Anglo-Saxon nuns and Nonington

By Peter Hobbs

Nonington is a rural parish in East Kent about two miles East of the A2 and broadly equidistant from Canterbury, Dover and Sandwich. Formerly some 4000 acres in extent, the mining village of Aylesham and the site of Snowdown Colliery were removed in 1951 to form a separate parish. The underlying geology is chalk of the Seaford Formation overlain by a thick deposit of brickearth. Hasted1 described the land as “fine, open champaign country, exceedingly dry and healthy…”

Much is known about the parish of Nonington in Anglo-Saxon times, both from Anglo-Saxon charters and from the Domesday Book. Here, we focus on Anglo-Saxon Oeswalum, an estate of no more and probably less than about 1200 acres, relatively small by the standards of the time. All authorities2 link it to Easole, one of the three hamlets that now make up the parish of Nonington. Therefore it perhaps covered an area roughly from near Chillenden in the East to Butter Street/ Nightingale Lane to the West and bounded approximately to the North by what is now Church Lane, Pinners Lane and Beauchamps Lane but then following near or to the North of the ancient roadway3. On the other hand, Clive Webb believes Oeswalum lies broadly to the North West of the old road as far as the Wingham – Barham road, a pre- Roman ridgeway4. There are plans for the Dover Archaeological Group and Clive Webb5 to walk the area

to see if there are still any natural landmarks, but until that happens, as a general indicator, this note based on philology will assume the former definition, which means that we are writing about an area where, by the

Above

Fig 1: Map of East Kent showing major routes and POIs

early 1000s, the original estate had become two. Broadly, one became the St Albans Court estate (Eswalt), formerly belonging to the Abbey of St Albans and then to the Hammond family. The other was the Fredville Estate (Eswelle), now belonging to the Plumptre family. The alternative would take in Womenswold, Ackholt and North and South Nonington.

Oeswalum was the subject of two court cases in the 820s6 between the daughter of Coenwulf King of Mercia and Kent and Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury from 805 to 832 AD. She lost and agreed to give up substantial lands and rents and this estate, and he made sure the records were written afterwards so that nobody could doubt how just the decisions were to put right the great wrong that he maintained had been done to him by her father.

We need to go back at least thirty years to understand what was happening. Oeswalum was then owned by Ealdberht and Selethryth, brother and sister7. The brother was one of Offa of Mercia’s top thegns. His sister had been appointed Abbess of two major but possibly run down royal monastic sites, Minster in Thanet and Lyminge, both of which needed some reformation. This was a political appointment, not a sinecure. Given the significance of women both in Mercia and later Wessex in those times8, one must assume Selethryth was not a figurehead but an able and influential woman.

Offa King of Mercia (broadly the Midlands then and the largest and most important of the kingdoms within the British Isles) was regaining control of Kent, having defeated the Kentish forces in battle. Offa and his successor Coenwulf seem to have retained their supremacy in Kent not by soldiers on the ground but by the proxy use of trusted supporters9.

This brother and sister were part of Offa’s plans to exercise influence and regain control over his new territory, particularly with Selethryth, to boost royal monastic revenues. Selethryth’s name may be West Saxon in origin or even Mercian, but the speculation is that she and her brother were perhaps family members of one of the junior Kent kings who had thrown their lot in with Mercia and then remained loyal to that line10.

Above

Fig 2: Coenwulf Coin

Offa lavished land grants on them, but it looks a though they already owned Oeswalum in their own right, possibly as a family inheritance.

These were difficult times: Offa took back Kent by force of arms, and at his death, there was a rising put down by his successor Coenwulf who then ruled, initially via his brother Cuthred, until his unexpected death in 820 AD. Another threat was the start of the Danish coastal raids – Thanet had already been attacked, and Lyminge was threatened – as well as the menace of the Kingdom of Wessex, growing into the power which in turn would take over

Mercia and Kent from 825 AD.

