Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent

Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent

susan pittman

Although many researchers have contributed to the knowledge and understanding of the number, characteristics, landscape, management and ethos of medieval deer parks in other counties, there has been little coverage of deer parks in Kent.¹ This paper aims to redress the imbalance somewhat, concentrating on the deer parks in Kent during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

The trigger for the choice of period was the list of parks, which appeared in William Lambarde’s A Perambulation of Kent published in 1576, with a second edition in 1596.² These lists and five contemporary maps were useful preliminary sources to aid the identification of parks and acted as a starting point in establishing the number of parks, to which others were added from evidence emerging from a wide range of primary sources. Lambarde’s lists included disparked parks which no longer held deer, and by examining these and tracing the histories of individual parks through the fragmentary evidence that survives, a crude assessment can be made about whether the number of active parks, still containing deer, was stable, fluctuating, decreasing or increasing. The paper concludes with a discussion about the distribution, location, density, shape, size and longevity of the parks in Elizabethan and Jacobean Kent.

Lambarde’s listings and contemporary cartographic evidence

The only contemporary textual source containing information about parks in Kent is Lambarde’s Perambulation. In the first edition the list comprised 52 parks of which 34 contained deer and 18 were disparked, and in the second edition 54 parks of which 31 contained deer and 23 did not (Table 1).³ The list of 1576 is the earliest printed list for any county.⁴ Lists of parks from another six counties appear in state papers in the early 1580s, following enquiries into the number of parks with breeding mares.⁵

Lambarde stated that he had studied ‘credible’ records in compiling Perambulation, but in the section ‘The Particular of Kent’, which touched on contemporary Kent and included the park list, he would have had to rely largely, if not entirely, on his own and others’ knowledge of the Kentish countryside.⁶ Indeed, he admitted as much when he wrote an apology concerning information he or others had gathered:

If either by want of memorie I have not taken all, or by too much credulitie have mistaken any: I have pardon for it, and desire the Reader, either to correct or supplie it, by his own discretion and judgement.⁷

He might have written systematically to landowners about their parks, but surviving correspondence is scattered.⁸ One extant manuscript entitled ‘Note of the names of the gentry in Kent, 1574’ shows that he kept a working list, which could be amended until the manuscript was despatched to the printers, and it is apparent that the list of parks was compiled in a similar way.⁹ It was laid out in two columns in neither alphabetical, ownership nor locational order, rather the names were written at random, despite Lambarde’s emphasis on an ordered approach in the rest of the book.¹⁰

In these circumstances the degree of accuracy needs to be assessed. Warnicke considered that Lambarde often travelled throughout Kent and knew it well because Perambulation contained many of his personal observations.¹¹ However, he only moved from London to Kent on his marriage in 1570, although as a Commissioner of Sewers from Lombarde’s Wall to Gravesend Bridge from 1568 he travelled in north Kent and became better acquainted with the county and its gentry. The title page of Perambulation stated that the contents had been collected and written (for the most part) in 1570, so although he was soon to become embedded in the county he had hardly had time to know it as intimately as many of the well-established Kentish gentry who would be his readers. Nevertheless it will be shown that his first list was substantially reliable.

Lambarde’s list of parks

The park list was given quite a high priority in the order in ‘The Particular of Kent’ appearing before lists of hills, rivers, bridges, cities, markets and fairs, castles, honourable houses, almshouses, former religious houses and schools. The significance of this position might have been because the subject was close to the interests of his readers, ‘his Countriemen, the Gentlemen of the Countie of Kent’, as Thomas Wotton addressed them in his foreword, or perhaps because parks merited priority as a widespread and locally dominant feature in the rural landscape.¹²

It proved relatively easy to trace the 52 parks of the first edition of 1576 and the 54 of the second edition of 1596. On the modern Ordnance Survey maps, some parks, such as Cobham, Greenwich, Knole, Leeds and Lullingstone were still in evidence. Others were easily located on a variety of maps and in documentary records, but two proved very elusive and some raised ambiguities.¹³ Stonehurst park was found just over the border into Surrey, but its inclusion was probably because it was owned by the Brooke family of Starborough Castle (a branch of the Brooke family of Cobham).¹⁴ Hamswell has not been tracked down. There was a ‘Hamwell’ in Kent, about one mile east of Eastry (now the hamlet of Hammill), but there is nothing to indicate there was ever a park there. It is possible that Lambarde meant Hamsell park, in Rotherfield, Sussex, owned by the Waller family of Groombridge, who also owned Groombridge park. Rotherfield is hardly county border country, but it is possible that confusion arose once again because Hamsell park was owned by a Kent-based family.

There is ambiguity over Langley and Southpark because two parks of each name have been found. Both Langley parks are poorly documented, but Langley park near Maidstone, held from the crown, was more likely to have been disparked by this period, which is as Lambarde recorded, while Langley park in Beckenham was probably established in late Elizabethan times.¹⁵ Southpark followed Ashour park at Penshurst in the list, both owned by the Sidney family, but this Southpark was disparked by 1570, and the listed Southpark was not so denoted.¹⁶ It is certain, therefore, that South park near Boughton Malherbe, which was repaled and restocked by Thomas Wotton in 1567, was meant.¹⁷ A mistake over this park would seem to have been highly unlikely given that Thomas Wotton had been sent Lambarde’s manuscript to check. However, a further two parks of Thomas Wotton at Boughton Malherbe were omitted from the lists. In 1567 New or Lenham park, enclosed by his father, was under arable cultivation, and deer from Bocton or Old park were herded up and transferred to South park.¹⁸ The omission of two such recently functioning parks is inexplicable, unless for some reason it was with the acquiescence of Thomas Wotton himself.

Lambarde made unusual selections in two park names, St Augustine’s and Calehill. St Augustine’s was the park in Canterbury, usually called Canterbury, New or King’s park, created by Henry VIII in the 1530s on former monastic land belonging to St Augustine’s monastery, Canterbury.¹⁹ Mary I granted the park ‘commonly called Canterbury park’ to Cardinal Pole in 1556, but at his death in 1558 his executors called it ‘St. Augustine’s’, the only other reference to the name that has been found.²⁰ Apart from Lambarde’s lists the earliest reference to Calehill park, in the parish of Little Chart, appears on the 1639 estate map of the Darell family, on which ‘The Olde Parke’ and ‘Parke woode’ are shown.²¹ If Lambarde was referring to this park, he omitted the well-documented medieval park of Westwell, three miles to the east of Calehill, which still held deer in Elizabeth I’s reign.²²

The park ‘at Ashford’ is enigmatic. Edward Hasted linked the reference ‘at Ashford’ to Ripton park, but the earliest date for the park found so far concerns its imparkment in about 1640.²³ It is more likely that Lambarde was referring to the park at Scot’s Hall, near Smeeth, to the east of Ashford, owned by Sir Thomas Scott, high sheriff of Kent, who had the wealth and status to sustain a park and lived in grand style, entertaining Elizabeth I at his home in 1573.²⁴

The question next to be addressed is how complete a list of active parks did Lambarde compile and to do this the five contemporary county maps will be discussed, although only the first three were produced during the period spanning the first and second editions of Perambulation.

Lambarde’s lists of parks compared with contemporary county maps

The five county maps depicting parks are conveniently spaced to cover most of the period under review. Contemporary with the first edition of Perambulation were the maps of Saxton of 1575, depicting 27 parks and of an unknown cartographer c.1576 depicting 24.²⁵ Lambarde’s second edition of Perambulation was contemporaneous with Symonson’s 1596 map, with 31 parks.²⁶ In James I’s reign came Norden’s map of 1605 with 27 parks and Speed’s of 1611 with 29.²⁷ One notable feature of the maps was that none of Lambarde’s disparked parks in the first edition of Perambulation appeared, the inference being that the cartographers were attempting to record only existing deer parks (see Table 2).

