KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY  -- RESEARCH    Studying and sharing Kent's past      Homepage

A Downland Parish - Ash by Wrotham in Former Times by W. Frank Proudfoot

                       Chapter 2 -  The Early and Middle Ages  continued  page 8a

included in a list of churches and chapels paying chrism fees to St Andrew’s. The list is believed to have been compiled about the year 1115 or to have been transcribed then from an earlier record. It is thought that all the churches which it mentions were of Saxon origin.1
  Since in Kent, as elsewhere, the roots of the local administrative system went back before the Conquest, it may not be out of place to mention now the tithings or ‘boroughs’ of Ash, which at some uncertain time, perhaps pre-dating the parochial system, became part of the Hundred of Axton or Axtane in the lathe of Sutton-at- Hone. The boroughs sent representatives to the Hundred Courts and, long after those Courts ceased to be of importance, continued in use for fiscal purposes. Some late evidence of the Ash boroughs is provided by entries made in the parish registers during the first few years of the eighteenth century; at that time there were two such, known respectively as ‘the borough of Ash’ and 'the borough of Holiwell’. The 

provenance of the latter name is medieval, but it may have had a Saxon predecessor.
   In the twilight of the Saxon era Ash was held from King Edward the Confessor by one Godric. After the Conquest, it became part of the vast possessions of the Conqueror’s half-brother, Odo of Baieux. In 1086, the time of Domesday, it was held from that not very worthy Bishop by one Hugh de Port and assessed at three sulungs. The sulung, a unit of assessment peculiar to Kent, was about twice the usual one hundred acre hide, so that de Port seems, effectively, to have held about six hundred acres. The whole manor was valued at seven pounds, as it had been in the days of the Confessor.
   On the demesne was one plough and there were twelve villeins, with eight more lowly bordars, who had three ploughs. In addition, a certain anonymous knight had eight serfs and bondwomen and land for one plough. There

page 8            page 8a         Page 9

Back to -  A Downland Parish - Contents Page    Back to Ash next Ridley - Members & others Researches

For details about the advantages of membership of the Kent Archaeological Society   click here

Back to Members & others Researches      Back to Research         Back to Homepage

Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382
© Kent Archaeological Society September 2005     

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs.  Any errors noticed by other researchers will be to gratefully
received so  that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible. Please send details to research@kentarchaeology.org.uk