Selethryth was Abbess of Lyminge and Minster, royal foundations with finances not in the control of the ecclesiastical authorities (i.e. the Archbishop). Her job was to ensure that both establishments were revived to maximise income and support for the crown. Archbishop Aethelheardus, by his support, enabled her on this process, whereas his successor Wulfred was wholly opposed. Lyminge had been founded by Queen Aethelburh11, the daughter of King Aethelbert (who welcomed St Augustine) and was the wife of King Edwin of Northumbria, who was killed in battle with the pagans. She then fled back to Kent and was set up in Lyminge by her brother. Lyminge appears to have been the site of one of the Kent Kings’ palaces12, probably occupied once or twice a year as the King made his royal progress around his kingdom. Either within or alongside the complex, Aethelburh set up a monastic community. She was well regarded locally but was not a proper saint with a shrine that could attract a wider circle of donors. There is some evidence that the community was in decline in the mid 700s13. A factor might have been that unlike all the other known monastic institutions at that time in Kent, the nearest access to the sea or a navigable waterway was some 7 miles away and then via the steep escarpment of the Downs.

Despite being vulnerable to Danish sea raids, Minster was a thriving trading monastery in the then separate Isle of Thanet, owning at least three ships in the 700s and with toll-free access to various ports, including London14. As part of its religious attractions, Minster had St Mildrith, a popular cult figure, and

St Eadburh (successor to Mildreth as Abbess), who had a lesser but still significant reputation15. One expression of royal authority and probably also a demonstration of episcopal authority was the agreement for Abbess Selethryth to capitalise on St Eadburgh by moving her relics to Lyminge (where indeed she became a good earner for that Abbey.) However, this was no theft in the night business as happened two centuries later when the local inhabitants pursued the monks of St Augustines’ in Canterbury as they took away the relics of St Mildreth from Minster16. We know little if anything about Anglo-Saxon

ceremonial practices, but we do know that saints produced pilgrims with donations. Selethryth was a well-favoured political appointee and carried a responsibility to enhance the reputation and revenues of her royal masters. This move was both a marketing and a propaganda project, as much political as religious, so potential new customers would have been an important consideration

as well as the avoidance of any mishap in the transfer which might have reflected on the competence of the regime or the religious power of the Archbishop.

On that basis, the Abbess would not have undertaken the route by sea to Folkestone or Lympne and then by land, nor would she have crossed the Wantsum at Sarre with her holy burden. Although this was the main route to Canterbury, that was too far North and would entail a much longer sea crossing, probably to Wingham with exposure to Danish attack. Initially, that route would also have taken her through settlements that were the economic losers from the move. However, to go South17 and then through Ebbsfleet, Richborough / Stonar would mean only a very short exposed ferry crossing to the Sandwich area, and then to Woodnesborough, Eastry perhaps, and on to the security of her estate at Oeswalum: then, after joining the Roman Dover to Canterbury road via Womenswold or perhaps by the Barham ridgeway, on to Lyminge. This could have taken in the congregations of the chapel at Richborough, the minster at Eastry and an area of relatively high occupation18. Either land route could, if necessary, have been covered easily in less than a couple of days, but the latter allowed greater security and stops where there were significant settlements and the relics could be displayed. The Abbess herself would undoubtedly have been aware of the added value to her estate of having the holy relics stop there overnight to allow visitors from further afield. She, after all, was the boss of the entire process and could have set up a temporary shrine for pilgrims – publicity was the key to future income from the faithful and allowing others to make a signal of their public support for the regime. We know at least two existing settlements on her estate because

their burial grounds had been excavated19. The resting place would not necessarily have been where Nonington church now is: although the church is probably an Anglo- Saxon foundation, not this early, and the site of the present church is believed on the boundary of but not in Oeswalum itself20 (although Clive Webb disagrees). The route itself was probably the main and customary route for travellers between the two monasteries under Selethryth’s aegis because of the security it offered with the relative density of the population, the Abbess’ estate and the short sea crossing.

This visitation could explain a puzzle: the importance attached to the estate of Oeswalum in the written records of the period. After the death of Selethryth, probably in 814 AD, and then of her brother about 820 AD, the deeds (landbok) for the land were taken by a kinsman and

