Sudtone, i.e., the town south of Dartford, distinguished from other Suttons by the later addition of “at Hone,” which is said to mean low in the valley.
Elesford, our Aylesford, is so spelled in Domesday, but in the Saxon Chronicle it is Egelsford, and in Nennius Egisford. It may very well have been named by the Saxons after the Teutonic hero-archer or demigod Eigil, though the Celtic Eglwys, a church, has been suggested. It also appears as Ægelesthrep, and for this a personal name (e.g., Ecglaf), with threp or thorp for town has been suggested. But thorp we get from the Danes, and find chiefly in the N.E. There are none in Kent.
The place-name difficulty, however, is intensified when we find, according to Lambarde in 1570, 13 Hundreds in S. Augustine’s, 14 in Shepway, 18 in Scray, 14 in Aylesford, and 8 in Sutton-at-Hone, many of them being long obsolete names, such as Cornilo in S. Augustine’s, Franchesse in Shepway, Calehill in Scray, Eythorde in Aylesford, and Coddeshethe in Sutton-at-Hone. And then in some places there are Half-Hundreds, which, however, did not exist before the reign of Edward II.
As a matter of nearer local interest I may quote the divisions and assessments in the time of the Black Prince of the boroughs of the Hundred of Maydstone.
| £ | s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borough of Maydestone was assessed | at | 19 | 9 | 2 |
| Westre (now West Borough) | at | 44 | 2 | |
| Stone (now Stone St. Ward) | at | 78 | 2 | |
| Loose | at | 34 | 4 | |
| Detlinge | at | 58 | 4 | |
| (These two villages were attached to Maidstone ecclesiastically until the reign of Elizabeth). | ||||
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| Lynton and Crookherst | at | 50 | 8 | |
| East Farleyghe | at | 45 | 1 | |
| Boxley | at | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Sum | £38 | 18 | 3 | |
I do not understand the omission of the borough of Week or Wyke—whence Week Street—of which the old manor house still remains in Week Street, unless it was then included in Boxley.
The study of the place-names of a county (as has been well done for our neighbour Sussex) mainly confines itself to the derivation and meaning of existing towns and villages, rivers, and hills, and I have done little more in these notes. But the subject is not then exhausted, for there is much of great interest to be gathered from the names of Hundreds, of Manors, and even of separate farms, and their consideration would largely extend the enquiry. For example, the Hundred Eyhorne in 1347 had the manors of Herbyltone (Harbledown in Harrietsham), Rissheforde in Hedcorne, Bromfield and Ledes, Sutton Valence, Olecombe, Heryetesham, Thorneham, Eynton, Bengebery, Wrensted, Frensted, Yoke, Wytchlinge, Aldington Septvance, Bocton, Malherbe-cum-Wormsell, Fokeham, Stockberye, Langele, Bygnor, Aldington Cobham, Otteham, B. Monchelsey alias Westboltone, West Farnebourne, Shelve in Lenham, Leneham, Downe, Berghestede, Bugeley, Cherletone, and Bressinge, many of these names being very unfamiliar now.
