The Dens of Benenden

THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS The lathes, and to a great extent, the dens, are peculiar to Kent and their history is central to understanding the settlement history of the Kentish Weald. Witney (1976), in The Jutish Forest, gives an account of the early exploitation of the Kentish Weald and its conversion from woodland to a farmed countryside, from the fifth to the late fourteenth centuries. In the early period, following Jolliffe (1933), Witney describes a Jutish1 Kingdom of Kent, divided into lathes, most with Wealden commons used for the pasturage of pigs (pannage) in woodland that was still chiefly a primeval forest. The aim of Witney's study (p. 31) was 'to identify the commons and the lathes to which they belong; so exposing the framework of Jutish society'. He describes and maps (p. 39) twelve early Jutish lathes in Kent, nine with Wealden commons (with defined boundaries) together occupying the whole of the Weald of Kent. After discussing the origins of the commons, he describes the formation of early dens, or swine pastures, within them and the subsequent break-up of the commons as the manorial dens were established. The early history of the Kentish Weald has been reassessed in recent years. In early Saxon times the Weald was not the untouched primeval forest envisaged by Witney and others. Iron smelting in the Iron Age and Roman periods required wood for fuel, so the woods were exploited and managed, even if subsequently neglected. Although most iron sites are in Sussex, evidence for early iron working and settlements in the Kentish Weald is increasing (Aldridge 2003). In addition, exploitation from outside the Weald, by pannage and perhaps in other ways, may have preceded the Saxons, and there may also have been settlement in the Weald from the earliest Saxon period (Brandon 2003). Another area of uncertainty concerns the structure of the early Kentish Kingdom. There is now little support for the idea that the kingdom had the highly developed administrative structure suggested by Jolliffe and Witney ( e.g. Everitt 1986 p. 8; Brooks 1989; Eales 1992). The lathes probably evolved over time by expansion and amalgamation of estates. 43 ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS To quote Everitt 'as we move backwards in time, what we find in Kent is not an increasingly systematic territorial structure, but on the contrary a more diverse and irregular one ... '. If the lathes were not well-defined entities in the early Kingdom, the same must also be true of the Wealden commons. There is however evidence that the eastern lathes, Wye, Lympne, Sturry ( or Borough) and Eastry, date in some form from the early days of the kingdom (Brooks 1989, p. 73). It is against this background of uncertainty that the study of the dens within Benenden parish has been conducted. The writers believe this to be the first detailed study of dens in a Wealden parish. Their aim has been to provide more information on dens in Benenden parish and their parent manors outside the Weald than has been available before and to use this to examine evidence concerning local lathes and Wealden commons. The dens Witney (1976) provides a wealth of detail on the dens, their 'parent' settlements in the north and east of Kent and the drove roads linking dens and settlements. The first dens are thought to have been 'Folk' dens, established by simple occupation and without royal grants (Witney, p. 69). As the manorial system developed and many settlements became manors, these sometimes acquired existing early dens in the Weald and were granted new ones. Typically, individual manors owned several dens along the routes of their drove roads into the Weald, forming linear clusters. The Church at Canterbury in particular acquired many manors and the dens belonging to them. The woodland of the early dens is likely to have been some form of wood-pasture; that is open woodland with mostly mature trees. Little is known of their boundaries, which were perhaps made stock-proof for the short pannage season. Later the boundaries of many manorial dens were well-defined and some descriptions of perambulations survive. Witney (p. 95) gives examples of five dens in Hawkhurst parish, with known boundaries, which varied from about 100-600 acres. Over the centuries after Domesday the Wealden parishes consolidated and the manorial system was in slow decline. By the sixteenth century, long after pannage had ended, Zell (1994, p. 14) notes that while some deeds referred to the dens on which the lands lay, others did not, so presumably awareness of dens was declining. Nevertheless, even in the nineteenth century a mortgage document for the Hemsted Estate in Benenden mentions seven dens in Benenden parish, each described as 'the den of ... ', in identifying the locations of estate farms (e.g. Appendix, Leasden, ref. 62), and at the same period tenants in some dens still paid manorial quit-rents ( e.g. Appendix, Standen). Today many den names survive as those of hamlets, farms, fields, woods and roads. 