Memories of Malling and its Valley. With a fauna and flora of Kent, etc

Front matter

MEMORIES. OF MALLING AND ITS VALLEY. LEYBOURNE CASTLE MEMORIES OF MALLING AND ITS VALLEY; WITH g- Jktura airtr $\om as §Uttt. \t Eev. C. H. FIELDING, M.A., SECOND-CLASS LAW AND HISTORY, OXFORD J EXHIBITIONER OF TONBRIDGE SCHOOL AND LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD ; CHAPLAIN OF MALLING UNION, KENT. AUTHOR OF "SYMBOLISM," "HANDBOOK OF HIGHAM," ETC. DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE EARL STANHOPE. HENRY C. H. OLIVER, PUBLISHER, WEST MALLING, KENT. London Agents : E. MAELBOEOUGH & Co., 51, Old Bailey, E.C. 1893 iAll Rights Reserved.] TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF STANHOPE. My Lord, — I have much pleasure in dedicating this book to your lordship, because of the lively interest you take in all matters historical and archæological which concern England in general, and, more especially, this county of Kent.

It would take a lifetime to describe accurately all that can be learned in these matters in our whole county; more particularly if, as I have done, one attempted anything like its flora and fauna : I have, there fore, selected a district of Kent known to me from childhood, which affords us many monuments and records of individuals, who have lived in the varied scenes of English History, that teach us by the means of the small valley of Mailing how one of the many similar districts into which our country can be divided gives existing proofs of what has happened in it from the very earliest times. Scattered about us, though frequently unnoticed among the rough flint stones that bestrew our paths, are the uncouth though sharp tools of the earliest races that lived in our island; but hereabouts the prehistoric period is still more plainly marked by monuments like Kit's Coty House, the Countless Stones, the Coffin Stone, the fallen stones at Addington, and the Dolman at Coldrum.

Leaving this period behind, we find ourselves amidst written annals and archæological facts, that record in this valley the different scenes of English history from the earliest times to the present day. The British period is marked by weapons, coins, and orna ments ; perhaps by the paved causeway under the Medway at Aylesford, and the grass road popularly known as the Pilgrims' Path. The Roman period can be traced by relics found at Holboro', Snodland, and in most of our parishes, which prove beyond a doubt that the world-subduing race once trod this valley. The Saxon period is distinguished by weapons, by ornaments, by coins, by roads, by ancient battle-fields, and by documents V vi TO THE RIGHT HONOURABIE EARI OF STANHOPE. that record the grants of many of the Saxon princes of this country, such as those of Egbert, king of Kent, Offa, king of Mercia, Egbert, Ethelwulf, Ethelstan and Edmund, and perhaps by some of the oldest parts of the church of Trottescliffe.

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks

AMONGST the many lovely valleys of which Kent can boast, none perhaps excels in beauty the Vale of Malling, which can be so well viewed from the neighbouring chalk hills. Not only its beauty, but its varied flora and fauna, and above all its history, make it repay the lover of nature or antiquity, or the student who prefers the chronicles of his own native land to those of the Continent. In the county of Kent (as will be seen by the appended lists of natural history specimens at the end of this book) are to be found a great number of the most beautiful of the various members that form the fauna and flora of the British Isles, most of which may be found in this fertile vale. From Holly Hill (642 ft.), or the Vigo (680 ft.), the eye may wander over this lovely valley, from the ground beneath one's feet to where the greensand hills, clothed with the Mailing, Great Comp, and Mereworth woods, shut out the scene ; and from the bank.*-: of the muddy, meandering Medway, to where the valley is almost closed near Wrotham.

The parishes inclosed in this tract are West or Town Mailing, East Mailing, Ditton, Aylesford, Allington, Snodland, Hailing, Paddlesworth, Birling, Leybourne, Ryarsh, Trottescliffe, Addington and Offham. These parishes were at one time all of them in the bishopric of Rochester, saving East Malling, which was a peculiar of the archbishop ; but during the recent changes of that see, all except Aylesford, Hailing and Snodland (whose fortunes have been attended by Paddlesworth, now no longer considered, though really a separate parish) have been transferred to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Addington, Birling, Ditton, East and West Malling, Leybourne, Offham, Ryarsh and Trottescliffe continue in the deanery of Malling, to which deanery East Malling was added. Allington was during these last twelve months transferred MALIING AND ITS VAIIEY. to the Sutton deanery, without any regard to geography or history.