The park symbols on the maps are exaggerated in size, which distorts the exact location of parks. Some parks are clearly labelled, and others were easy to interpret because only one park was associated with the area, for example, Cooling park on the Hoo peninsula or Shurland park on the Isle of Sheppey. Other unlabelled parks were more of a problem, especially around Boughton Malherbe, and in the Lyminge/Stowting area.

The two county maps from the 1570s showed two parks in the vicinity of Boughton Malherbe, but the three later maps showed only one park, which was likely to have been Lambarde’s South park, with the second being Bocton Old park. Lambarde listed Postling park but not Lyminge, yet all the maps showed an unlabelled park at Lyminge rather than at Postling. Lyminge was an active park, with a case of unlawful hunting and stealing deer in 1606, but a tithe dispute concerning Postling park in 1576 indicated that the park had already been disparked, so it appears that Lambarde should have included Lyminge, although he was correct about the presence of a park, albeit disparked, at Postling.²⁸

The maps located six parks that were absent from Lambarde’s lists. Four parks (at Bromley, Eastwell, Lynsted and Throwley) were late creations, three of uncertain date, which appeared on the three later maps.²⁹ A licence to impark 1,000 acres at Eastwell had been given in 1589, so this park was overlooked in Lambarde’s second edition, but evidence for the other three is less clear-cut.³⁰ All five maps depicted the archbishop of Canterbury’s park at Ford in the parish of Hoath, omitted by Lambarde.³¹ Although Lambarde might have been less familiar with east Kent, he was in contact with Archbishop Matthew Parker, who used Ford Palace as one of his main residences.³²

Another omission by Lambarde was of Hemsted park in the parish of Benenden, shown on Saxton’s and Norden’s maps at both ends of the time scale. Sir John Guldeford’s will of 1560 referred to the park and a map of 1599 shows a park of 113 acres.³³ It is unclear why Lambarde left this park out, except to add weight to the possibility that his contacts were not as extensive towards the south and east of the county.

Lambarde and the cartographers faced the difficulty of ascertaining exactly which parks were functioning as deer parks at any given time because of the possibility of total or partial disparkment, re-imparkment and new imparkment. The fluctuating fortunes of Halden, in the parish of Rolvenden, and Shurland parks bear this out. While Lambarde added Halden to disparkments in the second edition of Perambulation, the park appeared on Symonson’s and Speed’s maps, yet this might not be inconsistent with the evidence. Halden park was seized by the crown from John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in 1553 and put into the hands of Sir John Baker of Sissinghurst, when no deer were in it, because in 1571, after Elizabeth I had recognised the Sidney claim to the Dudley estates, Halden park was completely repaled.³⁴ When deer were reintroduced is unknown, but a survey of 16 August 1609 confirmed that deer were in the park, although in the following year the deer had gone.³⁵

A similar difficulty with achieving complete accuracy is illustrated by the park at Shurland. Lambarde added Shurland to disparkments in the second edition of Perambulation, and the maps of 1596, 1605 and 1611 also disregarded Shurland park, which might be seen as confirmation of the situation, but other evidence suggests that the status of Shurland park fluctuated. There were about 220 deer in the park in 1572, yet by October 1574, only 40 deer remained, and it would appear that the park was not restocked.³⁶ Lack of deer would justify Lambarde’s disparkment and the park’s omission from the later maps, and no deer were mentioned in a survey of mid-January 1605.³⁷ However, within a year Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, who had been granted the park by James I, instigated a suit of deer stealing, claiming that the ancient park had always held deer.³⁸ While he might have exaggerated the continuity and extent of deer keeping, the defendants did not dispute his statement that deer had been there ‘whereof memory of man is not to be contrary’, even though it would have been in their interest to do so.

The only parks with deer in Lambarde’s list not appearing on the maps were Hamswell and Stonehurst, which is not surprising if they lay outside the county. Ashour park, in the parish of Penshurst, was not on the maps, neither was it added to Lambarde’s disparkments, but it was being leased out by the Sidney family from the 1550s and gradually lost its status as a park, so Lambarde’s inclusion of Ashour park might well have represented its last days as a park, and its omission from the maps the recognition that its original function had been lost.³⁹

Despite the discrepancies, there was a significant degree of correlation between Lambarde and the early mapmakers, with 12 parks being in all sources and a further six being in five out of the six. However, none of the compilations was identical, which is understandable when four decades separated the earliest map from the latest, each illustrating changes over time, but when matched with the documentary evidence it is also clear that none was comprehensive.⁴⁰ The most prominent parks in which deer were present some time between 1558 and 1611, but which do not appear in Perambulation or the five county maps, were Bore Place near Chiddingstone, Lee adjacent to the royal parks at Eltham, Tyler Hill in Canterbury and West Wickham on the Surrey border.⁴¹ Parks created after the maps were East Wickham of 500 acres, mainly in the parish of Bexley, for which Sir Oyliffe Leigh was given licence in 1610, and Chilham, Mersham Hatch, Somerhill (taken out of Southfrith) and Surrenden, which were also formed at unknown dates in James I’s reign.⁴²

Of the 52 parks in Lambarde’s first list 45 entries have been found to be accurate, so that overall the list has a high degree of reliability. Except for minor changes, errors of commission or omission remained uncorrected in the second edition of Perambulation, so the degree of overall error in the later list is greater. However, Lambarde’s lists remain an invaluable source for historians, enabling them not only to identify Elizabethan parks, but also to differentiate the parks containing deer from those that did not. The range from 24 parks shown on the anonymous map to 34 functioning parks listed in the first edition of Perambulation is probably not too far out at any given time – the number of parks never being stable because some were disparked in the course of the period, while others were newly enclosed.

Forty-six active deer parks accrue in the period 1576 to 1611 from Lambarde’s first list and from the five cartographers, including Hamsell (?Sussex) and Stonehurst and Starborough parks on the Kent/Surrey border. This total rises to 53 with the addition of deer parks mentioned above from other sources. Also, there is a strong likelihood, but no substantive verification, that Boughton Monchelsea, Great Chart, Halstead, Roydon and Scotney parks contained deer in this period.⁴³

Debate about the rate of loss of deer parks

A comparison of Lambarde’s two lists of parks indicates both particular and long-term changes. In the former case, five parks were added to the number of disparked parks, which rose from 18 in 1576 to 23 in 1596. Secondly, by specifying disparked parks Lambarde was distinguishing between functioning and defunct parks, in itself recognition of long-term change, which he stressed in the section entitled ‘The Estate of Kent’:

Parkes of fallow Deere, and games of grey Conyes, it maynteyneth many, the one for pleasure, and the other for profit, as it may wel appeare by this, that within memorie almost one half of the first sorte be disparked, and the number of warrens continueth, if it do not increase dayly.⁴⁴

Here parks are associated with the enjoyment derived from their function of supporting herds of deer, compared with the emphasis on the profit emanating from breeding conies, implying that the loss of nearly half the deer parks was due to the expense of maintaining them for pleasure alone. The loss of so many parks within living memory at the time of the first edition was a drastic and noticeable change which, along with Lambarde’s identification of specific disparked parks, calls attention to sixteenth-century developments prior to the reign of Elizabeth I.

Lambarde’s key phrase ‘within memorie’ (used in the first edition of Perambulation to which it must be assumed that it primarily applies) would take older inhabitants back to earlier turbulent times in the sixteenth century when there was disruption in the ownership of many parks.⁴⁵ Lack of continuity of management seems to have led to the removal of deer herds in some parks and consolidated the disparked status of others, but evidence of the individual histories of each park is at best patchy, so in most cases circumstantial evidence is all that is available. However, it can be shown that the loss of nearly half the active parks in Kent occurred from the later years of Henry VIII’s reign to the end of Mary I’s reign, rather than in Elizabeth I’s and James I’s reigns, when numbers stabilised and the park ethos remained strong.

