Pear-based Place Names: a note on Perry Wood
Perry Wood is an ancient woodland and the name of a hamlet in the parish of Selling. Its woodlands comprise c.150 acres (60ha) (Woodland Trust 2023a). Perry Wood is roughly 10 miles (15km) west of the cathedral city of Canterbury and lies within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, countryside conserved for its noteworthy landscape and ecological value.
The forested parts of Perry Wood are considered ancient woodland, meaning that their tree cover has persisted for at least 400 years and likely much longer. More specifically, Perry Wood is an ancient semi-natural woodland; its landscape has developed naturally over time but has also been managed by the people living alongside it. Sections of Perry Wood are managed in stands of plantations filled with Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) and coppices of Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa). However, the monoculture plantations of Perry Wood rise from soil that supports a dynamic community of ancient woodland species.
Shaped and influenced by the human hand for centuries, vestiges of a botanical [pg328]past persist in the environment of Perry Wood. The woodland’s longevity in the Kentish landscape is attested by multiple indicator species (Rose 1999; Woodland Trust 2023b). Species including pendulous sedge (Carex pendula), butcher’s broom (Ruscus aculeatus), wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), early purple orchid (Orchis mascula), and bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are found in abundance within the confines of the woods. Traces of Perry Wood’s rural traditions also persist. For instance, the local hop gardens, though now much diminished in extent since the nineteenth century, still use timber poles harvested from sweet chestnut coppices, a traditional product in an area well known for producing beer.
In Perry Wood and the surrounding area, even outside the forested parts, trees commonly feature along its roads, in private residences, hedges, and around cultivated fields. The forests of Perry Wood have long coloured the local imagination. A 19th-century Kentish comical verse, ‘Dick & Sal at Canterbury Fair’, includes the following:
We tore like mad through Perry [W]ood, / An jest beyond Stone Stile, / We got inta de turnpik röad, / An kep it all de while… (Parish and Shaw 1888: xvi).[fn1]
There are unmistakable botanical elements in the Perry Wood place name. Perry Wood is considered a forstal name, a term in the Kentish vernacular referring to a paddock near a farmhouse smaller than a village commons (Parish and Shaw 1888; Horsley 1921). A 2010 Trust for Thanet Archaeology report presents several possible etymologies for the village and woodland name.
Previous authors have suggested that the Perry element derives from the Old English (OE) burh, referring to the earthwork at Shottenden Hill in Perry Wood. The burh place name element later developed into bury, referring to a settlement adjoining these types of fortifications. The tenth-century Burghal Hidage offers a list of such settlements across England, notably including Canterbury. In 1858, while discussing the Roman station Vagniaca in Maidstone, Rev. Beale Poste commented on the adjoining place name, Perryfield, as well as Perry Wood, maintaining that both instances of the Perry element should naturally be understood as deriving from reference to an entrenched earthwork.
One sees potential evidence for this derivation in the Kentish place name Perry Hill Quarry in Seal Parish, near Sevenoaks. There is likewise evidence for bury- derived names in other nearby areas of Kent. A prime example is the univallate hillfort, Bigbury Camp, near Harbledown and Bigbury Wood, which surrounds the encampment. However, no historical reference to Perry Wood includes this burh or bury element.
Thus, a more plausible derivation comes from Swedish toponymist Wallenberg, who suggests that Perry Wood derives from the OE collective noun pyrige ‘pear tree’ and wudu ‘wood’ (1934: 305) – with influence from Mediaeval Latin, Middle English (ME) inherited pirie to refer to pear trees and their fruit (Briggs 2019). Modern English similarly possesses the infrequently used perry, referring to a pear cider or an alcoholic drink made from pears. Pear-based names link Perry Wood to other locations in the county of Kent. For example, the place names Pirifeld and Perrystreet were recorded in 1200 and 1442, respectively (Wallenberg 1934). Other forms of pear-based names appear outside of the county. In Oxfordshire, the [pg329]name Wodeperi was recorded in 1243 (Gelling and Stenton 1953), a place name conversely derived from the same elements as Perry Wood.
