the Chestfield estate continued to be
divided into four farms, with Chestfield Manor House, at present a
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TIM ALLEN
private house of fourteenth-century origin (West 1988, 130, 139)
probably marking the centre of the manorial estate. One farm appears
to have been attached to the manor house itself, the others being
attached to Balsar Street Farmhouse, Highgate Farmhouse and
Bodkin Farmhouse. It is possible that these four medieval/post
medieval farms represent the same holdings worked by the four
'bordari' during the reign of Edward the Confessor. If so, a remarkable
example of long-term continuity in terms of land division is
evident.
Wallenberg (1934, 493) proposes a Norman origin for the name
'Chestfield' (Cestevile, possibly 'Castle Town'), other medieval
variants being Cestuill (1242-3), Chesteuille (1278) and Cestevile
(1292). In 1346 Chesteuille appears in assessments made for the
investiture of the Black Prince (Greenstreet 1876, 116). In the reign
of Richard ll (1377-1399) the property passed to the Roper family
and in 1523 was described in John Roper's will (see above). It
remained with the Roper family until 1723 when, on the death of
Katherine Roper, it passed to her husband, William Strickland. On
his death in 1788 it passed to Sir Edward Dering and Sir Rowland
Wynne (Hasted 1800, VIII, 522).
Late medieval and post medieval Chestfield had a droveway (today
called 'the Drove'), which was used to take livestock to the woodland
pastures of the Blean via Shrub Hill and Broomfield Gate. However,
the droveway further to the east exposed during excavation (see
below) and the Radfall Road, of which it probably formed part,
almost certainly represent an earlier route to the Blean, as well as the
highway to Canterbury, via Hackington Road, as previously discussed.
Radfall Road also led to the suggestively named Chestfield
Revel, 650m to the south, 'revel' denoting a parish festival, feast or
fair.
Rabbit Shaw, a long, thin area of woodland lying immediately
south-east of the Area 1 excavation, contains two parallel earth banks
and two associated ditches extending north and downwards from the
Blean upland. The form of these structures and the fact that they lie
on the extrapolated line of Radfall Road north of Broomfield Gate if
it is extended northward suggest that Rabbit Shaw originated at part
of Radfall Road. The same origin may be ascribed to Crow Park,
another long, thin tract of woodland containing two parallel earth
banks which lies on the same line 500m to the south.
The name 'Radfall Road' is probably relatively modern, deriving
from 'Rodfall', meaning 'a rod's clearance of woodland' (Parish and
Shaw 1888, 125). However, a map dated 1718 (Shire 1998, 12) names
the western part of Radfall Road as Mearencold Lane. Whatever its
original name, documentary evidence suggests that the road predates
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SWINE, SALT AND SEAFOOD
the banks which enclose it, embankment having taken place largely in
the thirteenth century during disputes over property rights between,
amongst others, St Sepulchre's Priory and Eastbridge Hospital in
Canterbury (Wheaten and Maylam 1988; Holmes and Wheaten 2002,
32-3). This evidence is consistent with the original great size of the
earth banks associated with Radfall Road, the Radfall and Hackington
Road, as such sizable banks are considered to be typical of the
medieval period (Rackham 1986, 98-100). Also suggestive of an
ancient origin for Radfall Road is the fact that, south of Broomfield
Gate, the road delineates the ecclesiastical parish boundary between
Swalecliffe and Thornden Manor, the latter being a detached part of
Dunkirk Ville (see below).
Near the modern village of Blean an embanked section of Radfall
Road passes by Amery Court Farm, where the remains of a medieval
moated manor survive as a ditch-enclosed tennis court. The name
'Amery Court' is said to derive from 'L' Amery-court', this being 'a
corruption for the almonry court, from its being given in aims to St.
Sepulchre's nunnery' (Hasted 1800, VIII, 524). An alternative
suggestion is that it was so called because the Cathedral Almoner was
responsible for managing the surrounding estate (Holmes and
Wheaten 2002, 55, 57). The latter is consistent with Hasted's observation
(I 800, VIII, 525) that 'there are within the boundaries of this
parish, four several districts of land, which are reputed to be within
the liberty and ville of Christ-Church, in Canterbury, and to have
been so time out of mind'.
Hasted ( 1800, III, 620) was almost certainly referring to the
Radfall's eastern extension beyond the Blean when he stated, in
reference to Ridgeway Farm (which lies east of Herne), 'by this farm,
which from hence acquired its name, the High Road from Canterbury
to Reculver led in ancient times' (the Radfall probably joined the old
Roman Road between Reculver and Canterbury, north of Maypole).
Similarly, a deed dated 1730 states ' ... this Quit Rent is mentioned to
be paid by the Roper Heirs for 160 acres of Land lying between
Swackliffe Highway & the old Highway called the Rod Fall ... '
(Canterbury Cathedral Archive, Box 50). A survey of the Archbishop's
woods dated 1759 discusses 'a slip of wood ... formerly the
road from Hearn to Canterbury, which is now called the Rodfall; this
old road goes between this wood and a wood called Thornden'
(Lambeth Palace, TS 5).