44 THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY Although the original situation may have been relatively straightforward, later there were many complications. Some dens became manors within the Weald, perhaps with additional dens acquired from other manors. There were changes of ownership; an example seems to be the transfer of twelve dens of Lyminge Manor (du Boulay, 1961) to Aldington Manor (Furley, 18 7 4 ), perhaps in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. Den boundaries may have changed; some large dens were shared between two or more manors; some divided, and small dens may have been amalgamated; some had different names at different periods and different dens shared the same name. Variable spelling of names adds to the problems of identification, as also does the existence of farms named after owners with 'den' names. Thus, full identification of the Wealden dens is not to be expected. Witney's formidable study identifies nearly 700, but he recognises this to be an underestimate and emphasises that some of his suggestions for their locations are tentative and provisional. The writers have assumed that the known manorial centres were the locations from which people drove livestock to their dens in the Weald. This assumption is needed because some manors included dispersed lands other than in the Weald (Witney, p. 81 ). Evidence for commons and a sub-common in Benenden Witney emphasises the significance of the drove roads in explaining the clusters of dens of neighbouring manors, but considers that more was required to account for them fully (p. 37). He suggests that manors within a particular lathe owned dens in the area that was once the common of that lathe. Thus he suggests that the pattern of den ownership reveals the locations of early commons belonging to provinces (lathes) of the Jutish kingdom. Two commons are shown by Witney (map p. 39) to lie partly in Benenden parish. In the north and west of the parish is the common of Wye lathe and in the south and east the common ofLympne lathe.2 These are weo-wera-wealde and limen-wera-wealde (Wealden commons of the men of Wye and Lympne ) in charters of the eighth century (Witney, p. 31 ). Witney builds on the idea of defined commons by suggesting specific boundaries; in the case of the Wye and Lympne commons (pp. 42, 51, map p. 150) the Roman road from Ashford to Benenden. Benenden also provides one of Witney's examples (p. 85) of the breakup of a common, first into a sub-common, then into manorial dens. His evidence for a sub-common in Benenden is from a charter of 833 (Sawyer 323, BCS 407) granting land to Christ Church, Canterbury. The following is from Sawyer's (1968) abstract: 'Athelwulf, King of Kent, to Christ Church Canterbury, confirmed of lands at Langham, Blakeburnham, 45 ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS Plegwingham, Ofneham, pasture in Hliossole and Aegelbertinherst, common in woods in Estercogheringdenne and Hyringdenne'. The writers' interest is in Hliossole, which Witney identifies (p. 85) as a sub-common of the lathe of Lympne and locates it in 'an area now contained broadly within the quadrilateral of roads connecting Brogues Wood (two miles south of Biddenden), Tenterden, Rolvenden and Benenden', largely in Benenden parish. He writes that Hliossole was 'later split into more than a dozen dens, all owned (whether singly or in combination) by manors either of Christ Church or of the archbishop'. Witney's identification of the sub-common is based on the assumption that the name 'Hliossole' has survived as 'Hole' (Witney, note 26, p. 287) in Rolvenden and Benenden, a den within the area described, belonging to Aldington manor in Lympne lathe. This assumption is questionable.3 Lathe and hundred boundaries in Benenden As part of the study, the writers examine the boundaries of hundreds within Benenden parish. The hundreds were subdivisions of the lathes, with military, administrative and judicial functions. Unlike the Kentish lathe system, the hundreds were county divisions throughout southern England. They are thought to date