While Aylesford, Snodland and Hailing, which belonged to the old Rochester deanery, now make part of the division of Rochester diocese which is known as the Cobham deanery. These parishes are all in the jurisdiction of the Mailing division of magistrates, with the exception of Hailing, which is in the Rochester division ; and with the same exception they all form part of the Mailing Union. They are all in the Lathe * of Aylesford. By the different Reform Bills these parishes have been transferred to the Parliamentary Divisions of West Kent, Mid Kent and Medway, according to the different ways into which the county has been divided. Though these parishes have never been very populous, they have maintained their own through every period of English history, owing to the bountiful supply of water and the fertility of the district.

We subjoin a table of their population in the order of the last census : — This district has been always well supplied with water, for not only does the Medway bound the valley, but also several other streams that spring from the foot of the chalk hills in the Gault on one side, and from the overflow of the reservoirs that lie in the greensand range on the other flow through it. The most important of these streams takes its rise at Nepicar, in Wrotham, and is fed hy one of those peculiar underground springs known in Kent as Nailbournes (a word of uncertain origin), which overflow.at certain periods in a number of years, and finding its way though Addington Park and past Ryarsh Church, is joined by a considerable rivulet that rises near St. Leonard's Tower, in Mailing, where there is an archway and a paved bottom (perhaps this once formed a baptistery to St. Leonard's Church), passes under the Mailing and Tonbridge road, forms an ornamental * Kent is divided into five divisions, called Lathes : these Lathes, proceeding from west to east, are Sutton at Hone, Aylesford, Scray, Shepway, and St. Augustine.

Parish. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 1891. Snodland with Paddlesworth Aylesford .... East Malling HaUing .... West, or Town Malling Birling .... Ditton Ryarsh .... Offham .... Trottescliffe Addington .... Leybourne ... Allington .... 500 1344 1578 448 1784 511 244 431 358 305 208 255 37 900 1487 1741 550 2081 620 235 449 372 253 220 268 51 1078 2057 1974 760 2086 662 255 447 411 293 211 289 66 1844 2100 2326 838 2077 718 287 475 448 288 261 271 93 2826 2800 2383 1273 2242 884 336 552 358 296 264 277 147 3187 2937 2380 2091 2028 1384 878 514 397 286 273 270 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 pond, and proceeds onwards to the abbey grounds, where it once fed the fish ponds of the nuns; leaving them by the cascade built by Mr. Foote in the year 1810, so well known to all visitors to Mailing for its picturesque appearance, it runs through the bottom of what are called Banky Meadows, where it formerly was utilised for the tanyards which once gave Mailing the importance it possessed.

The two streams together unite to form the Leybourne mill pond, just below which the rivulet — no doubt in ages past — was used for the mote to Leybourne Castle, traces of which may still be seen. Keeping not far from the road it runs to Snodland, before reaching which place a considerable stream from Birling joins it, one of the heads of which is an iron spring, said to have been one of the constituents of the Birling drink, — a bottle of this is reported to have been an infallible cure for the bite of a mad dog. At Snodland this rivulet supplies the water to the paper-mills, and falls into the Medway after a winding course of about seven or eight miles. This stream was once, no doubt, the river that formed the valley. Another brook that rises in the uplands of East Mailing, and turns the cornand paper-mills there, once formed a mote round Brad bourne House, where there is still a pond ; and then, passing across the London and Maidstone roads, it falls into the Medway a httle below Aylesford.

On the other side of the river the Boxley stream and Cosington spring are both well known. This great supply of water has, from time immemorial, been most serviceable for cornand paper-mills, for which East Mailing and Snodland have been famous for two hundred years. At the former place, we are told, the cardboard called millboard was first manu factured by Mr. Barling some forty or fifty years ago. The plentiful moisture has made this land valuable for orchard purposes, and at Leybourne and Snodland forms fine pasture land ; at the former place were bred the famous horses that won the Derby for the late Sir Joseph Hawley, viz. : Musjid, Teddington, Bedesman and Blue Gown.