Here we see the Radfall, still remembered as a highway rather than
a woodland track, being used to define parcels of land during the
eighteenth century. However, both the Radfall and Radfall Road had
previously been used to delineate many of the local parish boundaries
(see below) and probably, before the re-introduction of Christianity
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TIM ALLEN
to South-East Britain, the local boundaries of the Kentish kings' royal
estates. In the same year or thereabouts (605) that St Augustine's
Abbey was established outside the walls of Canterbury, King
Ethelbert issued a charter (Augusta regia) granting 'the vill [estate}
by name Sturyagao [Sturry], otherwise called Chisteley [ChisletJ' to
the monastery (Davis 1934, l 0), indicating that at that time Sturry and
Chislet comprised a single royal estate. The Radfall appears to have
delineated the western boundary of that estate, assuming that this
boundary corresponded with the western boundaries of the parishes
into which the estate was subsequently divided. If the Radfall marked
the original western boundary of the undivided estate of Sturry, it may
be inferred that it necessarily marked the eastern boundary of the
adjacent royal estate of Blean (see below) before its subsequent
subdivision into the parishes of Blean and Dunkirk Ville.
As previously mentioned, the western part of the embanked section
of Radfall Road terminates at Crooked Oak in North Bishopsden
Wood, west of the main Canterbury-Whitstable road. The wooded
area here lies in Dunkirk Ville, which was a detached part of Westgate
Parish, itself attached to Staplegate Borough, now called 'the Borough'
in Canterbury, and said to have been a pagan 'oratory' granted by
King Ethelbert to St Augustine on his arrival as a sanctuary (Hasted
1801, I, 292-3; Davis 1934, 5). Dunkirk Ville, along with the rest of
the Blean, probably originated as part of a single, large royal estate in
the early Anglo-Saxon period (Hasted 1800, IX, 3-4 ), but parts of the
estate were subsequently granted by King Ethelbert to Augustine,
later to be attached to St Augustine's Abbey. Later, in 7 91, King Offa
granted other parts, called 'Bocholt' and 'Blean Heanric', to Chist
Church Priory (Hasted 1800, IX, 4). The origin of 'Heanric' in the
latter is unknown but 'Bocholt' probably originated as 'Bookholt',
otherwise 'wood held by royal charter' (see Gelling 1993, 196, 267).
It is possible that 'Bocholt' represents the origin of 'Bogshole', a
name surviving now only in the names of two roads, both called
Bogshole Lane and both leading to the Blean. During the latter part of
Henry II' s reign ( 1154-1189), the parts of Dunkirk Ville now known
as South and North Bishopden Wood were granted to the Archbishop
of Canterbury (Hasted 1800, IX, 3), this probably explaining the
origin of the woods' names.
The Blean remains the second largest wooded area in Kent, with many
names within it (North Bishopsden Wood, Ellenden Wood, Thornden
Wood, Denstroude Wood, Bossenden Wood and Denstead Wood)
suggesting its use as swine pasture during the Anglo-Saxon period
(Everitt 1976, 16-19). Indeed, the first written appearance of the
name 'Blean' (in respect of a grant of land for swine pasture to Thanet
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SWINE, SALT AND SEAFOOD
Minster) occurs in Anglo-Saxon Charter B.C.S. 141 (AD 724) as:
'pascum porcorum ... on Blean anum wrede' (Holmes and Wheaten
2002, 133).
In order to gain access to the swine pastures of North Bishopsden
Wood, the swineherds of the detached part of Dunkirk Ville would
have had to drive their pigs for some seven miles through land in the
parish of Blean not held by the monks of the Priory or the Archbishop.
Given the thirteenth-century date for Rad fall Road's banks, and
assuming that the banks were built to such a great height in order to
confine livestock to the road, it would appear that the use of swine
pastures (and associated rights of pannage) may have continued on
the Blean far longer than elsewhere in Kent. Alternatively, and
assuming that the swine pastures had fallen out of use by that time, it
may be suggested that the earth banks were erected to prevent
unauthorised access by cart to the timber resources for which the
woodlands later came to be highly valued.
Initial royal and subsequent ecclesiastical control of the Blean
during the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods (Hasted 1800, IX, 3)
would appear to explain the presence of entrances into the Blean
known as 'gates' (Broomfield Gate, Dargate, Bleangate, Sweechgate,
Clangate, Cheesecourt Gate, Boyden Gate and possibly 'The Gate' on
Watling Street), these probably being officially-designated entrances
to the Blean originally associated with rights of pannage (for
example, Boyden Gate is approached from the east by at least five
drove roads: Gilling Drove, Tipper Drove, May Drove, Snake Drove
and Fowler's Drove). It would appear that the use of gated entrances
into the Blean survived into the medieval period and perhaps beyond.