from the late Saxon period, perhaps from the tenth century (Jolliffe, 1933), and thus, in Kent, were probably formed after most dens and the lathes. Of the four hundreds which lie partly in Benenden parish (Fig. 1), Rolvenden and Selbrittenden in Lympne lathe are mentioned in the Domesday Book. The others, Cranbrook and Barclay (variously spelled), may have been in existence by Domesday, but are not mentioned, perhaps only because they contained no manors recorded in the Domesday Book. At Domesday, the northern boundary of Lympne lathe ran north-east/ south-west across Benenden parish, with Wye lathe, or the common belonging to Wye lathe, to the north of the boundary.4 Later, at an unknown date, these four hundreds, with others, were formed into the Bailiwick of the Seven Hundreds of the Weald, eventually in the lathe of Scray, an amalgam of earlier lathes. The four hundreds with lands in Benenden parish, formerly divided between two lathes, now lay entirely within the lathe of Scray. Hundred boundaries are shown on the first large scale (6in. and 25in.) Ordnance Survey maps published c.1870. For Benenden they include some straight 'undefined' sections, estimated by rough measurement on the map at 15 per cent of the whole; the undefined sections are generally through areas with few landscape features today. Hanley and Chalklin (1964) caution that hundred boundaries took their nineteenth-century form well after the fourteenth century and that the original lines of division are very uncertain (see also Thorne 1992). Nevertheless there 46 THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY Cran brook Barclay Rolvenden SUSSEX Fig. I The hundred boundaries in the neighbourhood of Benenden parish as mapped by the OS in the nineteenth century. Scale bar"" 8km (5 miles). 47 ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS are indications that some at least of the nineteenth-century hundred boundaries are of great age. The Ordnance Survey field survey for Benenden (Public Records Office OS 28/57, dated 1865) includes a note that, for the Rolvenden hundred boundaries, the surveyors were guided by a perambulation of 1823 in the possession of the meresman and deputy constable of the hundred, presumably passed down over the generations. The hundred boundaries in Benenden often follow streams and old roads, and they coincide with parish boundaries for short lengths in the east and west of the parish (Fig. 1 ). Six boundary stones of unknown age survive. Three of these mark points where three hundreds meet; two of these points are on lines of Roman roads and the third, on the eastern parish boundary, is where three parishes also meet, all features suggesting great age. Harrington et al. (2000) found the boundaries shown on the OS maps to be a good, although not perfect, guide to the hundreds used in the seventeenth-century Hearth Ta x assessments. 5 Witney (p. 32) recognised the potential antiquity of the hundred boundaries, suggesting that, when one lathe was absorbed into another, the old boundaries were usually preserved in those of a hundred, although he did not examine this possibility for the We ald. Sources for Benenden dens The major surveys of Wealden dens are by Furley (1874) and Witney ( 1976). Furley does not give sources, but it is clear that he had seen many manorial records; he was the Steward of Aldington Manor, which itself had many dens, for some forty years (Furley, vol I, p. x). Witney uses a wide range of, mainly published, sources and these are fully referenced. The writers have consulted additional sources published since Witney's study, especially printed abstracts of local wills (de Launay; 1981, 1984). They have also examined unpublished abstracts of wills, original wills, estate surveys, deeds, manorial records and miscellaneous other sources. Except in the case of the manor of Halden, which is assumed to have been a den before becoming a manor, we have accepted only references specifying 'the den of ... ', not simply a name ending in 'den' or otherwise resembling a den name. Results of the study- (a) the dens ofBenenden An annotated list of Benenden dens and their parent manors is given (see Appendix). The writers have recorded 32 Benenden dens (Fig. 2). Both Furley and Witney recorded 22 of these dens, each placing 17 in Benenden (and five outside it) although the composition of their lists differ. The writers have added ten dens to those recorded in Benenden by either Furley or Witney and some errors by both authors have been 48 .i,.. \0 Cranbrook Bidden den \ 􀁝 Dockenden t r".../1 ---;.,,,<-- , 􀁁 _ 􀁂/jst Ridden Blshopsden f'\ Simmonde Knolle ,,,. WesJ Ridden r / I ::,.