From 1422, when a valor was taken, to 1535 the Church owned two-fifths of Kent, being the county’s largest landowner.⁴⁶ This figure was well above the national average, and was largely attributable to the extensive land holdings of the archbishop of Canterbury.⁴⁷ Ecclesiastical bodies held about 30 parks in Kent before the English Reformation, many not on Lambarde’s lists, with the archbishop of Canterbury alone owning at least 19 parks. The land exchanges and confiscations engineered by Henry VIII from 1537 to 1540 therefore had a great impact on Kent landownership.⁴⁸ As a result of the transfers the archbishop lost a dramatic number of parks at Aldington, Bexley, Fryarne, Ightham, Knole, Langham, Lyminge, Maidstone, three at Otford, Panthurst, Saltwood and Wrotham.⁴⁹ Other ecclesiastical institutions with parks seized by the crown were Boxley Abbey (Boxley park), St. Augustine’s Abbey (Canterbury Old park), the Priory of Christ Church (Canterbury Trenley park and Westwell park), the Abbey of St Mary Graces by the Tower of London (Elham park), and Folkestone Priory (Folkestone park); in addition, the bishopric of Rochester surrendered to the crown part of its land enclosed within Cooling park.⁵⁰ Effectively, the only parks, whether active or disparked, retained by the church were the archbishop of Canterbury’s parks at Chislet, Curlswood, Ford and Lympne and the bishop of Rochester’s park at Bromley.⁵¹

How many of the parks were maintained with deer after transfer to crown ownership remains unclear, because little is known about their status prior to seizure, but had they been disparked for any length of time Lambarde’s ‘within memorie’ would have been somewhat overstretched. However, it is clear that lack of continuity in management and the desire of the crown and its lessees to maximise profits had led many to cease as deer parks by the reign of Elizabeth I, as Lambarde’s first list testifies. Former ecclesiastical parks still holding deer were Cooling, owned by the Brooke family of Cobham, and, under keepership or crown lessees, Aldington, Elham, Knole, Lyminge, Otford Great park, and, perhaps, Otford Little park and Saltwood.

Political turmoil also affected private parks, several of which were transferred to the crown after attainders served on traitors. Some of these parks had already been disparked, but new owners disparked others. Sir Henry Sidney, for example, with the grant of the Penshurst estate in 1552 obtained Ashour park, Northlands or Penshurst park (then including Leigh park) and Southpark, after they had lain in royal hands since the attainder imposed on Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, executed by Henry VIII in 1521.⁵² Penshurst park, adjacent to Penshurst Place was kept, but the others were eventually leased out and given over to agriculture or woodland.⁵³

The disgrace of the Boleyn family following Anne Boleyn’s execution in 1536 eventually lost surviving members their seat and park at Hever Castle, and parks at Henden and Kemsing.⁵⁴ Henden, from at least 1540, and Kemsing, perhaps long before, had ceased to be deer parks, while Hever retained its pale, but lost its deer, principally becoming a cony warren by 1560.⁵⁵

In Edward VI’s reign, extensive land acquisitions around Tonbridge by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, including three parks in Northfrith, Southfrith park or forest, Cage and Postern parks, proved to be short-lived following his disgrace and death in 1553. Cage and Postern parks had been disparked by the time Lambarde compiled his first list, but Northfrith and Southfrith survived longer.⁵⁶

Lastly, in Mary I’s reign, after the major failed rising of 1554 in Kent led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, the crown gained other attainted land. Allington and Boxley parks were seized from Sir Thomas Wyatt himself. Allington was on Lambarde’s list of disparkments, but Boxley park was omitted, having been disparked by the abbot at an unknown date.⁵⁷ The status of Sir Thomas Wyatt’s new Lea park at Boxley, which he attempted to create in 1549, is unknown, but it seems to have been short-lived judging by disputes over the identities of the two parks at Boxley later in Elizabeth I’s reign.⁵⁸ A defunct park at Broxham was seized from William Cromer.⁵⁹ Lastly, Sir Henry Isley’s involvement and subsequent beheading lost the family Brasted and Sundridge parks, both of which had been divided into fields by 1553, a park at Langley near Maidstone, which was disparked by 1576, and Sutton Valence park, which was disparked when John Leland passed by in Henry VIII’s reign.⁶⁰ Although in 1555 the four parks were restored to Sir Henry Isley’s son on payment of a fine of £1000, he fell into arrears and, having accumulated debts of £10,000, all his lands were returned to the crown in 1575.⁶¹

By implication, Lambarde attributed the loss of active deer parks to economic pressure, and some parks might well have lost their deer and undergone further steps towards total disparkment prior to seizure by the crown, perhaps due to financial pressure, family decline, or the different priorities of their owners. However, in the case of disparkment ‘within memorie’, it can hardly be coincidence that the successful deer parks in Lambarde’s lists had not been directly affected by political instability, while 15 of the 18 disparked parks on the 1576 list were those that had undergone enforced disruption of ownership during the religious and political crises of the period – the exceptions being Mereworth (misspelt ‘Merewood’ in 1576) and two parks at Oxenhoath about which information is lacking. Change of ownership would not have automatically led to disparkment, but abrupt interruption in park ownership and management accelerated conversion of parkland to farmland or woodland. Turbulent upheavals made park restoration more difficult and previous disparkment more entrenched, and for crown-leased parks the incentive to reintroduce deer was further diminished or restricted by existing subleases.

Lambarde accurately identified an accelerating rate of disparkment prior to the first edition of Perambulation, but by not revising his text in the second edition of 1596, he has left the reader with the impression that the rate of loss continued throughout Elizabeth I’s reign. However, a close examination of the scattered and fragmentary evidence shows that there was a deceleration of disparkment in the later decades of the sixteenth century as can be seen when comparing Lambarde’s lists with the parks depicted on contemporary maps. The deer parks that remained at the beginning of Elizabeth I’s reign were for the most part retained for several more decades, with a handful of new parks being created to balance the number that were lost.⁶²

In total, references to 100 extant and extinct parks have been found in documents relating to the period 1558 to 1625, including the 53 known active parks. On this basis it appears that Lambarde’s estimation that half the deer parks had been disparked was on target over a long period prior to the accession of Elizabeth I. However, by not fully updating his list or amending his text, the second edition of Perambulation failed to reflect the deceleration of disparkment in the later decades of the sixteenth century and early decades of the seventeenth century, during which time there were only ten verified disparkments.⁶³

Characteristics of Kentish deer parks

Having established which parks existed in Elizabethan and Jacobean Kent, attention will now turn to their distribution, density, shape and size, and longevity as active parks. Gathering even basic information for these aspects has not been easy because there is no corpus of park-related material, but from a wide range of sources, the characteristics of Kentish parks can be portrayed, if somewhat sketchily at times. Another obstacle is the lack of countywide research into the Kentish parks before the Elizabethan period, which would have given a useful basis of comparison.

Lambarde’s lists have provided a starting point for the names of parks, and the five contemporary maps give a vivid visual representation of their distribution as perceived by Elizabethan and early Jacobean cartographers. However, this section of the paper includes all Kentish parks, whether or not disparked, for which references have been found from the eleventh century to 1660. The sites of over 40 parks have been visited in an attempt to ascertain the course and survival of boundary earthworks and other features, and local historians have provided field-work details of a further 13 parks.⁶⁴

Distribution and location

Elizabethan parks in Kent were largely the legacy of previous generations. With only a handful of parks being set up after 1558, the choice of park location had been established decades or even several centuries earlier, so a detailed analysis of the factors determining the original distribution of parks lies beyond the scope of this study. However, some general comments can be made to indicate what might have influenced the earlier park-making process.

Research into the distribution of medieval parks in other counties has shown that several factors, including geology and soil structure, the location of woodland, settlement patterns and strategic sites, were universally applicable. Also to be taken into account would be the constraints placed on the ambition of individual landowners by the extent, nature and location of their land holdings.

In Kent a string of parks was located along the wooded, unproductive, shallow-soiled Greensand ridge from Surrey in the north-west to near Folkestone in the south-east. Here lay unexploited or under-exploited land where parks could more easily be carved out of woodland, which in any case was being cleared faster than that of the Weald, especially in the west of the county, because it lay nearer to settlements and to the London market.⁶⁵ The chalk North Downs were more imparked to the east, especially near Canterbury, on land held by the archbishop of Canterbury, but less imparked to the west of the Medway, an area well settled with fertile soil close to London which could be cultivated to supply the capital’s food markets.