Chapter II. The Early Period Of English History

THE valley which we have already described, which forms the subject of our history, was filled in the earliest days by the great forest of Andredswolde, which appears to have covered the whole country between the North and South Downs, and was one hundred and thirty miles in length. We may here remark, in passing, the statement that the beech not being a native of Britain, resting as it does on the sole authority of Julius Cæsar, who says that timber of every kind which is found in Gaul also grows in Britain except the beech and the silver fir,* can hardly be beheved, since the short time that that commander stayed in this country was not sufficient to explore this mighty forest. At the foot of the chalk hills this great forest was bounded by what is most probably the oldest road in this country, which is popularly known as the Pilgrim's Path, and which, entering this county from Surrey, runs on to Canterbury.

This road passes into our district from Wrotham at Trottescliffe, and traverses that parish and Birling to Snodland, then on to Hailing, where a branch road went on to Rochester ; but the main road crosses the Medway, and proceeds under the Downs by Debtling and Hollingbourne. As might be expected, this road forms the basis of all discoveries of an early period. At Wrotham have been found a number of British bronze celts. At Trottescliffe, not far from this road, still stands the ancient cromlech called Coldrum : this not only has three upright stones remaining, but one, though broken, still on the top — the front one has gone ; besides this, part of the circle round it continues, consisting of stones to the number of nineteen, which, though fallen prostrate, are in their original places. When the Coldrum monument was re-discovered some years ago, two young gentlemen found under it a skeleton, which was removed and buried in the churchyard of Meopham by the vicar of that parish.

Upon this the Rector of Trottescliffe, in which parish Coldrum stands, wrote to ask the Vicar of Meopham what he meant by stealing his oldest * Materia cujusque generis ut in Gallia est praeter Fagum et Abietem. i COLDKUM STONES. THE EARLY PERIOD OF ENGIISH HISTORY. 5 parishioner. At a mile or so distant, farther off from the old road, are a number of stones of the same kind, in Addington Park. Wright speaks of the elliptical group as a circle : the heap I do not hesitate to consider a fallen dolmen. In the parish of Ryarsh many of these stones are scattered about, and some have been built into the walls of different buildings, as the one so especially noticeable in the foundation of Trottescliffe Church. At Tottington, in the parish of Aylesford, many of these stones are found ; one of them has been named the " cofiin stone " by Dr. Stukely, and this name was sealed to this stone by the learned Thorpe.

This monument is not far from the well-known Kit's Coty House, which consists of three upright stones and one above. There is another group of stones in a field under some trees, called the " countless stones " or numbers, locally, which are evidently remains of another dolmen . At Tottington may be seen the ruins of a fourth, and Mr. Shaw, of Eccles, assures me that he has had a large number of sarson stones, of which these erections are formed, ploughed up nearer the Medway on his farm at Rowe's Place. Now what do these stones mean ? It would seem, by comparing Coldrum and Kit's Coty House, we can come to a fair conclusion, when we think over the different customs of races and nations at the same time. It requires no great stretch of imagination to make the centre-piece of Coldrum into a perfect Kit's Coty House : all we have to do is to mend the stone that stood at the back of the two, and the one on the top.

But if Kit's Coty House was thus like Coldrum, why should it not have a circle round it of stones like Coldrum ? If we look at the last monument, the bank and stones have been gradu ally got rid of in days gone by,* and this advises us that the same has been done most probably, or done more completely, at Kit's Coty House. The stone in the foundation of Trottescliffe Church, those in the walls of buildings in Ryarsh village, and pieces in the walls of Birling Place,- — once known as Comfort, the ancient seat of the Earls of Abergavenny, — and those scattered about at Aylesford, all advise us that this work of destruction went on to no small extent during the Middle Ages. Superstition alone, perhaps, saved the relics that are left. Thus the field of the " countless stones " near Aylesford, the writer can remember, when a boy, was said to be impossible to clear ; and that several who had taken the farm were ruined because they wickedly attempted to move the stones.