-:f:' Rlckma11sherst •\ ,,. ,. ,. "" /senden B I '; "' agtl t Eborden 0 Hemsted II Walkhurst Q q Halden Crithole , _____ ........... ' Comden 􀁠 ... g 'i "" / Benenden I <> °" 􀁞 Hple Tilden \ ' ,, ✓ Samden ' \ I I -..;:􀀄 􀁟 Ramsden Rolvenden Hawkhurst Hartnope ld1n / Hinksden '-r-y=otkenden/ Holnhurst Dingleden Osende,nl Standen Sandhurst Tenterden Fig. 2 The dens ofBenenden parish and their approximate locations. In italic are dens for which locations are most in doubt (see Appendix for details). It should not be assumed that this layout existed at any one time. Surrounding parishes and today's main roads through Benenden are included to aid interpretation; the roads bounding the area of the sub-common of Hliossole, as located by Witney, shown by double-dashed lines. Scale bar = ]km (0.62 miles). -l ::c tT:I 0 􀁡 C/.l 0'Tl to I 􀁡 􀁢 ► '-1 0 C/.l C/.l 63 􀁣 􀁤 􀁥 t"" 􀁦 gJ to 0 􀁧 􀁨 ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS TABLE 1. BENENDEN DENS AND THEIR PARENT MANORS Lathe Manor Dens Lvmnne Aldington Dingleden, Hinksden Bilsington Benenden, Comden, Manlesden Lvminge Hole, Iden, Standen Clater Aldington dens) Wve Brabourne Crithole, Hemsted Brook Eborden, Knolle Great Chart Bishopsden Hothfield Ewhurst, Rickmansherst Kennington Dockenden, West Ridden Mersham Hartnope Westwell East Ridden, Simmonden E. Kent Bishopsbourne Leasden, West Bishopsden lathes (Dover Priorv)* Bagtilt Eastrv Walkhurst Parent manor Folkenden, Halden, Holnhurst, Isenden, unknown** Osenden, Ramsden, Sarnden, Tilden * The den of Bagtilt, recorded as belonging to Dover Priory, may have been at an earlier period attached to a manor differently located, but we have assumed an association with the Dover area. ** Raiden (see Appendix) became a manor within the Weald with its own dens, which included Folkenden, Holnhurst, West Bishopsden and Ramsden in Benenden - it is assumed that Halden and these other dens originally had parent manors outside the Weald. corrected. No doubt, this latest survey of Benenden dens also contains errors and is by no means exhaustive as the number of potential sources is vast. Identifications of 13 parent manors for 24 dens are proposed (Table 1 ). The manors of most dens were in Wye or Lympne lathes, but three manors, with four dens, were in lathes further to the east (the lathes of Sturry and Eastry, see Witney, map p. 34 ). A feature is the number of dens overlapping into neighbouring parishes (at least 12 of the 32 - see Fig. 2 and Appendix); either den boundaries were ignored when the parish boundaries were established, dens were shared between parishes, or parish boundaries changed. Everitt (1986, p. 147) suggests that such shared dens might be areas of late settlement, previously used as commons by people in settled areas nearby. Some dens are well known, mentioned in numerous documents, and 50 THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY their names survive in the landscape. By contrast, only one reference to Eborden and Isenden is known to the writers. Some dens, for example Benenden ( den), Bishopsden and Standen, can be located with some precision; for others only an informed guess is possible. The general patterns of dens and manors should not be seriously affected by the variability in evidence, even if some detail is wrong. The location of dens (Fig. 2) is based on a variety of evidence, such as modern place-names, early maps, documentary descriptions and mention of adjoining dens. In showing locations, it is not suggested that there was a time when all of these dens existed in the layout shown; some, possibly a great deal, of temporal and spatial change is likely. Bearing this in mind, an assumption of 32 dens gives an average den size of some 200 acres, which is of the same order as suggested by the Hawkhurst dens mentioned earlier. Fig. 2 suggests that the den ofBenenden itself may have been relatively large and this can be roughly confirmed. It is estimated, from eighteenthcentury rentals and the contemporary map and terrier, at about 450 acres, compared with Standen and Bishopsden, both about 200 acres ( see Appendix for references). Zell (1994, p. 14) separately estimates Iden at 255 acres. (b) Evidence for Wealden commons and a sub-common in Benenden Two high ridges run east-west in Benenden, both carrying ancient roads still in use (Fig. 3); these roads are assumed to have been the main drove roads into the parish and are so identified by Witney (map p. 133). The northerly road leads east towards Biddenden and