The Saxon Charters of Burmarsh

( 133 ) THE SAXON CHARTERS OF BURMARSH. BY GORDON WARD, M.D., F.S.A. THESE charters, of which there are several, contain much that is of great importance to students of the origin of Romney Marsh. The viUage and church of Burmarsh he at the eastern end of the marsh in the Hundred of Worth. The parish is bounded on the north by the ancient course of the river Limen and on the south by the parish of Dymchurch. It is wholly within the marsh and its eastern extremity adjoins the shingle banks towards Hythe. THE GAMELANWYBTHE CHABTEB. The original of this charter is in the British Museum (Cotton Augustus, II. 73) and is reproduced in Part III, Plate 11, of the FacsimUes. It is dated in the year 946 and records a grant by King Eadmund, King of the Enghsh, to two brothers named Ordhelm and AUwold of land which is described as foUows : " Aliquam portionem hereditatis meae in aeternam possessionem concedo. quod Cantigene secundum suam propriam linguam dicunt. an Ivclaete et insuper. x. segetes. ubi ruricoli appellativo usu ludibundisque vocabulis nomen indiderunt. aet Gamelan wyrthe." This may be translated: " I grant in eternal possession a portion of my inheritance which the men of Kent in their own tongue caU a yokelet and also ten corn fields where the countrymen have humorously given it the name of the Old Man's farm." The construction is not entirely free from difficulty and it may be read that only the ten corn fields were caUed Gamelanwyrthe. But the charter is endorsed " This is thaes landes boc aet Gamelan wyrthe " and it is hkely that the name was extended then or later to cover the whole area. It is certain that at a later date both words " Gamelan " 134 THE SAXON CHARTERS OF BURMARSH. and " Wyrthe " are found over a much larger area than that to which the boundaries given in this charter can weU apply. These boundaries are described as foUows : " This synt tha land gemaero to gamelan wyrthe. suth fealcing rip oth sae. widan fleot mearc on west hand aet thara hina lande to folces stane & thonne thaes biscopes mearc on north heaUe & on east heahe ut to sae." This may be translated : These be the land marks of Gamelan Wyrthe. South Fealcing Rip as far as the sea. The Widan Fleot mark on the west hand at the land of Folkestone brotherhood. And the Bishop's mark on the north side. And on the east side out to sea. It wiU be noted that nothing has been recorded so far which indicates that this charter has anything to do with Burmarsh. Birch (Cart. Sax. 813) suggests that the land was " near FoUcestone " ; no doubt because it was near land of the Monastery of that place. But we know from other sources, to be mentioned presently, that the brotherhood had land in Romney Marsh and that this land was the southern boundary of Burmarsh. To this fact we may add that this land was certainly in Worth Hundred, that there was also a Widan Fleot in Worth Hundred (WaUenberg, Kentish Place Names, 267, where this charter is fully discussed but without definite conclusions), that Gamelan reappears in Gammon's Farm and Gammon's field, also in the neighbourhood of Burmarsh and that it is in Romney Marsh that we expect to find a shingle beach described by the distinctive term of Rip or Rype. We are therefore justified in looking for Gamelan Wyrthe in Romney Marsh and in the locality which these names suggest, that is, near Burmarsh in the Hundred of Worth. Passing now to the boundaries given we find that there was sea on the east and sea also on the south but here with the " Fealcing Rip " interposed. There is no doubt that the present boundary of Romney Marsh in this area is further inland than once it was. Dymchurch WaU was moved back 150 yards somewhere STUTFALL CANAL WEST HYTHE i HYTHE BURMARSH MANOR + CHAPEL \