...in the footsteps of knights; a thirteenth century walk around Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells
As I walked through the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral to the Archives Library, I already had a strong sense of medieval history even before the brittle and slightly ragged thirteenth century parchment was spread on the desk in front of me. What I hadn’t expected was to be able to read it! Even though the language was medieval Latin, the script was surprisingly clear and instantly recognisable place names jumped off the pages, of the ‘perambulation of the Lowy of Tonbridge’ written in 1279.
A jury of twenty four knights perambulated the castle lands through about 30 miles of Wealden countryside around Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells. Their purpose was to define the lands belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Gloucester, Gilbert ‘the Red’ of Tonbridge Castle. The original manuscript in the archives is the Archbishop’s copy. A translation can be read in Harris’s History of Kent written in 1719, but eighty years later Hasted decided not to include it in his great work on Kent, remarking unadventurously that “the places… being obsolete and now totally unknown, the insertion of them can give so little information to the reader” (p.175, Vol. V). Undeterred, I continued my research.
There are sixty place names on the document and thirteen still exist today; they are Claygate, Oak Weir, Downingbury, Sunninglye, Hawkenbury, Culverden, Penshurst, Redleaf, Coppings, Priory Lands, Nizels, Romeshod and Hollanden. Another twelve are found in written histories, old maps and documents, and after locating them on maps I could confirm what W.V. Dumbreck had noted in the 1958 edition of Archaeologia Cantiana: in general, the old pre-1870 parish boundaries were followed. Thirty five places remained elusive but they could at least be transcribed with confidence because of the clarity of the handwriting.
Armed with the lines of the old parish boundaries and a list of the thirty five missing names, I explored on foot the bounds of Tonbridge looking for names on houses, road names or landscape features that might reveal the missing places. I linked public footpaths in order to follow the route as nearly as possible and some exciting discoveries were made. Very early on, east of Shipbourne, I was able to identify and follow a linear bank at the edge of the great North Frith, once the hunting forest of the Clare family. This was probably the course of the forest pale recorded in 1279. Another was seen much further round at Pembury, representing the forest pale at the edge of the South Frith. The route passes old moat sites which might have guarded their residents at the time of the perambulation. At ‘Nizels mead’ near Weald village there is a boundary stone, adjacent to a watery meadow. Another boundary stone is set in paving at the southernmost part of the Lowy outside the church of King Charles the Martyr in Tunbridge Wells. This site was probably marked by a distinctive oak, the only tree mentioned on the route. A hill with an old forge and known to be a centre of iron working was probably the ‘hill of Smethedonne’. These are just some of many discoveries.
When I finally marked out the Lowy boundary on a map it appeared very circular and led me to think that perhaps there was some truth in Robert de Torgini’s 12th century chronicle. He relates that he heard “many old people tell”, that soon after the battle of Hastings, Richard Fitzgilbert of Tonbridge built his castle and then measured out his Lowy with a line.
Walking the route confirmed to me what I already knew: the countryside in this part of South East England is extraordinarily beautiful. It changes dramatically from the steep rocky wooded hills of Tunbridge Wells and Speldhurst, to the soft rolling fields of Leigh, the dramatic backdrop of the greensand ridge at Underiver, the huge skies of the flat river meadows in Hadlow and Golden Green, and the sloping orchards of Capel and Pembury. There can be no better way of creating a Tonbridge Circular Walk than using one that was already walked and recorded seven centuries ago. A book of the route, divided into short walks with historical notes is now available. For more information visit www.tonbridgecircularwalk.co.uk. The publication of this book was made possible with an award from the Allen Grove Fund by the Kent Archaeological Society.
By Deborah Cole
Crossing the Medway at Ford Green Bridge
View from the route at Capel