High Halden, linking the dens in the north of the parish with manors of Wye lathe around Ashford. The southerly road leads through Rolvenden and Tenterden, linking the more southerly dens with manors of Lympne lathe along the edge of Romney Marsh. The large den (later manor) of Benenden, which belonged to Bilsington in Lympne lathe, extends for a considerable distance either side of the southerly drove, perhaps suggesting an early origin for the den and strengthening the identification of the road as a drove road. There is a further possibility that this road provided a link with the sea; from Rolvenden there is a direct road to a harbour at Maytham. Assuming that the association between dens and the manors of east Kent lathes, Sturry and Eastry, was for pannage, access from the manors of Bishopsbourne and Eastry would presumably have been along the northerly road via Wye lathe. An alternative route from these distant manors is by sea and up the Rother, with timber supplies more important than pannage. The Benenden dens belonging to eastern manors may have been transferred from manors in Wye lathe, as suggested more generally by Witney (p. 47). 51 Vl N Dens and their parent manors in the lathes of: * Wye 0 Lympne + East Kent {Sturry & Eastry) Manors + + 0 .+ Fig. 3 The dens ofBenenden parish and their parent manors. The lines of the drove roads are shown. en ..., "t:I 0 tI1 I:"" en C ..., en THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY The aggregations of dens in Benenden and of their parent manors to the east (Fig. 3), linked by drove roads, reinforce the general pattern for the Weald shown by Witney. The aggregations must have arisen at least in part from convenience of access, but might also reveal the locations of lathes and their commons as suggested by Witney. In support of his view that the aggregations of dens show the locations of commons from which they were formed, Witney draws attention to the existence of subcommons, a phase in the break-up of the commons, and to the boundaries of the commons. These are now considered in turn. The sub-common of Hliossole Witney identifies Hliossole as a sub-common, later split into a dozen dens, of Lympne lathe. Hliossole is located only approximately by Witney, but according to this latest survey of dens (Fig. 2; Table 1. ), the area contains the dens of Hole, Maplesden and Benenden (Lympne lathe), East and West Ridden, Bishopsden and Eborden (Wye lathe), Walkhurst and Bagtilt (East Kent lathes), Isenden and Halden of unknown lathes and others dens outside the parish. Witney (p. 91) suggests that the original Hliossole dens were all of Lympne lathe and that some were later transferred to manors of Wye lathe and east Kent. An example he gives is Bishopsden, given to the manors of Petham and Bishopsbourne in Sturry lathe. This is almost certainly an (understandable) error due to the existence, unknown to Witney, of West Bishopsden (suggested manor Bishopsbourne, Appendix) in another part of Benenden. More generally the location of the Wye dens in Hliossole (Figs 2 and 3) accords with the pattern elsewhere in the parish, suggesting that their parent manors had not changed. Given this mixture of dens and also the questionable placename evidence, discussed above, the existence in Benenden of Hliossole as a sub-common of Lympne lathe, seems unsubstantiated. The boundary between the dens of Wye and Lympne lathes Witney suggests that the Roman road from Benenden to Ashford was the boundary between the commons, and later between the dens, of Wye and Lympne lathes. However, for much of its length in Benenden, the road is not a strong landscape feature and for significant stretches does not follow field boundaries. It appears to lie slightly to the north of the southern boundary of dens owned by manors of Wye lathe (Fig. 4) and passes through some Wye dens, most clearly Bishopsden and Hemsted. A minor Roman road may have continued westwards beyond Hemsted, where there were more dens of Wye and Lympne lathes, but no clear evidence for a continuation has been found. These features do not suggest that the Roman road was a major boundary in post-Roman times. 53 V, .i:,. *.r-...*􀀂 :::==- possible former lathe/common boundary Dens of manors in the lathes of * Wye 0 Lympne + East Kent (Sturry & Eastry) Fig. 4 The dens ofBenenden parish, according to their parent manors. The hundred boundary (See Fig. 1) running irregularly south-west to north-east (double line) may be a Domesday, or earlier, boundary separating the dens ofWye and Lympne lathes. Witney suggested that the Roman road might have been the boundary between these lathes. Cl'.! ..., "C 0 i 􀀁 f:l Cl'.! 