Parks were introduced late into the Weald, but after the decline of the ‘den’ system in the fourteenth century in the west of the Low Weald many new parks were established.⁶⁶ However, due to the land management regimes of the archiepiscopate in favour of timber production in the east sector of the Low Weald, few parks were ever enclosed there.⁶⁷ Parks, dating mainly from the fifteenth century, were thinly scattered in the High Weald coming late because the waterlogged, wooded and isolated position of the area did not attract magnates, and wealth eluded it until the advent of cloth making which became well established by the mid-fifteenth century and expanded in the sixteenth century, peaking in about 1560.⁶⁸

The least imparked zones were the fertile hinterland of the north coast and Thames estuary, and the rich pastures of Romney marsh, where agricultural production at very early dates, probably meant that the opportunity for park creation was limited; enclosing land for parks resulting in unacceptable losses both in output and in rental income.⁶⁹

Much more detailed research into the origins of medieval Kentish deer parks would be required before a distinct picture of their distribution emerges, but the county’s distinct geological zones, its proximity to London, its ancient settlement patterns and the large holdings of the archbishop of Canterbury all contributed to a distinctness in the distribution of its parks. In addition, underlying all land ownership was the custom of gavelkind, which made it difficult to accumulate large landholdings, and which may well have inhibited early imparkment.⁷⁰

Parks in Kent are to be found in a wide variety of landscape settings, underlining the amazing variety of locations available to park creators. Cooling and Westenhanger parks are unusually flat; other parks, like Penshurst, Brasted, Sissinghurst and Halden, lie on gently undulating land; Leeds, Scotney and Stowting parks are within an amphitheatre of hills, secluded from public gaze; Greenwich and Lullingstone parks are spread across valley hillsides offering a panoramic view from the mansions below, while at Boughton Monchelsea and Lympne the mansions overlook their parks on the steep Greensand scarp below.

The juxtaposition of castles and parks has long been recognised and is present to a lesser degree in Kent.⁷¹ The friths and parks created around Tonbridge castle were a spectacular example, and, of the major castles, Saltwood, Leeds and Cooling also had parks. There are no signs that Dover or Rochester ever had such an amenity, but they occupied key strategic positions, and perhaps their defensive function took priority. New thinking about castles downplays their defensive role and emphasises the importance of their symbolic, ceremonial and status images.⁷² The need for an imposing residence sometimes meant that the castle was designed as much for visual effect as for militaristic function, and attention was also given to its landscape setting, with parks being one aspect of the display of wealth and power, as well as being ‘landscapes of production and pleasure’.⁷³ Leeds castle, surrounded by water, and lying in a sheltered valley overlooked by high ground, was not in the best defensive position, so the landscaped park and water features there seem to fit in better with the new thinking that aesthetic considerations might have been rated more highly.⁷⁴ Cooling castle, on the edge of the plateau above the marshes overlooking the Thames to the north, has a bleak aspect that was probably enlivened and enhanced by the park to its south.

The subtle interaction of ambition, finance, landholding, lordship, rural economy, geology, topography and aesthetics to varying degrees lay behind individual park locations, but in the last resort whether or not certain places had parks ultimately depended on the choice of individual landholders.

Park density

The publication of Saxton’s and Speed’s county maps in atlas form enables a crude estimate to be made of the degree to which Kent was imparked in the late sixteenth century compared with 16 other counties in the south eastern sector of England, stretching from Norfolk through Oxfordshire to Hampshire. In Table 3 the counties have been set out in descending order of area calculated in square miles, followed by the number of parks shown by Saxton and by Speed, with a crude estimate of one park to number of square miles alongside each.⁷⁵ A margin of error must be read into the total numbers for each county because although parks are shown as fenced rounded enclosures, there are certain ambiguities, especially as not all the parks are named. The omission of parks in Norfolk from the two maps is an anomaly that cannot be explained since a document of 1581 listed 18 parks, only one of which had no deer.⁷⁶ Overall, if Kent is typical, the number of active parks shown both by Saxton and Speed is likely to be an underestimate, but these county maps are the only direct comparison available to the historian.⁷⁷

In the south-east sector of England, Kent was the third largest county, after Norfolk and Hampshire, and had roughly one park to every 57 square miles according to Saxton’s map and 53 according to Speed’s. These figures put Kent midway in density of parks. The most imparked counties, by this rough estimate, were Surrey, half of Kent’s size, and Hertfordshire, less than a quarter of Kent’s size. Both these counties offered easy access from the overcrowded city of London to fine mansions set in parkland estates.⁷⁸ Even though Kent also bordered London, its lower density of parks might be explained by the earlier settlement patterns and higher agricultural fertility of north-west Kent, which restricted the availability of land nearer to the capital.

The impact park enclosures had on the countryside would have been considerable. Map 1 of west Kent, from the Thames in the north to Tonbridge in the south, and from the Surrey border in the west to Wrotham in the east, shows the distribution of parks with the areas they covered. Twenty active and 17 disparked parks have been included, with boundaries of a further eight parks unverified. Not all the parks held deer herds at the same time, but there is evidence to suggest that, even after disparkment, park pales or boundaries were maintained – and some boundary banks and ditches can still be traced on the ground.⁷⁹

Park shape and size

The characteristic park shape was broadly rounded, without kinks, to keep the outline as compact as possible, because this shape required the minimum length of fencing.⁸⁰ Kent deer parks while reflecting the general ideal, took on a variety of shapes, as can be seen in Map 1 of the parks in west Kent. Broxham, Henden, Langley and Panthurst parks most closely conformed to the rounded shape, while others such as Eltham Great park, Knole, Penshurst and West Wickham parks were more elongated. Greenwich park was (and still is) rectangular.

Park sizes were rarely mentioned in documents except in surveys, but areas have been found for 38 of the 53 active parks and 27 defunct parks in Elizabethan and Jacobean Kent, giving a total of 65 parks or two-thirds of the 100 known parks.⁸¹ Fig. 1 plots these parks, from the earliest to the latest in date. Park areas range from 25 acres to 1,600 acres at each extreme (omitting the most exceptional Southfrith and Northfrith estimated at 5,000 acres and 2,000 acres respectively, but divided into several enclosures).⁸² Because the dates when the areas were recorded span more than two centuries, for example, from 1432 for Greenwich to 1657 for Sissinghurst park, a park may well have covered varying areas during its history.⁸³ Some parks were extended, while others were reduced especially prior to disparkment, according to the whims or fortunes of their owners. Parks like Knole, and the later parks at Chilham and Mersham Hatch, began very modestly. In Knole’s case 74 acres had been enclosed by 1544, but by 1610 the park had been enlarged to cover 550 acres.⁸⁴ Chilham’s ancient park, a mile or so distant from the castle, was superseded in 1616 by a modest 25-acre park, subsequently enlarged, adjacent to the castle.⁸⁵ Over decades during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, the Knatchbulls with the agreement of the archiepiscopate and the manorial court acquired pieces of Mersham Hatch common to enclose into their park.⁸⁶ Glassenbury was among the parks that contracted. Walter Roberts was given licence to impark 1,600 acres in 1488.⁸⁷ If enclosed as licensed Glassenbury park would have been the largest in Kent, with a deep ditch with bank to the north of Old Park wood seeming to indicate its northern boundary.⁸⁸ However, by 1628 the area of the former parkland north of the Goudhurst road had reverted to woodland, and the park around Glassenbury house, to the south of the road, covered just 113 acres.⁸⁹ Some parks contained compartments from which deer were permanently excluded, but which, nevertheless, lay within the park pale. In a survey of 1521 Birling park covered 969 acres, over half of which was farmland. A herd of 300 deer was supported by 388 acres of pasture and woodland, and 74 acres of Downland, but the remaining 507 acres comprised 430 acres of arable land and 77 acres farmed by three tenant farmers.⁹⁰