If the Perry Wood name refers to the pear tree, what can be said of the historical environment in which these pears grew? If there was once a notable grove of pear trees, who cultivated them, and what was their significance in the landscape? Previous authors have noted that OE place names are a source of overlooked and underutilised traditional ecological knowledge. For example, early mediaeval English place names for water and woodlands have been shown to provide insight into strategies for managing and responding to the contemporary environment (Jones 2016). Accordingly, what traditional ecological knowledge is encoded in the name Perry Wood?
First, examining the individual elements of the Perry Wood place name, perry and wood, is pertinent for better understanding Perry Wood’s historical environment. By tracing the name’s etymology, we can understand the environment referred to by these two elements more clearly. An abundance of pear-based surnames and toponyms attest to the persistence of Perry Wood as a place name in the early mediaeval landscape.
The Botanical Elements of the Perry Wood Toponym
As suggested by Wallenberg, the Perry element of Perry Wood can be traced back to the OE pyrige (1934; Bosworth 2014a). Pear trees were notable features of the Anglo-Saxon landscape, commonly found in charters to delineate property boundaries. The Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici preserves many such refer- ences, ‘Þanon suð on wynford up on stream on wyndeles cumbe midde weardne up on þa pyrian’ [From there, head south to Wynford, up along the stream to Wyndel’s valley, towards the middle, up to the pear tree] (Kemble 1840).
The element wood in Perry Wood is related to some arboreal aspect of the historical environment, deriving from the OE wudu (Bosworth 2014b). This word has multiple interpretations. It could refer to individual trees or, more generally, wood, the physical substance of trees. Likewise, it also referred to objects made of wood. In another sense, wudu refers to what we know as woods or forests in modern English. These woods included those tamed by the human hand and also the wild undomesticated forest (Harsley 1889), where one finds wildeór wuda ‘wild beasts’. The ME wode similarly referred to a group of living trees (MED 1954-2001). An 1175 homily distinguishes between wude ‘the forest’, a group of trees growing closely, and the terms treow and treon ‘tree’, individual trees (Balfour 1909; Hooke 2010). Broadly, wode encompassed what we might now describe as a grove, copse, woodland, forest, plantation, or wild area. For example, wode was the environment outside the limits of towns and settlements.[fn2] Similarly, plants growing in woodlands often contained the wode element in their name; for example, wode appel (wudu- appel OE) referred to the fruit of the wild undomesticated crab-apple (Malus sylvestris).
The Perry Wood Place Name and Surnames
The earliest reference to Perry Wood comes from the Domesday Book. In 1086, [pg330]the settlement was recorded as Perie, located in the hundred of Faversham (Morris 1983). The settlement was among the smallest recorded in the Domesday Book. The lord of the manor in 1086 was Ansfrid the Clerk, who also held ten other manors (Neilson 1932). Ansfrid’s holdings included two locations with the Perie element; he was the lord of a second, different Perie [Perry Court] in Kent, on the outskirts of Faversham, a short distance from Perry Wood.
Hasted provides a detailed history of Perry Wood Manor in his 1798 topographical survey of Kent. Following the confiscation of Bishop Odo’s estates in 1084, Perry Wood came into possession of owners who assumed the surname de Pirie from their manor.[fn3] Randal de Pirie held the manor during the reign of King John (1199- 1216); a century later, his descendant William de Pirie held it during the reign of King Edward II (1307-1327). Hasted claims that by 1347, the de Pirie name became extinct in the area, with the manor falling into the hands of different coparceners. The rest of the manor’s history is related as follows:
The Darells afterwards held it, and after them the Finch’s, and the Martyn’s of Graveney. John Martyn, judge of the common pleas, died possessed of it in 1436, leaving his widow possessed of it ... having by her will given the manor of Perry- wode to her second son Robert Martyn, who was afterwards of Perrywood ... [that later] became part of the possessions of Corpus Christi College, in Oxford, where they remain at this time ... (1798: 42-43)
Hasted’s summary excludes reference to a 1631 deed revealing that a yeoman, Nicholas Bynge of Sellinge, granted 2½ acres (1ha) of woodland in Perry Wood to John Gate.[fn4] Moreover, two manuscripts reveal that Hasted’s assessment of the de Pirie extinction in 1347 was misguided. A 1395 and 1396 land transfer recorded in Canterbury reference an individual named John Pirie in a parish neighbouring Perry Wood.[fn5]
Canterbury Cathedral’s Archive preserves a veritable forest of sources on the history and peoples of Kent, several of which reference the descendants of those who assumed a toponymic surname from Perry Wood Manor. Grants held at Canterbury Cathedral attest to the presence of the de Pirie family and forested areas in Kent as early as the thirteenth century. Most of the grants were set down in parchment at Chartham, a nearby village and parish. In October 1268, two de Pirie brothers of Chartham granted an acre of meadowland in Clivesmeth to the prior and convent of Canterbury Cathedral Priory.[fn6] Listed amongst the witnesses is the surname de Forstall, a variant of forstal, referring again to a paddock or field near a farmhouse.