􀀂 􀀃 THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY The hundred boundary, running irregularly south-west to north-east through the parish (Fig. 4), divides the dens of the manors of Wye and Lympne lathes more neatly than does the Roman road. Only Comden of the dens of Lympne lathe lies to the north of the boundary, and the status of this den is not very firmly established (Appendix). Given this agreement and Witney's general statement (p. 32) that the lathe boundaries were usually preserved as boundaries of hundreds, it seems likely that this hundred boundary is essentially the Domesday boundary between Lympne and Wye lathes ( or commons of the lathes), and may be even older. The boundary continues on this general line beyond the parish to the south-west and to the north-east (Fig. 1 ). Conclusions The study has identified thirty-two dens in Benenden parish. Most were recorded by Witney or Furley, but not all were placed by them in Benenden. Ten have been added to the number of Benenden dens, with approximate locations given for all and parent manors suggested for twenty-four. The aggregation of dens according to the locations of their parent manors is clear; dens of manors in Wye lathe are in the north of the parish and those of Lympne lathe in the south. The local detail in the study reinforces Witney's wider findings in this respect. The aggregations of dens according to their parent manors to the east could simply reflect the most convenient routes from the settlements (and later manors) into the Weald. Equally, the aggregations might be relics of a structure of lathes and their commons. These alternatives are in this case closely connected, as the commons were in areas most accessible from the parent lathes. Witney identifies Hliossole as a sub-common of Lyminge lathe and suggests that it provides a striking example of the break-up of a common into a sub-common, then into dens. The evidence seems speculative and unconvincing. The Roman road, suggested by Witney as the boundary between the commons, is unlikely to have been a major boundary. It is suggested instead that the Domesday boundary between the dens of the Lympne and Wye lathes may have survived as a boundary between hundreds. If there was such a boundary at and before Domesday, this provides some support for Witney's concept of early Wealden commons with defined boundaries, but falls short of confirmation. Many questions remain unanswered, but the writers believe they have demonstrated the value of testing the conclusions derived from more general studies of the Kentish Weald against detailed local evidence. 55 ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writers are indebted to Neil Aldridge, Cressida Annesley, Dr Nicola Bannister, Prof. Nicholas Brooks, Dr Mark Gardiner, Duncan Harrington, Dr Susan Kelly, Caroline Richardson, Tony Singleton, Anita Thompson and Dr Michael Zell; all have given them encouragement and help. So, more generally, have staff at the Centre for Kentish Studies, East Sussex Records Office, Suffolk Records Office, Ipswich, and Canterbury Cathedral Archives. Errors of fact and interpretation are those of the writers. Although some criticism of K.P. Witney's Jutish Forest has been made, it will be obvious that the study would have been very much more difficult without his pioneering work and would probably not have been even attempted. REFERENCES Aldridge, N., 2003, 'Wealden Archaeology', Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter, 58, 2-3. Brandon, P., 2003, The Kent and Sussex Weald, Phillimore, Chichester. Brooks, N.E., 1989, 'The creation and early structure of the Kingdom ofKent', in Bassett, S. (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester. D'Elboux, R.H., 1944, 'Survey of the manors of Robertsbridge Sussex, Michelmarsh Hampshire and of the Desmesne Lands ofHalden in Rolvenden', Sussex Records Collection, 47. de Launay, J., 1981, Will abstracts from the Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury, Kent, volume 1, Parish of Benenden, Kent Family History Society. de Launay, J., 1984, Cranbrook, Kent Wills 1396-1640, Kent Records Collections & The Kent Archaeological Trust. Du Boulay, F.R.H., 1961, 'Dens, droving and danger', Archaeologia Cantiana, 76, 75-8. Eales, R., 1992, 'Introduction', in Williams, A. & Martin, G.H. (eds), The Kent Domesday, Alecto Historical Editions, London. Everitt, A., 1986, Continuity and colonization: the evolution of Kentish settlement, Leicester University Press. Furley, R., 