Again, whoever attempted to measure Kit's Coty House was frustrated in his task, as he always forgot the size of the three stones when he measured the fourth. But to proceed. If these monuments have been tampered with, surely we may go a httle further and compare them with others, which we find were made with four upright stones and one on the * I am pleased to state that my friend G. Payne, Esq., Secretary of the Kent Archæological Society, has prevented Coldrum being destroyed any more, by having obtained it to be placed under the Ancient Monuments Act. top, and around them stood a circle of stones; but whether with others laid upon them, as Stonehenge, it were difficult to say. What was the purpose of these erections ? Persons have disputed about them as temples, altars, and tombs, and each has rejected the other's theory ; still those who deny them to be tombs must explain how skeletons were found beneath them as at Coldrum.

The fact is, these circles were probably temples, and the dolmen was very likely the altar. When some great chief died they buried him there ; and thus perhaps to our Celtic forefathers we and other Christians owe the custom so long prevalent of burying in our churches — a practice that was certainly not borrowed from the Jews, who would have been disgusted with the idea, as all unclean objects (of which dead bodies, both animal and human, were considered the worst) were never allowed within the sanctuary. As regards Kit's Coty, which I believe means Catigern's Stone House — quoits being still used for the game originally played with stones — or (as some like to think that the word means wood) Catigern's Wood House, the latter word simply tells us where the monument stood, or what it was made of, which is immaterial : it is to the word Kit, which is the name that has always clung to this monument, that I look for an explanation that Catigern was buried in it or near it.

We learn that the Saxons and Britons had a severe contest at Aylesford, a.d. 465, and tradition says that Catigern and Horsa fell in hand-to-hand conflict. If this was so, where did they bury him 1 Where more likely than in the sepulchre of the kings, as we so often find expressed in the Bible, — "they buried him in the sepulchre of the kings " or, " with his fathers," or not, according as a prince had deserved well of the nation. Thus, the fact of Catigern's burial at Kit's Coty House does not preclude any former burials at the place, or cause it to have been erected at the time he fell, or suggest to us that it was then used as a temple and an altar. I believe it points out to us that he was placed here in an honourable burying place, which the Britons knew of, handy to the battle ; and though they had become serfs, still the conquered race pointed to the tomb of the man who died for his country.

And when the Celt mingled his blood with his Saxon conqueror, we cannot tell whether out of mockery, or from the inconvenient length of the word, Catigern got shortened into Kit ; but the word has survived to point out the grave of the hero, while not far off the name of Horsted is given to a place traditionally declared to be the grave of his equally brave Saxon antagonist Horsa. These two places appear to me to contradict the sceptics who would deny these men a position in the history of our island, and show us that Celt and Saxon were as worthy ancestors of the English race as Dane and Norman. These groups of stones lead us to consider that this wooded valley must have been much frequented by the earlier races in these islands, THE EARIY PERIOD OF EN GUSH HISTORY. 7 and the finds which have been made of objects of archæological interest point us to the same fact.

At Ryarsh, British gold coins of a period before the Christian era have been found, and the same at Chequer Lane in Offham, and St. Leonard's Street in Malling, as well as coins elsewhere in the latter place. At Aylesford drift implements have been found, as well as late Celtic instruments ; and in the Medway itself, British torques and armillæ of gold. More over, a paved ford was discovered at Aylesford, some 30 ft. wide, formed of boulders. These matters all point out to us that there were some important early settlements here. At Hailing the cremated remains found in the quarries point us to the Roman custom of burial near their roads. The recent discovery of a Roman villa at Snodland, the treasures of Roman times found at Holborough, and the sepulchral deposits there, declare to us the fact that the Rochester and Mailing road follows one of great antiquity.

The roads from Wrotham to Maidstone, and Malling to Mereworth, and Wrotham to Teston, were probably other passes through this wooded valley of an early date : it would seem that the latter was the via militaris — an ancient Roman road. In September and October 1892, under the road near St. Leonard's Tower, were found two Roman urns of Upchurch ware (one standing in a Samian saucer), and broken pieces of others ; and a little farther off bones of cattle, principally the parietal bone and the horns, the jaw of a sheep, and the tusk of a pig. The urns contained cremated human bones, which Dr. Tannahill of Borstal identified thus : (1) The smaller urn contained portions of the skull, ribs, vertebral column, arms and legs; the whole weighing 3'75 oz. (2) The larger urn contained portions of the skull, vertebral column, sacrum, ribs, sternum, arms, and legs, and was part of the body of a man ; the whole weighing 8*5 oz.