Above, top

Fig 3: Interpretation of a Danish Raid

Above, bottom

Fig 4: Wulfred Penny senior thegn Oswulf21 and delivered to the daughter of King Coenwulf, Cwoenthryh. She had succeeded as Abbess at Minster22 and was being prepared after the earlier murder of her brother to succeed her father on the throne. Archbishop Wulfred argued he was entitled to the estate because the Abbess sister and her thegn brother had agreed that after their demise, it should pay for a safe residence inside the walls of Canterbury for Selethyrth’s nuns (the monks had to look after themselves) from Lyminge in the event of a Danish raid. There is a deed to this effect23 dated 804 AD in which it is clear that St Eadburh was already enshrined at Lyminge, and this had been carried out under Aethelheardus’ jurisdiction, as was this deed as well. Archbishop Wulfred was installed in 805 AD. Shortly afterwards, Selethryth appears to have wrested back various Minster revenues, which would not have been in accord with his desire to restore all church revenues to his control. However, in 820 AD, he was not politically strong enough to press his case because he had just had to make up with King Coenwulf after a monumental dispute24. He failed to secure support from the Pope or Charlemagne’s successor. Coenwuf later attributed some responsibility to Wulfred for the murder of his son and heir, Kenelm. To avoid banishment, Wulfred reluctantly paid a fine of the equivalent of about £1million today as well as handing over vast tracts of his land holdings25, all of which confirm that the controversy was about more than the allocation of church revenues by a reforming Archbishop.

However, by 824 AD, Coenwulf unexpectedly died in the Welsh Marches; his daughter had been beaten to the crown by his brother, who in turn was then ousted by a cousin. Politically, Cwoenthryth was still important but now vulnerable, and Wulfred, with the support of the new King, went to court to recover the rentals of Reculver and Minster, restitution of his lost estates, and Oeswalum. Cwoenthryth lost the case and committed to handing over Oeswalum, but it seems she then endeavoured to hold onto it, offering other lands instead26. She may have succeeded, although the last mention we have of Oeswalum is in the will of Wulfred’s kinsman whom he had promoted to a senior position in the church27.

The King’s daughter, the Archbishop and then Werhard attached importance to Oeswalum, of which we now have no record. Was it because some religious event took place at Oeswalum during the presence there of the relics of St Eadburgh? Without being cynical, it was in the apparent interests of Abbess Selethryth, the King and Archbishop Aethelheardus that the saintliness of St Eadburgh should be scattered far and wide by whatever means. So was this the significance of Oeswalum? St Eadburgh was revered then, and nearly 300 years later, Lanfranc thought her sufficiently important to move her from Lyminge to his new foundation of St Gregory’s around 1085 AD28. But in later times, she was forgotten, even by her church at Lyminge. After the translation of the Saint, in 804 AD, Selethryth had a charter to convey Oeswalum to Christchurch following the death of herself and her brother, perhaps reinforcing the concept that it had a significance beyond just a movement of property capital.

But there may be other faint echoes of events of those times. Oeswalum had been split into probably two estates by the 1000s. In 1070 AD, we had the first appearance of Nunnyngitun as a name29. Dr F.W. Hardman proposed, with Gordon

Ward, an idea to Kent Archaeological Society members during the 1936 86th Excursion to Nonington. His fifty-page first draft of a History of Early Nonington30 argues his belief that Selethryth brought to Oeswalum not her nuns from Lyminge, but those from Minster, devastated by Danish raids31 and set them up in some settlement which Cwoenthryth then had no choice but to maintain32. By then, the Danish raids had made an establishment of nuns at Minster unsustainable, and Oeswalum had the advantage of not being on the direct attack route from Thanet to Canterbury33. Hardman argues that the site was called Bedesham in the Domesday Book, meaning “the house of prayer, the prayed for home” and that Hasted correctly identified the estate with the later Beachams or Beauchamps (named probably from Sir John de Beauchamp)34. He laments the

Victoria County History for attributing the name to Betteshanger.

Interestingly, Paul Cullen agrees with him35. Hardman also translated Nunyngton as “the tun or homestead of the nuns”, whereas all other authorities, including Paul Cullen, assert that it is equally straightforwardly the “homestead of Nunna.”36 Since then, Clive Webb has unearthed an earlier version as Nuningitun and points out that Paul Cullen and his fellow professionals did not know of the potential ecclesiastical presence. Hardman’s other thought was that it could be significant that Nonington Church was dedicated to St Mary, as was Minster, Lyminge and the Abbey of Winchcombe37, the place where Cwoenthryth’s murdered brother (later Saint) Kenelm was buried, and she was the first Abbess38. Finally, he refers to the existing ruins at

Nonington as a possible home for the nuns. The Dover Archaeological Group have now excavated there and as yet found no evidence of any church or indeed of an Anglo Saxon presence of any kind. However, a burial site dating to this period lies within 0.5 kilometres to the North, the inhabitants of which demonstrate elements of wealth and status39. A further site about 0.5 kilometres to the South has also just been excavated of a broadly similar date.