1871-4, A History of the Weald of Kent, 2 vols, Henry lgglesden, Ashford. Hanley, H.A. and Chalklin, C.W., 1964, 'The Kent Lay Subsidy Roll of 1334/5', in Medieval Kentish Society, KAS Records, xvm. Harrington, D., Pearson, S. & Rose, S., 2000, Kent Hearth Ta x, KAS, Kent Records, xx1x. Jolliffe, J.E.A., 1933, Pre-Feudal England: the Jutes, Oxford University Press. Jolliffe, J.E.A., 1933, 'The origins of the hundreds in Kent', in Edwards, J.G., Galbraith, V.H. and Jacobs, E.F. (eds), Historical essays in honour of James Ta it, Manchester. Morgan, P. (ed), 1983, Domesday Book: Kent, Phillimore, Chichester. Sawyer, P.H., 1968, Anglo Saxon Charters: an annotated list and bibliography, Royal Historical Society. 56 THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY Thome, E.R., 1992, 'Hundreds and Wapentakes', in Williams, A. & Martin, G.H. (eds), The Kent Domesday, Alecto Historical Editions, London. Wallenberg, J.K., 1931, Kentish Place-names, Uppsala Universitets Arsskrift. Ward, G., 1945, 'The lost dens of Little Chart', Archaeologia Cantiana, 58, 1-7. Witney, K.P., 1976, The Jutish Forest: a study of the Weald of Kent from 450 to 1380 A.D., Athlone Press, London. Zell, M., 1994, Industry in the countryside: Wealden society in the sixteenth century, CUP. APPENDIX An annotated list of the Benenden dens and their manors After the den name there is an indication given in parentheses whether it was identified by Furley (F.) and/or Witney (W.) as a Benenden den, or (f.) and (w.) if they name a den, but do not place it in Benenden. If the evidence for the parent manor of a den is considered good, the name of the manor is given in italic; this assessment is subjective. Only minimal additional references are cited for those dens clearly identified by Furley and Witney, and the number of references for most other dens limited to the most informative. Where Witney's work is referred to, the original source is quoted in The Jutish Forest. The date of any mentions of dens is given in the references. The names of dens are based on modern usage, older forms if the modern is much changed ( e.g. Crithole is now Crit Hall), or, rarely, the only known spelling. Names are given as some guide to the reliability of identification, but the full range of spellings is not provided. In many cases the names are from transcripts; in a few cases the spelling is uncertain and is omitted. Bagtilt There are references in deeds6 and wills.7 An estate map,8 combined with deeds, help to locate it. A survey of 15909 records it as held by the Archbishop of Canterbury and formerly by Dover Priory. The last reference may provide identification of Wealden dens (it includes Asherinden in Tenterden also held of Dover Priory) owned by the canons of St Martin's (Dover Priory) mentioned in the Domesday Book (Witney, p. 121). The name survives in Backtilt Wood and Cottage. Benenden (F.W.) This well known den became a manor early and is recorded at Domesday as a manor in the hundred of Rolvenden and the lathe of Lympne. It was a subordinate manor of Bilsington and in 1193 was given, with Maytham in Rolvenden parish and another den, by the Earl of Arundel to his daughter on marriage; these possessions descended through this family to the Earl of Hereford, c.1236.10 The pairing of Benenden and Maytham is repeated in the fourteenth century.11 The writers assume that Benenden was originally a den 57 ERNEST POLLARD AND HAZEL STROUTS of Bilsington manor. In 1573 Benenden manor was again recorded as held by an Earl of Hereford. 12 A rental of 1777 13 together with a parish map and terrier of the same year14 make it possible to locate it with some precision. The early mention of the manor of Benenden, the large size of the den, the fact that it spans the southern drove road and that the parish took its name, all indicate early importance. (Its link with Maytham may suggest early access by sea.) Bishopsden (F.W.) A well known den, overlapping into Biddenden parish and located by Furley partly in Biddenden. The name survives as a farm name. Furley and Witney name Great Chart as a parent manor, confirmed by many manorial records,15 which give details of holdings and acreages. Manorial records for Great Chart show, e.g., 16 talwood (small wood for fuel) obtained from the den. Witney also names Petham and Bishopsbourne manors as owners (following Du Boulay).17 Bishopsden West (F.) Dens ofBisshoppenden and Lollesden (see Leasden) were recorded in the manor of Bishopsbourne, with another reference to Bysshoppenden in the manor of Petham (see previous den).18 