Edenbridge.—Edeling-bridge, 1225, Ethonbrigge 1457, Edonbregge 1473, Edinbregg and Edingbregg 1483, Etonbrigge 1499, Etonbreg 1528, Etonbridge 1534, Edulwestbridge 1539, with other forms of which I have not noted the dates, Edelmesbrigge, Pons Edelmi. The bridge element is clear throughout, but it would also seem that the old name of the river Eden was the Edel. Of this there may be evidence which I have not yet come across.
Bethersden in its earliest form is Beatrichesdenne (1194), which, on the analogy of other places, would seem to point to the church being dedicated to a local S. Beatrice; but at the same date, and since, its patron saint was S. Margaret. Possibly an heiress Beatrice held the manor, as Patrixbourne is called, not from the saint of the Church, but from one who held the manor, which in Domesday was simply called Bourne. Later I find Beterisdenne 1389, Betrycheden 1468, Betresden 1535, Beatherisden 1552, and later Beathersden, Beddersden (by Kent dialect change of th into d), and Bethersden.
Charing is Ciorminege in a Saxon charter of 799 A.D., which proved too hard for old English or middle English mouths, so that one finds many later variants, such as Cheerynge 1396, Carings, Cerringes (and Cherinche in Domesday Book 1036), Cherrving (temp. Edw. 3rd), and at last Charing in 1505.
Cuxton, probably derived from a personal name, like Cuckfield in Sussex, is Codestane in Domesday, Coklestone 1472, Cokston 1503, Cokynston 1533, Coxston 1538, Cokestone 1559, and Codstan, Coklestane, Colestane, Cukelstane, and Cookstone in other documents.
Goodneston, near Ash and Wingham, is no doubt Goodwin’s Town, and once had the name of “Godstanstone-les-Elmes, alias Nelmes, near Wingham.” In 1208 it was Gutsieston, but in 1512 had settled down into Godenston, previous variations having been Goldstaneston, Gounceston, Groceston, Gusseton, and Guston.
Saxon or Jutish Suffixes.
In the earliest days of which we have knowledge all Kent was practically either forest or marsh, with a little cornland in Thanet and sheep pastures in Sheppey, and it was plainly on the edges of the forests (Blean and Anderida running right across the county from Whitstable to Cranbrook) that the early settlers from Jutland made their homes. Like pioneer backwoodsmen in Canada and elsewhere, they had first to clear of trees, and then to fence, the spot each family had chosen. For 25 years I have passed annually through the agricultural districts of Belgium, Alsace, Lorraine, and Switzerland (and sometimes France), and two things always strike me—that English agriculturists are not on the whole so thrifty, so tidy, or so hardworking, as their Continental brethren, and that abroad they seem to have neither need nor desire for hedges or other fences. Our colonists in England, however, show in place-names how necessary they thought enclosures to be.
First there is the ubiquitous “ton” as a suffix. The sons of Ælla, the Ellings, made their Ellington. Now “ton” means an enclosure, and especially enclosed land with a dwelling thereon. Then it comes to signify the house on the enclosure. In Scotland even now the “toun” is the farmhouse and outbuildings, and in Kent I find in a charter of 1432 a conveyance of “land with all Houses ... called Wattyshagh, formerly called Taune.” Then, as the original house became a nucleus, and a hamlet swelled into a village, and a village into a town, we got our modern sense of the word, which, however, is later than the Norman conquest.
Even earlier than “ton” would be “field,” which is not the same as lea or mead, but denotes a patch of felled or cleared land. So we have our Chelsfield, Oakfield, Ifield, Broomfield, Whitfield, Swingfield, Fairfield, Hothfield, Stalisfield, Clexfield, Longfield, Fieldgreen, and Netherfield, in the more forestal part of Kent, while in the list of parishes in the Rochester diocese, where marsh and down prevailed, I find only one parish—Matfield—which suggests old felling of trees. Sometimes, however, there would be attractive glades or leys on the outskirts of the forest, already pastured or cultivated to a certain extent. Hence arose not only place-names, but nick-names (sur-names came much later) of persons who lived or worked therein, such as John of the Horse Ley, John of the Cow Ley, John of the Sheep Ley, John of the Swine Ley, which later became surnames. Isaac Taylor enumerates 22 leys in Central Kent, but one cannot test his figures without knowing what map he used. Hence as place-names our Hartley, Swanley, Langley, Bromley, Oakley or Ockley, Hockley, Bickley, Whitley, Boxley, Mydley, Barley, Brenchley, Elmley, Ripley, Angley, Beverley, Gorseley Wood, Harley, Pluckley, Throwley, Bexley, Leybourne, Shirley, Kelmsley, Ridley, Tudeley, etc.
Then there were, and are, the Dens, forty-two of them in Central Kent, says Isaac Taylor; but Mr. Furley, in his Weald of Kent, says that the great manor of Aldington alone possessed forty-four dens. It was probably a Celtic word adopted by the Saxons, and designated a wooded valley mostly used for swine pasture. So we have the Ardenne forest in France and Belgium, and elsewhere in England Henley in Arden and the Forest of Arden, which stretched from Gloucestershire to Nottingham. Down to the 17th century the “Court of the Dens” was held at Aldington, near Hythe, to determine pasture rights and wrongs.