There may be one further clue. Clive Webb points out that at Domesday, the estates comprising Eswalt and Esswelle are a pocket of Crown territory surrounded by Christchurch and archepiscopal lands. However, the court cases ruled40 that Oeswalum should be handed over to Wulfred. But we know Cwoenthryth did not do so immediately: perhaps she never did so, and therefore, at her death, Oeswalum remained part of the Mercian patrimony and continued as Crown land after that. Maybe there were nuns there, a relatively safe refuge in a dangerous sea of Danish incursions, sustained in part by the legend of St Eadburh and ministering to a wide area so thus deserving charitable support once Wulfred was near the end of his life? There was some folk history of nuns on the site borne out by John Harris in his History of Kent in 1719, who links Beachams and a nunnery, as does the owner of St Albans Court, William Hammond talking to Boteler for Hasted in 178941. Later accounts link a chapel there to the monks of St Albans Abbey who had been given the estate in 1096, but these are without substance42.

It is far from impossible that some nuns were established on the site and that St Eadburgh did rest there en route to Lyminge. There is no material evidence so far for either event, but both seem plausible.

FOOTNOTES

1 E.Hasted: The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent ed, ix (1797-1801) 251

2 Mawer; Wallenberg; Hardman; Ekberg; Cameron; Smith; Mills; Watts; and Cullen. All are absolute that the linguistic case that Oeswalum is the source of Easole, Esswell and Eswalt, and Witney for example and Brooks accept this unquestioningly. There is however considerable interest in the translation of Oeswalum as either a geographic feature or a pagan site.

3 Stuart Brookes: Walking with Anglo-Saxons: Landscapes of the Dead in Early Anglo-Saxon Kent,

Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 14, 2007. Economics and Social Change in Anglo-Saxon Kent AD 400-900, BAR British Series 431 2007 57 Fig 24. The importance of this very old route, still partly recognised as late as 1915 in the Invasion Evacuation Plan from the Sandwich area, has been forgotten in the succeeding century. The Anglo-Saxon route identified by Stuart Brookes is still distinguishable on the roads and tracks shown in the Ordnance Survey map of 1801 leading from the Roman Dover to Canterbury road through Womenswold, Nonington and Chillenden.

4 I Margary: Notes on Roman Roads in East Kent. Arch Cant 61 (1948)129.

5 Clive Webb is the author of most of the information on the Nonington Village website.

6 NP Brooks & SE Kelly ed: Charters of Christchurch Canterbury, Anglo- Saxon Charters (British Academy) 2O13. 1 . Charters 59 and 59A with critical appraisal and commentary. This comprehensive publication subsumes and scholarly evaluates most of earlier writing around all the Christchurch Charters.

7 Ibid: 1. 403,469.

8 P. Stafford: Political Women in Mercia Eighth to Early Tenth Centuries, 3/41, in Gender, family and the legitimization of power: England from the ninth to the early twelfth century (ed) P Stafford, Ashgate 2006

9 MP Brown & CA Farr: Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, Continuous Studies in Medieval History, Leicester University 2001.

10 Brooks & Kelly: 1. 31,403

11 R Baldwin: Antiquarians, Victorian Parsons and Re-Writing the Past. How Lyminge Parish

Church acquired an invented dedication. Arch Cant 138 (2017).

Brooks & Kelly: 1. 28-9;465.

12 G.Thomas: Life before the Minster: the Social Dynamics of Monastic Foundation at Anglo-Saxon Lyminge, Kent. Kent Antiquarian Journal 93 (2013) 69-145.

13 Brooks & Kelly: 1. 31.

14 Ibid: 1 465.

15 R.Baldwin op cit; Brooks & Kelly: 1.

465. Eadburh was the only daughter of King Centwine of Wessex and was Abbess from 733 until 751.

She is credited with building a new church to house the shrine of St Mildrith perhaps enabled by her negotiation of reduced tolls on trade with London and the purchase of an additional ship for the Abbey trading fleet. S.Leslie: Dictionary of National Biography Smith & Elder 1888. The attribution of her substantial correspondence with St Boniface and St Lullus seems now erroneous. Baldwin op cit.

