The development of Appledore: a medieval village and its hinterland (summary)

The objective of this paper is to set the surviving topographical features of Appl edore in their historical context. The reconstruction of the settlement pattern at Appledore requires discussion of local resources, both in respect of location and of the changing nature of exploitation.

As well as the general issue of land use, special attention will be given to the role of the economy of the water and the water's edge both in respect of transport activities such as fishing and peat cutting. I attempt to locate the medieval port of Appledore which connected the village or 'town' , as it was known as this period, with both Winchelsea and New Romney. An analysis is also made of the growth of the Appledore market, taking into account the range of goods for sale there and the origins of those coming to trade. These factors give an impression of Appledore' s emergence as a centre of commerce and of the sea le of its economic hinterland which extended over much of the surrounding marsh and north into the Weald.

It is passible to conclude that, under the careful supervision of Canterbury Cathedral Priory, Appledore gradually emerged from a primitive marshland economic structure, in which fishing and peat played prominent parts, towards a far more sophisticated role, as the bustling market centre of an increasingly land based economy. Finally, it will be stressed that these radical changes can be effectively traced only by applying a comparative approach to marshland studies across Europe.