A mid-thirteenth-century grant of a Chartham mill donated as alms preserves botanical surnames such as the Forester, de Pirie, and de la Forstall.[fn7] It also records the name de Aldewode. Here, evidence for other woodland-based toponymic surnames appears in the Kent Downs, with Aldewode referring to a woodland of alder trees (Alnus sp.). A late 13th-century grant addressed by a de Pirie details his rights to ramail[fn8] in the Canterbury Cathedral Priory’s woods in Denge, an ancient woodland south of the Cathedral.[fn9]
Furthermore, an undated quitclaim from the twelfth through the fourteenth century records the surname atte Pirie in Ycham (the modern village of Ickham 16 miles (25km) east of Perry Wood).[fn10] The element atte is derived from the preposition ‘at’ [pg331]and the definite article ‘the’, a feature of toponymic surnames discussed by Reaney (1967). ME toponymic surnames typically followed this formula, beginning with a preposition (e.g. de, atte) followed by a topographic term (e.g. forstal, Pirie, Aldewode). Thus, the surname de Pirie, atte Pirie and the related Attepyrie (see Löfvenberg 1942) referred to individuals whose ancestors adopted names that likely referred to pear trees in some regard. Pear-based surnames were not limited to the south of England. Two pipe rolls from the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) record the de Pirie surname in Shropshire[fn11] and Staffordshire[fn12] (Pipe Roll Society 1886; 1915, respectively).
A similar example is found in Croome Perry Wood, near the village of Pirton, Worcester, a county, much like Kent, well-known for its orchards. A reference to this toponym comes from 1327, when it was recorded as Pyrie (Eld 1895). By the fifteenth century, this name had evolved into Perywode (Page and Willis-Bund 1924), identical to the name recorded for the Kentish Perry Wood in the same century. The village name Pirton similarly derives from the OE element pyrige and tun ‘farm’, appearing as Pyritune in 972, presenting the earliest reference to an English pear-based place name in this essay (de Gray Birch 1885-93). This reference may offer an important distinction regarding pear-based place names. Perhaps the inhabitants of early mediaeval England were keen to distinguish between pears cultivated in the domesticated landscape of a farm, Pyritune, and pears comprising or growing amongst woodland, Perrywode.
These various records illustrate the presence of pear-based toponyms in Kent and other English counties. Until this point, however, the physical presence of pears in the landscape has been overlooked. Consequently, what does the botanical history of pears in the Kentish landscape reveal about the relationship of pears to the Perry Wood place name?
Pears in the Kentish Landscape
In her study of trees in the Anglo-Saxon landscape, historical geographer Hooke (2010) identified twenty-seven references to pears in boundary charters and twenty- nine references in pre-eleventh-century place names. These figures place pears as the second most common fruit tree species recorded amongst botanical place names from this era. Whether or not these pear trees were cultivated in orchards or occurred amongst woodland as escaped or naturalised species remains unclear. However, orchards of apples and pears were deliberately planted and maintained throughout the mediaeval period; for example, the 13th-century orchardman Nicholas the Fruiterer provided fruits from his orchard when the Crown orchard’s harvest fell short (Harvey 1974).
The first systematic botanical treatment on the flora of the Kent Downs is found in Plantæ Favershamienses (Jacob 1777). As stated in the treatise, the ‘Wild Pear Tree’, growing in woodlands and blooming in April, was an uncommon sight in this area of Kent. Little other botanical information is provided, yet the plant referred to likely corresponds with the common edible pear, Pyrus communis, its relative, Pyrus pyraster, or some naturally occurring hybrid of the two.[fn13]
Regardless, there is a great deal of ambiguity in dealing with historical and vernacular plant names; a tangible record of plant life seldom accompanies these [pg332]names. Furthermore, the history of the pear in England needs careful clarification. Various popular sources detail the pear’s history in the British Isles without sufficient supporting evidence. Archaeobotanical evidence does, however, suggest that pears were cultivated as early as the Middle Roman period in Britain, though it is difficult to distinguish between the seeds of Pyrus communis and Pyrus pyraster in the archaeological record (Witcher 2013; Lodwick 2017).
