Adjoining Ridley, westward, lies Ash called in the
TEXTUS ROFFENSIS, Aeisce, and in Domesday, Eisse. (It commonly has the
addition in old writings of, near Wrotham near Farningham near
Fawkham, or near Kingsdown, to distinguish it from the parish of Ash
near Sandwich in this county.) It contains 3,000 acres of land, of
which 600 acres are woods ranging on the east side of the parish.
Ash stands on high ground among the hills of West Kent.
The soil is mostly chalk and much covered by flints.
The parish includes the hamlets of Hodsoll Street, West
Yoke, North Ash, South Ash, and Idley. It is quite the most fantastic
shape that can be imagined. It Borders on no less than nine parishes.
The church stands roughly in the centre.
In the time of King Alfred the Great, 871-901 A.D ,the
heads of the settlements which were grouped within the present parish
of Ash used to meet, when summoned, the heads of families in the 14
neighbouring parishes that made up the HUNDRED of AXTANE. All trace of
the spot where the "Witenagemot" (Anglo-Saxon national
council or parliament) of the Hundred of Axtane met has disappeared,
but since Sutton-at-Hone was one of this group of parishes, and
it was ever a place of administrative importance, one might perhaps be
permitted to hazard a guess that the leading men of Ash through many
centuries had to assemble at Sutton-at-Hone to receive instructions
from the King’s Government and to make their reports on Ash to it.
At the survey of Domesday in 1086 A.D., the parish
belonged to Odo, the half brother of William the Conqueror, and Bishop
of Bayeux, and on his disgrace, went to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent.
Ash parish consists of a number of manors, (the word
"manor" means estate as well as the large house) at one time
there were five, but for many centuries there have been three, viz :-
Ash, South Ash, and Holliwell alias Hodsoll. The other two were St Johns Ash and |
|
Scotgrove. In the Domesday Book two sub-manors are named viz:- DIDELE
and SONINGES. The former is the old form of Idley, whilst the latter
may refer to SORANKS (whose earliest form is SORENE) in Fairseat, and
possibly covered the land around the modern HODSOLL STREET.
Each of the five original manors has lived through a
history of its own, and so in order to study the history of the parish
it is advisable to split it up into its component parts and trace out
the story of each individual manor.
ASH MANOR alias NORTH ASH MANOR
In the reign of Henry III 1216-1272 this Manor was in the possession
of Henry Pencombe.
After several changes James Boteler, Earl of Wiltshire,
possessed it. In consideration of his faithful adherence to the
Lancastrians, King Henry VI 1422-1461 (deposed) gave him the title of
Earl of Wiltshire, and afterwards made Lord Treasurer and Knight of
the Garter. He fought in the Battle of Iowton Field in Yorkshire on
Palm Sunday March 29th 1463 A.D. where in the Yorkists obtained the
victory. He was taken prisoner and beheaded in Newcastle. All his
lands including Ash Manor, were forfeited and came to the Crown, the
Yorkist King Edward 1V was then on the throne. For a few years the
Bouchier family was in possession of the Manor, but in the reign of
Henry VII 1485-1509,it passed to Sir Edward Poynings, a famous solder.
On his death it passed to Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. After his
execution it was granted to Sir Martin Bowes in 1545. His two
granddaughters ultimately became joint heiresses of the Manor, Elizabeth
who married William Buggin and Anne who became the wife of Sir Edmund
Fowler. On the partition of their inheritance in the year 1634, Sir
Edmund Fowler and wife became the sole owners and it was they who
built the present lovely mellowed brick " ASH PLACE" in
1637. |