Hasted (1800, VIII, 530) makes the following observation: 'In the
rentals of the manor of Blean, there is mention made of the payment
of gate silver (a custom not often met with). It seems to be payment
made by the tenants of the manor, for the repair of the gates leading to
and from the Blean, to prevent their cattle from straying and being
lost'.
As previously mentioned, it was also proposed by Hasted ( 1800, IX,
3-4) that the Blean originally comprised a single large royal estate. If
so, the approximate boundaries of the Blean as a whole were probably
marked by the positions of the gates. Hasted's proposal is consistent
with the evidence of Anglo-Saxon Charter B.C.S. 496 (AD 858), in
which it is stated that part of the Blean which had clearly not been
granted to an ecclesiastical body was a 'silba regis' (king's wood). In
Charter B.C.S 496 (AD 858), we read of a royal grant of property
described as 'et Febresham i sealtern et ii wena gang mid cyninges
wenum to Blean them wiada' ('at Faversham, one salthouse (works?]
and two wagons to go with the king's wagon into the Blean '). The use
123
TIM ALLEN
of the gates as a means of controlling access into the Blean is
consistent with the following statement in Anglo-Saxon Charter
B.C.S. 507 (AD 863), in which the Blean, or part of it, is referred to a
'regis communione' (king's common):
... a salt evaporation works and seasalt enclosure, with attached one
cote [as in cottage and perhaps the origin of the word 'coterell'], in
that place called Herewic, and passage for four waggons to the king's
wood, for the six weeks after Pentecost, in the place where other men
enter the wood held as king's common.
While access to the swine pastures of the Blean for outlying
Anglo-Saxon settlements was the primary purpose of Radfall Road
and Radfall, the transportation of salt and, as discussed in more detail
below, seafood, were almost certainly additional (and economically
vital) uses. It is noteworthy in this respect that the Chislet Marshes,
west of the Wants um Channel and immediately east of Herne had the
biggest concentration of saltpans when Domesday Book was compiled.
Whitstable ('Nortone') was the third biggest producer (after
the 'royal vill' of Milton Regis). It may therefore be inferred that the
Radfall was a major saltway.
Salt production appears to have continued on the levels north of the
Blean into the medieval period and beyond. Archaeological
excavation of two of the many mounds situated on the Seasalter
Levels, west of Whitstable, showed them to be the remains of
medieval salt works predating the early fourteenth century
(Thompson I 956, 44-67), and it is likely that some or many of the
other mounds in that area have a similar origin. For salt not used
locally for, amongst other things, the salting of pig meat (see below),
the principal market was probably at Salt Hill in Canterbury (Urry
1967, 108). Large-scale salt production on the Seasalter Levels
ceased in 1325, when the salt-marsh margin necessary for such
production was destroyed by the construction of a sea wall following
a series of great storms (Dugdale 1772, 20; L. C. 1887, i, 139-49).
It may also be assumed that the Radfall Road and the Radfall were
just two of many such drove and/or salt ways and that their survival
is due to their use as boundaries and their subsequent embankment in
order to enclose medieval ecclesiastic woodland holdings. Indeed, by
the end of the thirteenth century, the two roads may have been
redundant in regard to their original use. Elsewhere in Kent, the
large-scale practice of pannage had all but ceased by the end of the
eleventh century as more efficient methods of pig keeping were
adopted (Rackham 1986, 122). The practice may have persisted
rather longer on the Blean but by the thirteenth century the woodlands
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SWINE, SALT AND SEAFOOD
were certainly more important as a source of timber, mostly as
faggots for fuel (Holmes an d Wheaten 2001, 35). This represented the
expansion of an industry which almost certainly originated before the
Anglo-Saxon period but for which good Anglo-Saxon documentary
evidence survives. In addition to the Anglo-Saxon charters quoted
above, a charter dated AD 786 (B.C.S. 248) refers to 'sealterna
steallas thear bi uban et in Blean uuidiung thaer to', meaning 'the
saltwork enclosures to the north and their associated woodland in
Blean' (the woodland being the source of fuel).
The archaeology
The earliest evidence for Anglo-Saxon act1v1ty at Chestfield was
recovered from Area 6 (no figure shown), where the upper fill of a
large curving prehistoric ditch yielded small quantities of Early and
Mid Anglo-Saxon pottery dating to c.450-c.650 and c.575-c.750.
In Area 2 (Fig. 1), at least two phases of activity were identified.
The first comprised two parallel gullies, interpreted as the truncated
remains of drainage ditches for a drove road linked to a hollow way
exposed in Area 1 (see below) and then joining Radfall Road where it
survives as Rabbit Shaw. The drove road therefore appears to have
North extension
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