Witney, reasonably, assumed that these references were both to the above den of Bishopsden. However, a den of Byshoppynden is mentioned together with land in a Cranbrook den in a will 19 as also is Byshoppinden Wood in the den of Leasden in the west of the parish in 1550.20 'West Bishopsden' was recorded by Furley, and by Philipott (perhaps Furley's source),21 as belonging to the local manor of Balden in the seventeenth century, at a time when the Bishopsden above is known to have been in Great Chart manor. The writers suggest a den of West Bishopsden close to Leasden (Fig. 2) with Bishopsbourne the parent manor of both (see Leasden). There are no modern place-names. Comden (F.w.) A small manor of Camden, presumably derived from a den, was held by the Hemsted Estate with the manors of Hemsted, Benenden and Ripton in the eighteenth century.22 Witney records Comdene belonging to Bilsington manor c.! 193; he suggested that Comdene was in Sandhurst, but was unaware of the Benenden den which the writers assume it to be. The Hemsted rentals show that Camden manor included the farms of Scullsgate and Babbs and so was in the same area of the parish as land in the dens of Comden and Sarnden, referred to in deeds of 1543, helping to confirm the identification. 23 Crithole (W.) First known record in 993, together with the den of Hemsted in the manor of Brabourne.24 Wills of 147925 and 155626 mention the den. In the eighteenth century Hemsted manor was comprised of Hemsted and Crithole, plus at least one other den in Biddenden parish;27 they were presumably all detached from Brabourne to form Hemsted manor. Cruthole was also a borough in Cranbrook Hundred (containing the den). The name survives as Crit Hall. Dingleden (F.W.) A well known den with surviving place-names. Both Furley and Witney place it in Aldington Manor and this is confirmed by manorial records.28 Dockenden (W.) The Black Book of St Augustine gives Doclynden in the manor 58 THE DENS OF BENENDEN AND A POSSIBLE EARLY LATHE BOUNDARY of Kennington.29 Witney (p. 264) suggests that it was included in the Black Book as an alternative name to Ridden, although the basis for this is unclear. There is some continuity of spelling in a will of 153930 and sixteenth-century references to the den ofDockenden;31 one source (DLB will 105) mentions a 'woodland called Rothe in the den of Dockenden', probably Roads wood on a map of 1599,32 the location of which is consistent with the surviving house and land ofDockenden. Eborden Known only from a survey of 1590;33 manor Brook. The holding described is on the dens of Isenden and Eborden and as the holding is small (30 acres) it is probably a single entity and the dens adjoining. Ewhurst (f.w.) Placed by Furley (and followed by Witney) in Biddenden. Other references suggest that it spanned the parish boundary, adjoining Dockenden, with a small area in Benenden; Furley gives the parent manor as Hoth.field, confirmed by manorial records.34 There are no modem place-names. Folkenden (F.) Recorded as Folkenden by Philipott,35 but Fokynden in a Halden Manor rental of c.1575,36 suggesting that Fekynden in a sixteenthcentury will is the same den.37 It belonged to the local manor of Ralden and a survey of the manor records that it lay in Benenden and Sandhurst. 38 The original parent manor is not known and there are no modem place-names. Ha/den (alias Lambin) (f.w.) The larger part of this manor was in Rolvenden, where Furley and Witney place it, but it extended into Benenden, Tenterden and Biddenden,39 and it is assumed that part of an earlier den of Halden was in Benenden. The manor held twelve other dens, four, Folkenden, West Bishopsden, Holnhurst and Ramsden, entirely or partly in Benenden, presumably acquired from manors outside the Weald.40 Witney suggests that the den of Halden was owned in part by Westgate by Canterbury and in part by Reculver, although Petham is also a possibility (see Bishopsden). Perhaps more likely than these is Great Chart, as there is a thirteenth-century reference to a Great Chart den of Reldindenne in Benenden parish.4 1 Surrounding lands are given, but although Reldindenne is clearly in the north-east of the parish, the location is unclear and does not seem to tally with Halden. Other references to the Reldindenne place-name are similarly obscure. The original parent manor of Raiden and the identity of Heldindenne are therefore considered uncertain. There are many modem place-names. Hartnope There is one known reference to land in Benenden in this den, in a rental for Mersham manor.42 The den includes Woodsden Farm in Hawl