The picture becomes even more complicated considering that the English vernacular ‘pear’ may refer to a host of species, including Pyrus pyraster or several other related species in the rose family (Rosaceae). This conundrum is clearly illustrated with the Kentish place name Pearmain, recorded in Newnham parish near Faversham. One may naturally assume that this example derives from the same pyrige ‘pear tree’ element seen in Perry Wood and other related place names. This assumption is misguided. Pearmain instead derives from an apple variety of the same name. The variety possesses a firm and yellowish flesh, a ‘brisk, poignant and very pleasant flavor’, and notably grows in the shape of a pear (Hogg 1851: 209). Nurseryman and pomologist Hogg believed the cultivation of the Pearmain variety to be the earliest on record in England, cultivated in Norfolk as early as the year 1200 (Hogg 1851). Confusion surrounds the origin of this apple’s name, though Hogg understood it as derived from the Latin pyrus magnus, ‘the great pear’.
Qualities such as the long life and productive quality of well-established pear trees likely made them significant fixtures in the historical landscape. Even without a secure date for their introduction, pears can be an effective way to visualise our relationship with a dynamic landscape. For example, in discussing the temporality of landscapes, Ingold (1993) uses an ‘old and gnarled pear tree’ to help dispute the idea of landscapes as static forms.
Other Occurrences of Pear-Based Place Names in Kent
The Kent Archaeological Society’s website hosts a list of place names obtained from the six-inch Ordnance Survey maps of Kent from 1905 and 1908. In total, 20 place names from these maps likely reference pear fruit or pear trees (Table I). These place names refer to a variety of geographical features and environments. Farms and woods are most represented in this group (6 instances each). Other environments include courts (2 instances), streets (2 instances), hills (1 instance), and glens (1 instance).
As suggested by these examples, pears were cultivated and could be found growing in several different environments throughout Kent. These environments included those more managed, such as farms, to less-managed landscape features, such as woods, hills, and glens. Worthy of mention here is the place name Perry Croft Wood in Chatham. The second element of this place name derives from the OE croft ‘small enclosed field’. It is commonly seen in combination with other crop names (e.g. Ryecroft ‘rye’, Whatcroft ‘wheat’, Barley Croft Wood ‘barley’) and other botanical names (e.g. Pincroft Wood ‘pine’, Broomy Croft Wood ‘broom’, Ashcroft ‘ash’). This place name helps to clarify one of the environments and manners in which pears may have been cultivated in early Kent, in a clearing or field surrounded by woodland. [pg333]
TABLE 1: ENVIRONMENTS REFERRED TO IN PEAR-BASED PLACE NAMES IN KENT (FROM THE 1905 & 1908 6 INCH O.S. MAPS)
Conclusion
Akin to many aspects of mediaeval life and culture in England, we may never understand the true scope of Perry Wood’s historical landscape. Scant botanical evidence limits the ability to form a concrete opinion on the precise role of pears in the Perry Wood place name. However, some clarity is gleaned from surviving sources and scholarly opinions on botanical place names that point to the traditional ecological knowledge encoded in the woodland and village’s name.
The name Perry Wood can be traced to the Domesday Book, where it was first recorded as Perie. This name likely referenced a pear-like fruiting tree. Common to many other tree species, pears were notable features of the early mediaeval English landscape, attested by their repeated reference in boundary charters. Even more so, the prevalence of tree-based surnames and the persistence of the de Pirie name well into the mediaeval period in the Kent Downs further attests to the importance of Perry Wood as a feature of the landscape. Regarding an ecological description, it remains to be seen what botanical species are ultimately referred to by Perry Wood and the environment in which they grew.