Given the disparity of dates at which park areas were recorded, only tentative comments can be made about the sizes of late Tudor/early Stuart parks, but the wide range from 25 acres to 1,000 acres is shown on Fig. 2. Thirty-seven parks were between 100 and 300 acres, eight were below 100 acres, and 18 above 400 acres. Of the parks still holding deer the two smallest, covering less than 100 acres, were Chilham and South Park, and the four largest parks, Eltham Great park, Sissinghurst, Birling and Eastwell each covered between 600 and 1,000 acres. Excluding Southfrith (often referred to as a forest) and Northfrith, Kentish parks, averaging about 293 acres across a wide time span, about 18 acres larger than Hertfordshire’s average of 275 acres, the only county with which a comparison can be made.⁹¹

Longevity of parks

The longevity chart (Fig. 3) of the 53 active parks in Elizabethan and Jacobean Kent shows that 15 have documentation going back to before 1300, and a further nine to before 1400. Of the other 29, eight have earliest records dating to between 1400 and 1499, 15 between 1500 and1599, while six were new parks created after 1600. In Kent, therefore, a substantial group of the earliest parks had been in existence for over 250 years. As only nine earliest records in Kent were licences to create parks, many parks were probably well established before their first chance mention.⁹² Kentish parks such as Bedgebury, Cobham, Groombridge, Hever, Lullingtone, Scot’s Hall and Sissinghurst appear surprisingly late in documents after 1540, but are all likely to be much older given the prestige and wealth of the various estate owners, the Guldefords, the Brookes, the Wallers, the Boleyns, the Harts, the Scotts and the Bakers respectively.⁹³

Economic cycles and political instability affected the overall success of parks, but evidently, despite the peaks and troughs, some parks that survived into the late sixteenth century were more successful and long-lived than others. It has been suggested that the longest continuing parks tended to be the largest, although whether this was because they might have been more economically viable (their size allowing more flexibility in managing diversification), or whether the owners of smaller parks were less likely to have the income to support them, is a matter of speculation.⁹⁴ Looking at Kent, the various park sizes, shown in sequence of the earliest documentary evidence (Fig. 4), reveal some larger parks to be shorter lived than some smaller ones, but no strong pattern emerges. There is no obvious link between park size and the longevity of a park, at least as far as those parks that survived to 1625 were concerned. However, incomplete data makes it unwise to be categorical.

Another explanation given for longevity is the link between a principal residence and its park, with parks lacking a residence falling into disfavour.⁹⁵ This might well have caused some disparkment in Kent before the sixteenth century, but by Tudor times most owners had only one park, which in the majority of cases had a mansion within it. Apart from the archbishop and the crown, the few owners who retained more than one park in the county did eventually concentrate resources on the park linked to their residence. The Sidneys at Penshurst disparked their nearby parks at Southpark, Leigh and Ashour in favour of Northlands or Penshurst park adjacent to Penshurst Place; in Sevenoaks, the former archbishop’s park of Panthurst, with no residence, was disparked after being taken over by the crown, while nearby Knole park, surrounding the new residence, was extended.⁹⁶ Evidence at Birling is circumstantial, but it appears that the park at the older residence of Comford was allowed to lapse in favour of Birling park near the Nevill’s new mansion, a couple of miles away.⁹⁷ A park, which succumbed towards the end of James I’s reign, was Hungershall at Tunbridge Wells, retained until then by another branch of the Nevill family along with their ancient seat and park in nearby Eridge, in Sussex.⁹⁸

Discussion about longevity hinges on general factors such as political and economic stability, as well as continuity of dynasty and the quirks of family fortune which were also influential in ensuring the survival of an individual park.

Conclusion

Parks in Kent display many characteristics that would be familiar to medieval historians, which is to be expected with 59 of the 100 parks documented in the period 1558 to 1625 originating before 1485. The invaluable research undertaken by Cantor in compiling county lists of medieval parks might lead to the conclusion that Kent, the third largest county with 54 parks, had fewer parks for its size than other counties.⁹⁹ As can be seen in Fig. 4, compared with the figures for the 17 counties covering the south-east sector of England, this figure is the fifth highest, but well below Sussex with 114, Essex with 104, Hampshire with 66, Suffolk with 65, while Buckinghamshire equalled Kent’s figure of 54.¹⁰⁰ However, although no systematic search was undertaken, references to 103 medieval parks in Kent have been found, almost doubling the previous total, thereby increasing the overall density of its parks. This higher number of parks puts Kent more on a par with Sussex and Essex, but until figures for those and other counties are updated no realistic comparisons can be made, because all Cantor’s park lists are likely to be underestimates, as Rowe, for example, has confirmed for Hertfordshire finding nearly 70 medieval parks compared with 46 listed by Cantor.¹⁰¹

Despite the scarcity of information a picture has emerged about some of characteristics of Kent’s parks, but without other county studies, it is impossible to judge whether or not Kent’s parks were typical.

Whatever its size, topography and management, the presence of deer remained the raison d’être of Elizabethan and Jacobean parks. The enclosure of significant tracts of land into parks, demarcated by high fences stretching for miles across the countryside, were symbols of the power, wealth, status and exclusivity of park owners. Thus, as far as Kent is concerned, although economic factors cannot be discounted, especially when long-term trends are borne in mind, few park owners were tempted to take advantage of rising prices and buoyant rents to convert parkland into productive agricultural land.¹⁰² It might even be that because the London markets secured both high prices and steady demand, good profits could be made on other parts of estates, without the owners sacrificing their parks. The enjoyment of hunting by monarchs, nobility and gentry alike ensured the continuance of parks and led to strong urges to display and defend one’s own park, and to emulate and envy the parks of others. It was only with reluctance that any park owner gave up the pleasure of his park. Parks were valued for the cultural capital they afforded. Owners of parks could gain favour at court by following the monarchic passion for hospitality and hunting; maintain their status in their communities and among their peers; enhance the aesthetic setting and surrounding of their mansion by preserving one remaining park. Despite Lambarde’s impression that parks were rapidly being disparked, those remaining Elizabethan and Jacobean parks in Kent, together with newly created ones, continued to flourish.

acknowledgements

The author greatly appreciated the advice and guidance of Dr Stephen Hipkin of Canterbury Christ Church University in her study of Kentish deer parks.

endnotes

¹ County studies of medieval parks include: Rowe, A., Medieval Parks of Hertfordshire (Hatfield, 2009); Wiltshire, M. and Woore, S., Medieval Parks of Derbyshire (Ashbourne, 2009); Liddiard, R., ‘The Distribution of Parks in Hertfordshire: Landscape, Lordship and Woodland’, in Liddiard (ed.) The Medieval Park – New perspectives (Macclesfield, 2007); Way T., A Study of the Impact of Imparkment on the Social Landscape of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire from c.1080 to 1760 (Oxford, 1997); Hoppitt R., A study of the development of deer parks in Suffolk from C11th to C17th (University of East Anglia, 1992, ph.d thesis); Dye J., Change in the Norfolk landscape – the decline of the deer parks (University of East Anglia, 1986, m.a dissertation); Cantor, L.M. and Wilson, J.D., ‘The Medieval Parks of Dorset’, I-X (1961-1965) in The Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society; Wilson J.D., ‘The Medieval Parks of Dorset’, XI-XVII (1970-1980), in The Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society; Prince H., Parks in Hertfordshire since 1500 (Hatfield, 2008).

² Lambarde, W., A Perambulation of Kent conteining the Description, Hystorie, and Customes of that Shire (London, 1576); Lambarde W., A Perambulation of Kent conteining the Description, Hystorie, and Customes of that Shire (2nd edition London, 1596).

³ Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), pp. 48-49; Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1596), pp. 60-61.

⁴ Although a written list of 22 Suffolk parks and their owners survives from c.1560. Suffolk Record Office B449/5/31/36.

⁵ The National Archives (TNA) SP12/162/38 Cornwall; SP12/163/20 Dorsetshire; SP12/163/14 Hertfordshire; SP12/148/63 Norfolk; SP12/162/44 Somerset; SP12/162/34 Wiltshire.

