Place Names in Kent

by J. W. Horsley

Ecclesiastical Place-Names.

There are not so many as one would expect considering the importance and power and the possessions of the Church in Kent. Taking some as they occur to me, there are All Hallows, in Sheppey, so named from the dedication of its church to All Saints’. The Latin Sanctus and the Teutonic Helige are the same in meaning. So we have, too, in Lower Halstow the Saxon helige stow—the holy place. In a list of Jack Cade’s Kentish followers, in 1450, the parish of Omi Scor is mentioned, which puzzled me for a moment until I saw it was a contraction for Omnium Sanctorum, All Saints’.

The two Minsters, one in Thanet and one in Sheppey, both of Saxon foundation, are the Latin Monasterium, found later as Moynstre and then as Menstre. Monkton, earlier Moncstun and Monkynton, marks a manor given A.D. 961 by Queen Eadgiva to the monks of the community of Holy Trinity, which afterwards became the greater Christ Church, Canterbury. There are also, for the same reasons, Monks Horton and Monks Hill, by Herne Hill, in Blean. Bishopsbourne, earlier Bishopstone, and Bishopsdenne, denotes an episcopal manor. The old nucleus of Lydd was Bishopswic, and in Domesday Boughton Malherbe appears as Boltone Archiepiscopi. Preston, near Wingham (there is another by Aylesford, and a third near Faversham) is Priest’s Town, and denotes a place where there was a small college of clergy. That near Wingham is recorded in Domesday as Prestetune, and in a fine of Edward II. we have: “Preston next Wengham and Wykham Brewouse.” It belonged to S. Augustine’s Abbey at Canterbury. S. Nicholas at Wade is named from the dedication of the ancient church. At Wade represents the Latin Ad Vadum, at the ford, over the Wantsum, into Thanet, near the existing-bridge at Sarre.

S. Margaret’s Bay and S. Margaret’s at Cliffe retain their Norman dedications. The church originally belonged to S. Martin’s Priory at Dover. Lillechurch House, near Higham, marks the site of the old Priory of Higham. The Hundred of Lesnes (A.S. leswes, pastures) is the district once attached to the Augustinian Abbey (whence the present name of Abbey Wood) founded in 1178 by the Chief Justice and Regent Richard de Lucy.

Of the five parishes named from the river Cray two are named from the patron saints of their churches. S. Mary Cray is, however, called Sentlynge in Domesday Book. S. Paul’s Cray is a misnomer, since the dedication is to S. Paulinus, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards Archbishop of York. So in a deed of 1291 I find it as Creypaulin, and in a fine of Edward II., 1314, as Paulynescraye. In 1560, however, it appears as Powle’s Crey.

Brenzett, in Romney Marsh, does not suggest in its present form either a Celtic or a Saxon origin; but as its old church was dedicated to S. Eanswith, a popular Saxon Saint, also commemorated in the S. Mary and S. Eanswith of the original church at Folkestone, it has been suggested that Brenzett has been evolved in process of time out of Eanswith. Bresett and Brynsete (1416) are variants of the place-name. There is also the parish of S. Mary in the Marsh hard by. Newchurch, also in the Marsh, is Neucerce in Domesday (1036), but as there is no Norman work in the church, which is of Early English architecture, it is supposed that shortly before Domesday an older church had been pulled down. Then and still it gives its name to the Hundred of Newchurch in the Lathe of Limea or Limowart, which was re-named Shepway in the time of Henry the Third. Also in the Marsh is Dymchurch, earlier Demchurche. But earlier still it is said to have been called simply Dimhus or Dimhof, which would mean in Saxon the dark or hiding place; so that “church” may be a later addition to an old name. Eastchurch, in Sheppey, was, and is, the easternmost church in the island.

Place-Names from Persons.

We have seen how common in Kent are place-names derived from patronymics of the name of a family or clan, such as Kennington, the settlement of the Cennings, but there are others, mainly more modern, which include the name of an individual, who usually would be the lord of the manor. Thus some have imagined that Swingfield, near Dover, is Sweyn’s Field, as if the Saxons would have named a place after their piratical enemy. The older forms, Swonesfelde and Swynefelde, would more naturally point to swine, the keeping of which was the chief pastoral pursuit of the Saxons in the dens and clearings of the forest. Queenborough, or Quinborowe, however (earlier known as Bynnee), was named by Edward the Third (who built a strong fort there) in honour of Queen Philippa in 1368. Rosherville is very recent, being named after Jeremiah Rosher, lord of the manor in the nineteenth century. Sutton Valence was Town Sutton until 1265, when it became part of the possessions of William de Valence, half-brother of Henry the Third.

Boughton Aluph—Bocton Anulphi in a charter of Edward the Second—was the seat in the time of Henry the Seventh of the family of Aloff, to which Wye belonged. Boughton Monchelsea (Bocton Chanesy in the time of Edward the Second) owes its additional name to a Norman noble; and Boughton Malherbe (another Bush-ton, or town in the woods) was given as a manor to the Norman family of Malherbe. Bethersden can be traced back to Norman times as Beatrichesdenne, probably as held by an heiress of that name. So Patrixbourne appears earliest as Bourne until a Patrick held the manor. Capel le Ferne, near Dover, was originally Mauregge; but in 1175 the Capel family owned Capel’s Court in Ivychurch, and had estates in several parts of Kent. In the fifteenth century it was called sometimes S. Mary Marige and sometimes Capelle le farne, and in a deed of 1511 it appears as “Capelferne or S. Mary Merge.”

Shepherdswell, near Dover, has nothing to do with a shepherd or a well; but is an early corruption of Sibertswalt, as it appears in Domesday, i.e., the wood of Sibert. The phonetic changes are found in later charters and wills, Sybersysweld in 1474, Sybberdiswold 1484, Shipriswold 1501, Shepswold 1506, and Sheperterswold in 1522. Suabert, or Sieberht, was a great Saxon thane, and granted land in Sturgeth (Sturry) and Bodesham to St. Domneva’s new Minster in Thanet, while in a charter of 814 we read of Selebertineg-lond. Great Chart was originally Selebert’s Chart. Sibbertston (or Selebertston) was a sub-manor in Chilham, and there is still the Hundred of Sebrittenden or Selebertsden in what was the old Lathe of Wye.