However, the sources presented here provide insight into current uses of the landscape around Perry Wood. Mansfields, a local farming enterprise, cultivates two varieties of pear and produces twenty-five thousand tonnes of fruit across its c.3,000 acres of Kentish farmland yearly (Mansfields 2023). Characteristics such as the historical presence of fruit orchards, hop gardens, and otherwise fertile soils in Kent have garnered the county its nickname, ‘The Garden of England’. Perry Wood and surrounding areas are also near the Faversham Fruit Belt and the greater North Kent Fruit Belt (Babtie 2004; Kent Downs 2020). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the contemporary commercial viability of fruit farming in the Kent Downs is rooted in a rich historical relationship between the land, its geology, plant life, and local farmers. The Perry Wood toponym is not only representative of this relationship but also the environmental knowledge held by early inhabitants of the area. [pg334]
The cultural history of pears in England extends far past this toponymic example. Pear trees earned a reputation for their fruits’ nutritive quality and productivity in old age. The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs records the saying, ‘Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs’ (Simpson and Speake 2008). This adage refers to ‘planting trees for posterity’ or providing established food sources for future generations.
Clarification on this proverb is provided by Hazlitt, who related that the proverb ‘no longer holds true, since pears are now made to yield well after a few years’ unlike more ancient varieties (1917: 330). In Books and Gardens, Poet Alexander Smith (1863) includes a variation of the proverb, ‘My oaks are but saplings; but what undreamed-of English kings will they not outlive?... a man does not plant a tree for himself; he plants it for posterity’. Considering the Perry Wood place name and its speculative pear trees, one may ask a similar question.
While Perry Wood’s pear trees may not have survived millennia of successive, undreamt-of English kings, the name Perry Wood harkens to a time when pear trees comprised a noteworthy part of the Kentish landscape. This pear-based toponym preserves a reference to trees that would have had cultural or physical significance to the area’s early inhabitants. We may be unable to taste the fruits of these ancient trees, but their presence and importance have indeed been preserved for posterity.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to express his sincerest gratitude to John Wilsher, a member of the Kent Archaeological Society, for sharing his research that touches upon the possible ‘burh’ derivation of Perry Wood. Mr Wilsher further explores the etymology of the Perry Wood place name and the history of its residents in his upcoming monograph, ‘Pynfold: A Historical Journey in Perry Wood, Kent’.
Ethyn Maki
[fn]1|Many of the historical names found in this doggerel persist in the modern landscape. Stone Stile is located in the village of Shottenden. Turnpik röad ‘turnpike road’ passes through Faversham to the village of Old Wives Lees and Chilham, where it joins into the road leading to Ashford (Hasted 1798).
[fn]2|In this regard, wode also carried folkloric associations as a place of wild secrets outside domestic life (e.g. Plummer and Earle 1892).
[fn]3|The national identity of Perry Wood’s owners following Bishop Odo is unclear. However, evidence for plant-based surnames abounds in the British Isles and Normandy. An example is the Norman Malherbe family that colonised the West Country of England beginning in the twelfth century (Reeves, 2013). The family’s surname derives from the Old French elements mal ‘evil, wicked’ and herbe ‘grass, herb’. The family’s coat of arms is charged with nettle leaves, a rebus of their surname. A village named Boughton Malherbe is found a mere 14 miles (20 km) from Perry Wood.
[fn]4|Canterbury Cathedral Archive Collection (CCA) U137/25.
[fn]5|CCA-DCc/ChAnt/M/296 and CCA-DCc/ChAnt/H/111, respectively.
[fn]6|CCA-DCc/ChAnt/C/43.
[fn]7|CCA-DCc/ChAnt/C/534.
[fn]8|The term ramail is related to lopping, the practice of cutting and removing smaller branches and trees in woodland. Ramail is the thick undergrowth from this practice, which de Pirie may have used for economic or domestic purposes.
[fn]9|CCA-DCc/ChAnt/C/506.[pg335]
[fn]10|CCA-DCc/Register/E/642-776/762.
[fn]11|‘Hag de Pirariis’ (Pipe Roll Society 1886: 2).
[fn]12|‘Henricum de Pirie…’ (Pipe Roll Society 1915: 151).
[fn]13|Hooke (2010) also reports that Pyrus pyraster is occasionally found in ancient woodland across southern and eastern England.
[fn]14|From the OE sceaga ‘A small wood, copse, thicket of growth’.
[fn]15|From the OE corte / Latin curtus; sense unclear.
[fn]16|From the Old Norse geil ‘glen, ravine’.
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