The bones of the animals so close to water, and a cemetery, seem to point to sacrifice. Not far off was discovered some time ago a paved way, and this, with the fact that the old road ran past St. Blaise's Church, points out that St. Leonard's Street and Kent Street once joined the straight road through Malhng, and form part of the old Roman via from Rochester. Besides the relics we have already spoken of, a British burial at Allington ; foundations of Roman buildings, instruments, and coins at Eccles ; a Roman urn found in the Hermitage Wood at Mailing, probably pointing out a burial; together with Roman foundations and a tile tomb at Allington, all declare to us the early history of this part, and show us that when Saxon and Briton joined battle at Aylesford the Saxon was fighting to gain an important British ford and settlement, which, on his victory, gave him the key to open his way into the centre of this country.

The walls of East Mailing chancel are constructed almost entirely of materials taken from the Roman buildings which seem to have largely existed in these parts; and a great number of the other churches about here bear proofs that those who built them used very lavishly the materials thus placed ready at hand, without the slightest regard to the damage they were doing posterity by destroying the relics of the past. Since the author commenced this work a number of Roman urns have been found this spring (1892) near his house at Larkfield, by Mr. Wigan, which appear to point out that there was a Roman cemetery there also.

Chapter III. The Saxon Era

(465 — 1066). PROCEEDING onwards from the first battle of Aylesford, we come to that time when Christianity was introduced amongst the Saxons by St. Augustine, in the year 596 ; and in the year 604 the see of Rochester was founded. When any of our churches in this neighbourhood were first built it were difficult to say, but the parish churches of Meallinges, Meallingetes, Leleburne, Dictuna, Eddituna, Riesci, Offham, Birling, Allington, Trottesclive, Aylesford, Hailing, Esnoiland, Paddlesworth, Dodecirce and Tottington appear all to have been in existence when — " Conquering William brought the Normans o'er." Besides divers rehcs in the shape of Saxon coins and weapons, and also perhaps parts of the churches being Saxon, and the names of most of these places, but not all, being wholly or partly of Saxon origin (for I am amongst those who consider that Aylesford is Eglwysford, or the ford of the church which I think Eccles points us to, and thus is a name partly British).

We have certain grants of lands for ecclesiastical purposes from the Saxon kings. The earliest of these records is that of the parish of Hailing, from which Egbert, king of Kent (770-785), gave ten ploughlands, according to the Textux Roffensis, to Dioran, bishop of Rochester, and the Church of St. Andrew there ; this grant is signed by Egbert, king of Kent, and the Archbishop Jaenberht. The next oldest is that of Offa, king of the Mercians, who gave six ploughlands in the parish of Trottescliva, or Trottescliffe, for the relief and safety of his soul, in the year of Our Lord's Incarnation, 788 ; the boundaries of this land are, on the east and south Birling, on the west Wrotaham, and on the north Meapaham. His grant is signed by the king himself, his queen Cynedrith, Jaenberht the archbishop, who put on it the sign of Christ's Cross, Hygeberht (archbishop,) and Ceolwulf (bishop), amongst others.

This grant is very interesting, inasmuch as it shows the power a Mercian king possessed in Kent, which, in consequence, was not likely at that time to have been a separate kingdom ; and also because it mentions the adjoining parishes of Wrotham, ME3WRIES OF MAIIING AND ITS VAIIEY. 10 Meopham, and Billing. After this we learn of Egbert, king of the Angles, " Hie dedit ecclesiæ Christi villam quæ Meallinges vocatur." He gave to the Church of Christ a villa, which is called Mailing — the date is 827, at the earliest, but probably a year or two later. In 836 Egbert and Ethelwulf jointly gave to Bishop Beornmode four plough lands in Snoddingland, and Holanbeorge, or Holboro', in the royal bica called Frericburn, and a mill on the torrent called Holborough burn, and on the king's mountain (mons regis) fifty carrabas of wood, four being added at Denberri, Hwetonstede, Heahthen, Helffe, and Helmanhurst ; this is signed by Egbert, Ethelwulf, Archbishop Ceolnod, Bishop Beornmode, of Rochester, and Bishops Eahlstan, Eadhun, Cynred, and Ceolberht, and others.