⁶ Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), p. 59.

⁷ Ibid., p. 9.

⁸ Bruce J. and Perowne T.T. (eds), ‘Correspondence of Matthew Parker’ (Parker Society 42, 1853) pp. 424-426, cited with references to other letters in Alsop, ‘Lambarde, William 1536-1601’ (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15921); Staffordshire Record Office D593/S/4/14/16-18, letters between Sir John Leveson and Lambarde; Dunkel, W., William Lambarde, Elizabethan Jurist, 1536-1601 (New Brunswick, 1965), pp. 46-48.

⁹ Folger MS. X d.260, Folger Shakespeare Library. The author is grateful to Georgianna Ziegler of the Folger Institute for this reference. This list differed slightly from that which was later published.

¹⁰ Adrian J. M., ‘Tudor Centralization and Gentry Visions of Local Order in Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent’, English Literary Renaissance (2006) 36:3, pp. 306-334.

¹¹ Warnicke, William Lambarde Elizabethan Antiquary (Chichester, 1973), p. 30, also for other biographical details.

¹² Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), first page of Wotton’s foreword.

¹³ Tithe maps and c.1870 Ordnance Survey 6in. to mile series were invaluable.

¹⁴ Ordnance Survey TQ 425 412.

¹⁵ Hasted E., The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (Canterbury, 2nd edition, 1797), 5, pp. 346-349; Tookey, G.W., The History of Langley Park, Beckenham (Beckenham, c.1975), p. 9; Archaeologia Cantiana, iii (1860), 191-193.

¹⁶ Centre for Kentish Studies (CKS) U1475/E55/1, 1559.

¹⁷ British Library (BL) Add.Mss.42715.

¹⁸ Ibid.

¹⁹ Sparks, M. (ed.), The Parish of St. Martin & St. Paul Canterbury, Historical Essays in Memory of James Hobbs (Canterbury, 1980), p. 57.

²⁰ CKS U1450/T6/28, copy of CPR 2 & 3 Philip and Mary, 13/3/1556; Dasent, J.R. (ed.), Acts of Privy Council New Series VII, 1558-1570 (London, 1893) no.25, 9/12/1558.

²¹ CKS U386/P1.

²² Sheppard, J.B. (ed.), Literae Cantuariensis, The Letter Books of the Monastery of Christ Church Canterbury (London, 1889), III, p. 384, 1292 earliest date for Westwell; BL Add.Mss.42715.

²³ Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, 7, p. 534; CKS U1095/P3, 24/12/1640, ‘A plott of Ripton Parke ... as it lay in severall closes before it was Imparked’.

²⁴ Scott, J.R., Memorials of the Scott Family of Scot’s Hall (Walthamstoe, 1876) pp. 203-204; Cole M.H., The Portable Queen - Elizabeth and the Politics of Ceremony (Massachusetts, 1999), p. 186; Cockburn J.S. (ed.), Calendar of Assize Records, Kent Indictments under Elizabeth I (London, 1979) C/35/40/3/2545, 1597.

²⁵ Ravenhill W., Christopher Saxton’s 16th Century maps: the counties of England and Wales (Shrewsbury, 1992); a copy of the map of the unknown cartographer had been inserted at an unknown date into a copy of ‘A Perambulation of Kent’of 1576, signed and dated by Peter Manwood of St Stephen’s, Canterbury, in January 1590, now at CKS. See Hannen, H., ‘An Account of a Map of Kent dated 1596’, in Archaeologia Cantiana, xxx (1914), 185-9; Box, E.G., ‘Lambarde’s “Carde of this Shyre”, third issue with roads added’, Archaeologia Cantiana, xxxix (1927), 141-148; and Livett G.M., ‘Early Kent Maps’ in Archaeologia Cantiana, xlix (1937), 247-277.

²⁶ CKS U442 P106.

²⁷ Clayton J. and Meekums M. (eds), Maps of the Upper Cray Valley and West Kent, 1605-1946 (Orpington, 2003) for Norden; Arlott J. (ed.), John Speed’s England (London, 1953).

²⁸ Zell, M. (ed.), Early Modern Kent (Woodbridge, 2000) citing Letter Patent XVI, 1500, p. 714; CKS QM/SB 710, 2/10/1606; CCA DCB-J/X.10.16 f.209-210, 1576.

²⁹ TNA SP12/136/33 implying late creation of Bromley park; Vallance A., ‘The Ropers and their monuments in Lynsted Church’, Archaeologia Cantiana, xliv (1932), 147; apart from the early Kent county maps there is no evidence for the date of Throwley park.

³⁰ Physick, J., Five Monuments from Eastwell (London, 1973), p. 128.

³¹ Archaeologia Cantiana, xlv (1933), 168, c.1624, map of Ford park with deer.

³² Nichols, J., The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (New York, c.1977, reprint of 1823 edition), p. 341; Du Boulay, F.R.H., ‘Archbishop Cranmer and the Canterbury Temporalities’, English Historical Review, LXVII, no. 262 (January 1952), pp. 19-36; Morice R, ‘Anecdotes and Character of Archbishop Cranmer by Ralph Morice his secretary’, pp. 234-272, in Nichols, J.G. (ed.), Narratives of the Days of the Reformation (London, 1859), p. 267; Du Boulay, F.R.H., The Lordship of Canterbury, An essay on medieval society (London, 1966), pp. 317-329.

³³ East Sussex Record Office (ESRO) DAP Box 32, will of 4/5/1560; Suffolk Record Office HA43/T501/242.

³⁴ Bowen H.T., Rolvenden Parish and Hundred (Rolvenden, 1939), p. 23; CKS U1475 E23/2.

³⁵ CKS U1475/M73; CKS U1475/T92.

³⁶ TNA SP12/87/1-3, 15/5/1572; TNA SP12/908/29, 7/10/1574.

³⁷ TNA E178/3925.

³⁸ TNA STAC8/183/34.

³⁹ CKS U1475/T33, leases of 1553, 1572, 1574; Straker E., Wealden Iron (London, 1931), p. 219.

⁴⁰ See Table 2 ‘Lambarde’s list and 5 early maps compared’.

⁴¹ CKS QM/SB/122, 1596, Bore Place; Drake H.H. (ed.), Hasted’s History of Kent corrected, enlarged and continued to the present time, Part I The Hundred of Blackheath (London, 1886), pp. 192-193, Lee park; CKS U591 C261/5, 1599/1600, Tyler Hill; BL Add Mss.33899, 1558,1564, West Wickham.

⁴² TNA SP14/58/19, East Wickham; Heron, T., Antiquities of Chilham Collected by Thomas Heron esq., 1791, pp. 68-69, 1623, in private collection at Chilham castle; CKS U274/E5, 1618, Mersham Hatch; CKS U38/T1, Somerhill; CKS U350/E4, 1625, Surrenden.

⁴³ CKS U807/M1, 1556, Boughton Monchelsea; CKS QM/SR1/m.6d, 1605, Great Chart; TNA E178/6020, 1621, Halstead; CKS U48/P1, 1590, Roydon; ESRO Dyke-Hamilton 606, 1579, CKS U1776/P1, 1619, Scotney; TNA E164/44, 1605, Well Hall.

⁴⁴ Cony, an adult rabbit (http://dictionary.oed.com); Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), p. 9. This paragraph was unaltered in Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1596), p. 11.

⁴⁵ Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), p. 9, Estate of Kent. As a lawyer, Lambarde was probably thinking in terms of the phrase ‘within living memory’ which was normally taken to be a period of between 30 to 60 years.

⁴⁶ Du Boulay, The Lordship of Canterbury, pp. 244-245.

⁴⁷ Clark, P., English Provincial Society from the Reformation to the Revolution (Hassocks, 1977), p. 6; this estimate is derived from comparative data on monastic holdings in other parts of the country in P. Hughes, The Reformation in England I (New York, 1950-1954), p. 375.