16 A.Thacker The Making of a Local Saint, 45-73, in A.Thacker & R.Sharpe ( ed): Local Saints and Local Churches in the early Medieval West, Oxford 2002

17 H.Clarke, S.Pearson, M.Mate and K.Parfitt: Sandwich the ’completist medieval town in England’ Oxbow 2010 13 .The difference in distance between the two routes is at most perhaps 3 km ( over a maximum of perhaps 34 km ) with the latter being the longer and almost entirely on land. Both routes could have used Oeswalum as a central staging point.

18 The minster at Northbourne is also nearby so that there are three accessible congregations at least in the area.

19 K.Parfitt: Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Nonington, Kent Archaeological Review 147 (2002)

154 -159. Nonington and some other AngloSaxon cemeteries on the east Kent downs in I. Riddler,

J. Soulat and L. Keys (eds ) The Evidence of Material Culture; Studies in Honour of Professor Vera Evison, Europe Medievale /1o. 2016;. Since this report, further burial grounds, so far unreported, have been excavated approximately

1.5 kilometres to the South of this site at Easole, and at Aylesham about 2.5 kilometres to the West.

20 That the nearest Christian burials of that period are not around the church but sited in groups elsewhere suggests that at that time there was no church there.

21 J. Crick: Church, Land and Local Nobility in Early C9th Kent: the case of Earldorman Oswulf.

Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research LX1 146 Oct 1988.

Brooks & Kelly 1. 13,403,583.

22 Brooks & Kelly 1. 13,33.

23 Ibid: 1 . 32,,403,583.This seems anomalous when Minster would have been more at risk than Lyminge. But we know nothing of the detail of the Danish threat then other than it was clearly perceived to be very real. The charter is witnessed by Coenwulf, his brother Cuthred and Archbishop Aethelheardus so was no lightweight decision. See also Note 33 below.

24 R. North: Revenue and Real Estate: Archbishop Wulfred and the Strange Case of Cynhelm; J.Roberts & L.Webster ( Ed ) Anglo-Saxon traces, Essays in

AngloSaxon Studies 4, Medieval and Renaissance Texts & Studies 405, University of Tempe, Arizona 2011.

25 Brooks & Kelly: 1.13.

26 Ibid: 1. 583, 602-3.

27 Ibid: 1. 584, 629.

28 R.Baldwin op cit; Brooks & Kelly: 1. 465.

29 Clive Webb op cit.

30 P. Hobbs: Dr Hardman and the Ghostly Nun, KAS Newsletter 97 Summer 2013 4-5.

31 Whatever the impact of the Danes, the rentals and income from Minster were worth wresting from Wulfred by Selethryth about 805 and then for Wulfred to go to court to retrieve them from Cwoenthryth in 820.

32 F. W. Hardman; An History of early Nonington. Written on the backs of paper from various sources, full of corrections and additions, the historical account includes translations of all the Anglo-Saxon charters concerned with the events under scrutiny as well as detailed linguistic identifications of

Oeswalum with Esswelle and Eswale, of Bedesham and of Nonington.

33 Recorded big Danish raids in 842 and 851 but smaller and earlier exploratory forays must have occurred.

34 Lyminge disappears from the record after 844 and Minster by 857. S.Brooks and S.Harrington: The Kingdom and People of Kent AD

35 Pers com.

36 There is a West Saxon King Nunna in the 600s.

37 But so were Sandwich and Reculver from earlier dates.

38 R.Baldwin op cit; Brooks & Kelly

1. 446; E.S.Hartland The legend of St Kenelm, 13-65, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 39 (1916)

. Cwoenthryth’s later vilification seems to have been propagated as the result of much later medieval monkish politics although Wulfred might not have demurred.

39 K. Parfitt op cit.

40 Brooks & Kelly: 1 Charter 59A.

41 Boteler to Hasted 7 Sept

1789 Canterbury Cathedral Archives, U11/433/289.

42 D.Knowles and R.N.Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, England and Wales, 2nd ed Harlow, 1971. P.Hobbs, Old

St Albans Court, Nonington, Arch. Cant.125 (2005) 285.