An interesting fact connected with this grant is the mention of the great antiquity of the mill on the stream at Holborough, this brook having been utilised, we thus learn, for its water power, over one thousand years ago. After this, Ethelwulf, in 841, styling himself king of the West Saxons, gives the same Bishop Beornmode two ploughs in that part which is called Holanbeorges tuun ; this gift is signed by Ethelwulf, King Ethelstan, and the same archbishop and bishop of Rochester as the last, and Bishop Helmstan. The next event is Alfred's decisive triumph over the Danes, which took place almost on the very ground at Aylesford where his ancestors defeated the Britons. No doubt the Danes, as the Saxons before them, having poured in from Sheppey, found the Medway hard to cross below, and so came over the hills to seek a ford.

This victory appears to have put an end to the depredations of Hastings about the year 895. But of all the charters of this period, the one that had the most influence upon the future of this district was the charter of King Edmund, which ran as follows : — " In the name of the Supreme God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who Himself reigns for ever, and disposes all things pleasantly : Wherefore I, Edmund, king moreover of the Angles and Mercians, grant to my beloved bishop, by name Buhric, so much of my land which is called Meallingas as three ploughs, for the relief of my soul, for an everlasting heritage, to increase his monastery, which is dedicated in honour of Saint Andrew the Apostle, brother of St. Peter, and his companion in suffering ; with all things pertaining to it, with fields, woods, pastures.

Moreover fowling also ; and this also with the advice of my chiefs and princes, whose names are written beneath, from hence I swear in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the just judge of all, that this land be freed from all royal service for ever. If any one shall presume to diminish or defraud this donation, may he be separated from the assembly of the saints, so that while living he be deprived of the blessing of God, and be damned in the lowest hell, unless he shall have by full satisfaction atoned before his death for what he hath unfairly done, although this still by no means should remain in force. And he who would at any time increase our gift, may the Lord increase to him His heavenly gifts, and give him eternal life." The above is in Latin : then follows, in Anglo-Saxon, a description of the boundaries : — " From the south hounds to the King's Plaine, and from thence to the bounds THE SAXON ERA (465—1066) 11 of the ville of Offham, and thence to the military way and along the said way over Lillieburn to the bounds of the parish of East Mallinges, and so southward from the east of the cross or gallows to the broadway towards the south in a direct line along the said way to the King's Plaine."

To which the king added certain denberies for the pannage of hogs. Then follows : — " I, Edmund, king of the Angles, have confirmed this by the sign of the Cross. " I, Edred, the king's brother, have corroborated this. " I, Eadgise, the king's mother, was present. ': I, Archbishop Odo, have subscribed. " I, Ælpeh, bishop, have agreed. a I, Deodred, bishop. I, Ælfred, bishop. " I, Wulfstan, archbishop. I, Ælpric, bishop. " I, Cenwald, bishop. I, Æthelgar, bishop. " I, Ægilfu , the king's wife, was present. " Duke Wulgar, Duke Athelstan, Duke Edmund, Duke Senla, Sigferd, minister, Wulfric, minister, Ealdred, minister, Ælfstan, minister, Ordeah, minister, Edward, minister, Wulfric, minister, Odda, minister, Ælia, minister, Duke Offa, Whitgar, minister, Wulfsige, minister, Birthwald, minister."

Though this charter is undated, since Edmund reigned only from 941 to 946 we know within a very few years the date of the charter. The charter is very interesting in many ways. In the first place it informs us that the parishes of Offham, Leybourne, and East Mailing, as well as West Malling, were then in existence. The King's Plaine seems to have been, from the other places mentioned, somewhere towards the south, and near the Union-house. We find the name of King's Mill still survives ; probably a relic connected with the old name. Thorpe is of opinion that the military way here mentioned was the road from Town Malling through St. Leonards to Teston, etc., and so on to Cranbrook. The word street added to St. Leonards may confirm this statement ; but " along the said way, over Lillie burn " from Offham to East Mailing, appears to me to point rather to the present London and Maidstone road.