⁴⁸ Du Boulay, ‘Archbishop Cranmer and the Canterbury Temporalities’, pp. 19-36.

⁴⁹ Morice, ‘Anecdotes and Character of Archbishop Cranmer by Ralph Morice his secretary’, pp. 234-272; Du Boulay, The Lordship of Canterbury, pp. 317-329.

⁵⁰ CPR c.66/1010 no.1047, p.213, 23/2/1563, Boxley; Morice, ‘Anecdotes and Character of Archbishop Cranmer’, p. 234, Canterbury Old park; Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, 9, p. 158, Canterbury Trenley; Hasted, Survey, 7, p.416, Westwell,; Hasted, The Survey, 8, p. 99, Elham; TNA SC 6/HenVIII/1727 7 1758, Folkestone; Centre for Medway Studies DRc/T166A, 1533/4, Cooling.

⁵¹ Lambeth Palace Library TA39/1, Chislet park, no deer since 1541; Lambeth Palace Library TA633/1, 1586, Curlswood park ‘once used as a park for deer’; Archaeologia Cantiana, xlv (1933), 168, now lost Ford park map fragment, 1624, shows deer; no evidence for status of Lympne park; Bromley Local Studies 43/7a, b, Bromley park divided into fields by 1646 but neither its dates of creation nor of disparkment are known.

⁵² CKS U1475/M59; Kingsford C.L. and Shaw W.A. (eds), Historical Manuscripts Commission Report on the Manuscripts of Lord De L’Isle and Dudley preserved at Penshurst Place (London, 1925), I, pp. xxiii-xxiv).

⁵³ CKS U1475 E1, 1539, Leigh; CKS U1475 T61/62, 1539, Southpark; CKS U1475 T33, 1553, Ashour.

⁵⁴ Astor G., Hever Castle and Gardens History and Guide (Norwich, 1977), p. 10; CKS U1450/T5/62; CKS U1450/T6/10.

⁵⁵ Surrey Record Office (Hoskins papers) leases from 1540 contain no evidence that deer were in the park; BL Harl.Cart. 86.G.54, H.16, H.53.

⁵⁶ Thirsk, J., in Zell M.L. (ed.), Early Modern Kent, pp. 87-88; Chalklin, C., ‘Iron Manufacture in Tonbridge Parish with special reference to Barden Furnace 1552-1771’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxiv (2004), 95-104.

⁵⁷ CCA DCB-J/X.10.17.

⁵⁸ Zell, Early Modern Kent, p. 32; TNA E134/30&31, 1588.

⁵⁹ Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), pp. 6-7.

⁶⁰ CKS U1450/E19, 1553; Chandler J. (ed.), John Leland’s Itinerary: Travels in Tudor England (Stroud, 1993), VIII, p. 88.

⁶¹ Steinman Steinman, G., Some Account of the Manor of Apuldrefield in the Parish of Cudham, Kent (London, 1851), p. 40; CKS U1590/T14/17.

⁶² As with disparkment it is not often possible to pinpoint date of park creation – Heron T, The Antiquities of Chilham collected by Thomas Heron Esq. (1791) 1616, Chilham; Hasted 7 p.269, 1589, licence to impark Eastwell; TNA SP14/58/19, licence to impark East Wickham; CKS QM/SR 1/m.6d, Great Chart earliest reference; TNA E178/6020, 1621/1622 inquisition, Halstead earliest reference; British Library Maps 188.k.3[4] Langley at Beckenham estate map; TNA E178/3941, 1609-1617, Lee imparked 1605; CKS QM/SI 1608/11/8, 1608 Mersham Hatch earliest reference; CKS U48/P1, 1590, Roydon earliest reference; ESRO DYK/607, 1597 earliest Scotney earliest reference; CKS U38/T1, by 1623, Somerhill; CKS U350 E4, 1621, Surrenden earliest reference; Symonson’s map, 1596, Throwley; CKS U391 C261/5, 1599 Tyler Hill in Canterbury earliest reference; TNA E164/44, 1605, Well Hall earliest reference.

⁶³ Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1596), Aldington; BL Cart. Harl.77.C.44. & 79.F.3., Bedgebury leases; CKS U1000/3 E5, 1597, Bore Place; EKAC U373 T41, 1593-1599, Curlswood leases; 1628 map owned by Marcus Sutcliffe, Glassenbury; CKS U1475 T92, 1610, Halden; ESRO ABE/52.1, 1633, leases back to 1618 show new tenancies in the former Hungershall park; Bruce, J. (ed.), Diary of John Manningham (Camden Society, XCIX, 1868) 1602, Otford Great park disparkment; Chalklin, C., Seventeenth Century Kent (London, 1965), p. 12, Southfrith; CCA DCB-J/X.10.20., 1582, Stowting tithe dispute.

⁶⁴ The author is grateful to Bowden, M., ‘The Medieval Park at Kemsing’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxvi (1996), 329-332, Kemsing park; Harold Gough, Ford park, pers.comm.; Chris Owlett, Northfrith and Cage parks, pers. comm.; Semple J., ‘The Medieval Deer Parks of Wrotham’, Archaeologia Cantiana, CXXVIII (2008), 179-210, Ightham and Wrotham parks; Sally Simmons, Eltham Great, Middle, Horn and Well Hall parks, pers. comm.; Tatton-Brown T., ‘Recent Fieldwork around Canterbury’, Archaeologia Cantiana, xcix (1983), 115-119, Canterbury New, Old and Trenley parks; Taylor, K., ‘The development of the Park and gardens at Knole’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxiii (2003), 155, Knole park.

⁶⁵ Witney K.P., The Jutish Forest (London, 1976), pp.154-186.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Brandon, P., The Kent and Sussex Weald (Chichester, 2003), pp.148, 177-181; Zell M.L., Industry in the Countryside – Wealden Society in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 12, 153.

⁶⁹ Thirsk, J., in Lawson, T. and Killingray, D., An Historical Atlas of Kent (Chichester, 2004), pp. 72-73.

⁷⁰ Zell, Industry in the Countryside, pp. 14-19; Clark, English Provincial Society, p. 7.

⁷¹ Beresford, M., History on the ground (London, 1957), pp. 187-236; Herring P., ‘Cornish Medieval Deer Parks’, in Wilson-North R. (editor), The Lie of the Land, aspects of the archaeology and history of the designed landscape in the South West of England (Exeter, 2003), pp. 36-37; Rotherham, I.D. (ed.), ‘The History, Ecology and Archaeology of Medieval Parks and Parklands’, Landscape Archaeology and Ecology, 6 (Sheffield 2007), p. 60.

⁷² Liddiard, R., Castles in Context (Macclesfield, 2005), pp. 1-11.

⁷³ Ibid. pp. 97-121.

⁷⁴ Ibid. pp. 97-98.

⁷⁵ County areas are from Smith and Gardner, Genealogical Research in England and Wales (Salt Lake City, USA, 1959).

⁷⁶ TNA SP12/148/63.

⁷⁷ Prince, Parks in Hertfordshire since 1500, p. 9, Rowe, Medieval Parks of Hertfordshire, p. 71, confirm that contemporary maps underestimate the number of parks; Prince, H., Parks in England (Isle of Wight, 1967), p. 2; Christopher Saxton’s map records 817 parks in England and Wales, but no parks are shown for Norfolk and parts of Wales.

⁷⁸ Lasdun, S., The English Park – Royal, Private and Public (New York, 1992), p. 42.

⁷⁹ Examples of parks on Map 1 include the east boundary of Broxham park, north and south boundaries of Ightham park, north boundary of Lullingstone, north boundary of New park, Otford, and west boundary of West Wickham park.

⁸⁰ Rackham, O., Trees and Woodland in the British Countryside, pp. 144-145.

⁸¹ 31 park sizes came from surveys; 24 from rentals, leases, grants and sales of land, charters, patents and licences to impark; six from maps and fieldwork, eight from court cases; and two from Inquisitions Post Mortem.

⁸² TNA SP16/522/133, 1625.

⁸³ Webster, A.D., Greenwich Park – its history and associations (London, 1902), p. 3, citing Petitions in Parliament 15 Henry VI; CKS U24 T207.

⁸⁴ Phillips, C.J., The History of the Sackville Family (London, 1930), II, p. 395, Appendix II; CKS U269/E66/1 and 2.

⁸⁵ Heron, T., Antiquities of Chilham Collected by Thomas Heron esq., 1791, p. 69.

⁸⁶ CCA/DCc/ChAnt/M/30, 1564; CCA/DCc/ChAnt/M/31, 1589; CCA/DCc/ChAnt/M/33, 1608; summarised CCA/DCc/ChAnt/M/32 c.1685-1696.

⁸⁷ TNA Charter rolls 16 m13 (8).

⁸⁸ A footpath runs east-west roughly along the probable north boundary of the large Glass-enbury Park – TQ 757 386 near Colliers Green to TQ 742 397 near Combourne Farm.

⁸⁹ Wyndham, D., Family History of Roberts (1952); original maps owned by Marcus Sutcliffe.

⁹⁰ TNA SC129/4.

⁹¹ Rowe, Medieval Parks of Hertfordshire, p. 27.

⁹² CPR 10/5/1341, Birling (or Comford); Sparks M. (ed.), The Parish of St. Martin & St. Paul Canterbury, Historical Essays in Memory of James Hobbs (Canterbury, 1980), p. 57, 1538, imparkment of Canterbury park ordered by Henry VIII; Hasted, Survey, I, p. 269, 1583, Eastwell; Tester P., East Wickham and Welling (Bexley, 1991 2nd edition), p. 38, 1610, East Wickham; Charter rolls 16, m13 (8), 1488, Glassenbury; Proceedings and Ordinances PC4 172, 1432, Greenwich; CPR 28/1/1348, Panthurst (or Sevenoaks); Page, W. (ed.), Victoria County History of Kent (London, 1908, reprinted 1974), I, p. 473, 1262, Westenhanger if site named ‘Hanger’ is meant; Lennard, ‘West Wickham Court’ in Archaeologia Cantiana, xiii (1880), 256, 1313-1399, West Wickham.

⁹³ BL Cart.Harl.80.B.36, 1544, Bedgebury; Rye, W.B. (ed.), England as seen by foreigners in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I (London, 1865), p. 256, 1559, Cobham; Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), Groombridge; CKS U1450 T5/65, 1538, Hever; CKS U967 M2, 1545, Lullingstone; Saxton’s county map, 1575, Scot’s Hall (unnamed, but in situ); Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1576), Sissinghurst.

⁹⁴ Rowe, Medieval Parks of Hertfordshire, pp. 26-27.

⁹⁵ Williamson T., Suffolk’s Gardens and Parks (Macclesfield, 2000), pp. 19-21; Hoppitt, A study of the development of deer parks in Suffolk, pp. 280-281.

⁹⁶ CKS U1475/E55/1, 1559, Southpark; CKS U1475/T33, leases of 1553, 1572, 1574, Ashour; CKS U1475 T61/2, 1553, Leigh; CKS U1450/T5/40, 1567, Panthurst park then rented out in plots. Lambarde has Panthurst disparked.

⁹⁷ Lambarde omits Comford, but its name appears in accounts (1586-1592 CKS U787/E9), without mentioning deer.

⁹⁸ ESRO ABE/52.1.

⁹⁹ Cantor, L., The Medieval Parks of England – a Gazetteer (Loughborough, 1983), pp. 42-43 and Addendum.

¹⁰⁰ The counties all lie in the S.E sector of England as selected for Table 3.

¹⁰¹ Rowe, Medieval Parks of Hertfordshire, pp. 4-5.

¹⁰² Zell, Early Modern Kent, pp. 102-103.

TABLE 1. LAMBARDE’S LIST OF PARKS: CHANGES IN THE SECOND EDITION

(showing those disparked in italics)

First edition 1576	Second edition 1596	First edition 1576	Second edition 1596
	Aldington	Leigh
Allington		Leeds
Ashour		Lullingstone
At Ashford		Merewood *	Mereworth
Bedgebury		Northfrith 1, 2 & 3
Birling		Otford 1
Brasted		Otford 2	Otford 2
Broxham		Oxenhoath 1 and 2
Calehill		Panthurst
Cage		Penshurst
Cobham		Postern
Cooling		Postling
Eltham 1. 2 & 3		St Augustine’s
Folkestone		Saltwood	Saltwood
Glassenbury		Shurland	Shurland
Greenwich		Sissinghurst
Groombridge		Southfrith forest
Halden	Halden	Southpark
Hamswell		Stonehurst
Henden		Stowting
Hever		Sutton
Hungershall		Westenhanger
Ightham			Westenh’r 2
Knole		Wrotham
Langley

* Misspelt.

TABLE 2. ACTIVE ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN PARKS IN KENT

(indicating whether shown in Lambarde’s lists and on the various

contemporary maps)

	Lamb.	Sxn	Anon.	Sym’n	Nor’n	Speed
Bedgebury	/	/		/	/	/
Birling	/	/	/	/	/	/
Bore Place
Boughton Malh. Old		/	/	/	/	/
Boughton Malh. South	/	/	/
Bromley*				/	/	/
Canterbury Kings/New	/	/	/	/	/	/
Chilham*
Cobham	/	/	/	/	/	/
Cooling	/	/	/	/	/	/
Eastwell*				/	/	/
East Wickham
Elham/Lyminge				/	/	/
Eltham Gt	/	/	/	/	/	/
Eltham Middle/Little	/			/
Eltham Horn/New	/			/
Ford		/	/	/	/	/
Glassenbury	/			/		/
Greenwich	/			/	/	/
Groombridge	/		/	/	/	/
Halden	/	/		/		/
Hemsted*		/	/	/	/	/
Hungershall	/	/	/	/	/	/
Knole	/	/	/	/	/	/
Lee
Leeds	/	/	/	/	/	/
Lullingstone*	/			/
Lyminge
Lynsted				/
Mersham Hatch*
Otford Gt	/	/	/	/	/	/
Penshust Ashour*	/
Penshurst Northlands	/			/	/	/
Postling*	/
Saltwood*	/
	Lamb.	Sxn	Anon.	Sym’n	Nor’n	Speed
Scot’s Hall	/	/	/	/	/	/
Shurland	/	/	/
Sissinghurst	/	/	/	/	/	/
Stowting*	/
Throwley*				/		/
Tonbridge N’frith (3)*	/	/	/	/	/	/
Tonbridge S’frith*	/	/	/
Tonbridge Somerhill
Tyler Hill
Well Hall*						/
Westenghanger 1&2	/	/		/	/	/
Westwell/Calehill	/	/	/
West Wickham

* No direct evidence of deer at these parks.

Table 3. Number of Parks per County in S.E. England and their Density FROM THE SAXTON AND SPEED MAPS

County	Sq. miles	SAXTON 1576	Density*	SPEED 1611	Density*
Norfolk	2,092	-		-
Hants.	1,682	23	73	32	52
Kent	1,537	27	57	29	53
Essex	1,532	44	35	48	32
Suffolk	1,512	25	60	27	56
Sussex	1,463	32	46	58	25
Northants.	1,017	23	44	24	42
Cambs.	858	5	172	5	172
Surrey	758	16	47	35	22
Oxon.	752	8	94	12	63
Bucks.	740	11	67	11	67
Berks.	726	11	66	11	66
Herts.	528	26	20	24	22
Beds.	463	12	39	12	39
Hunts.	370	6	62	5	74
Middx	282	3	94	10	28
Rutland	142	4	36	6	24

* One park to no. of square miles. Counties listed in descending order of size.

Map 1 Parkland areas of west Kent.

Fig. 1 Park size arranged in order of earliest date.

Fig. 2 Number of Parks by size range.

Fig. 3 Longevity of active Kentish Parks, 1588-1625.

Fig. 4 Cantor’s Medieval Park numbers for seventeen counties.