9. The Topography of the area between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries

Tim Tatton-Brown

Introduction 27-9) in the Decalcified (Old) Marshland. In the centre Until the publication of the Soil Survey by Green (1968) of this latter area are the demesne lands around Agney most maps of the Romney and Walland Marsh area Court Lodge, which are documented in detail from the which attempted to reconstruct the topography of the early 13th century (the Court Lodge building was marsh before the great storms of the 13th century rebuilt in 1287'). In 1225 a large amount of stock is showed a large estuary or channel running from near recorded as having been taken to Agney (14 cows, one Appledore to curve south and east around the so-called bull, 100 sheep, and four horses to plough) and there can 'Archbishops' Innings' (Elliott 1862) south-west of the be no doubt that the area of Creek Ridge No. 2 was, by , before turning north-east to run past Midley this date, fully reclaimed (Smith 1943, 147).Between the to a mouth near (Steers 1964; Ward demesne lands of the manor around the Court Lodge 1952,12). Since the Soil Survey was published most and the long strip of Upper and Lower Agney (which writers have assumed that the old main course of the was inned in and after the fourteenth century: Gardiner, Rother (or 'river of Newenden' as it appears to have 1988) is a roughly triangular area which is enclosed by been called in the thirteenth century) ran from sea walls (the still very massive wall from Baynham to Appledore to New Romney down the small meandering Hawthorn Corner is on its south side) and which stream shown just north of the Rhee Wall on Green's contains a very large creek relic on Green's soil map. On map (e.g. Cunliffe 1980, 49-51). Recent study of the tithe maps for this is called the 'Great available evidence now suggests that this stream was Brack' or 'Breck' - and this must refer to the great break very small, and that we should perhaps return to the in the sea wall at Midley House (TR 016236) which earlier model (though considerably refined by reference presumably occurred in one of the storms of the later to Green's soil survey map). Brooks' problems with the 13th century. (On Elliott's map of 1862, and often name Rumen ea (broad river) can easily be resolved if this copied later, this enclosure is called 'Archbishop refers to the Wainway, and not to the small stream from Peckham's Innings' and wrongly dated 1229: Peckham . It is possible also that the main course of the was, in fact, Archbishop from 1279-92. Thus, any work 'river of Newenden' originally came south of the Isle of in Archbishop Peckham's time is likely to have been Oxney along the line of the county boundary, rather secondary reclamation following the breach.) than north of Oxney past Appledore (Eddison 1985). Dating the change of river course to Rye The evidence for topographical change A constantly-repeated assertion in the many books about is that the Rother changed its The course of the 'Rother' to Romney course to a new outlet to the sea near Rye as a result of The lowest part of the principal channel to the Romney the great storm of 1287. This cannot be correct. The mouth until the twelfth century was probably on the line occupation ofAgney in 1225 is evidence that the river no of the later Wainway channel in the southern part of longer flowed by Agney to Romney at that time, and it Walland Marsh, and thence ran north-eastwards up the seems likely that the river had changed its course to centre of the long arm of calcareous (younger) soils empty into the sea near Old Winchelsea by at least the leading towards Old Romney (Fig. 9.1). The final late 12th century. course of this channel in the 12th century is probably The effects of this change would have been felt in marked by the long thin south-westerly extension of Old several ways. Silting problems in the port of Romney Romney parish, which is also entirely in the Canterbury would have been very great and hence the almost Cathedral Priory manor of Lower and Upper Agney. immediate need for a new town and port nearer the sea, This strip neatly cuts the parish of Midley into two and ultimately for an artificial water channel to the port, parallel halves (though it is interesting to note that the in order to flush out the silt brought in by the tides. At tithes for it, as recorded in the 1842 apportionments, the same time the creation of a new, more direct course went to Midley). The strip continues to Old Romney for the 'Rother' to the sea near Old Winchelsea may church as Green's Creek Ridge No. 2 (Green 1968, have encouraged more land to be inned and drained in 106 Tim Tatton-Brown the Fairfield and Brookland areas, as well as in the area Simon Scadeway, son of Baldwin, and his brothers, west of Midley and , and it seems likely that it was called 'Englishmen' (anglicos). It was agreed that Simon at this time that the regular patterns of drains were held a fourth part of the land of Misleham of Christ created in these areas, so that much of the land could be Church "with the duty of walling (vallare) it on the sea used for arable. side". This is then followed in the Register by six charters (one a duplicate) in which Prior Geoffrey (1 191-1207) and Christ Church grant to their men of Misleham at Old and New Romney least five blocks of 35 acres each, to be held in gavelkind The most important change in the marsh, which at 4d. an acre: they must also "defend the land against probably took place in the mid-12th century was the fresh and salt water by walls and watergangs". Each transference of the town or burh of Romney to a new site block of 35 acres is sub-divided into units of between one near the already ancient (Middle Saxon) church of St. and 17* acres, and several of the 'Men of Misleham' Martin (see also Brooks 1988). Here a completely new have units in more than one block (Table 9.1). There planned town was laid out with the very large new can be little doubt that these charters show that Baldwin double-aisled church of St. Nicholas. It is also about was inning new land in c. 1 160 and that thirty or so years 1140 that 'Old' and 'New' Romney were first mentioned later this was good arable land farmed by the 'Men of as separate places - in the cartulary of the Abbey of St. Misleham'. Remarkably, this area (Fig. 9.1) is still Nicholas at Arrosaise in the Pas de Calai~.~In this shown on the modern Ordnance Survey maps as an area cartulary, the church of St. Clement "de Veteri Romenal" of very regular fields (an almost rectilinear system), and was given to the Canons of the Abbey, perhaps soon after the acreages as shown on the Tithe Map vary from three the move. The new site on the shingle bank at the mouth to eighteen acres. The principal drainage channel is still of the estuary, which is similar in position to the roughly called Baldwin's Sewer, and there can be no doubt that contemporary new town of Stonar on the shingle bank the parish of Brookland (and its church) were newly opposite Sandwich, was probably necessitated by the created at this time. Baldwin's Innings also cover part of rapid silting up of the estuary leading up to Old the neighbouring parish of , across the very Romney, and this in turn is likely to have been caused by straight parish and hundred boundary which still the cessation of the pre-Wainway channel to act as the survives, and the pattern of walls in Green's soil map principal outlet for all the waters coming from the Weald suggests that Baldwin's Innings is secondary to St. of and East to the west. Thomas's Innings to the south-east. Here is situated One other piece of evidence suggesting a breach in the More Court, which Hasted (1797-1801, 8, 401) says shingle in the Rye and Winchelsea area by the mid-12th belonged to the More family from at least Henry II's century is the rapid rise of those two towns, from relative time. obscurity at the time of Domesday (1086) to full St. Thomas's Innings, which also contains a very membership of the Cinque Ports as the 'two ancient regular field and sewer pattern, has at its north-east towns' by the time of Henry 11, the latter confirmed in a corner a large block ofland which until 192 1 belonged to charter of 1197. Within a hundred years one of them, Magdalen College, Oxford (Frontispiece). The college Old Winchelsea, was destroyed by the sea. Old owned this land (ofjust over 80 acres) from 148 1, when it Winchelsea may have stood on a shingle bank, but it is took over the lands of the Hospital of St. Stephen and St. also possible that in origin it was one of the islands in the Thomas at New Romney, and charters in the college marsh, like Cheyney and Scotney. archives show that this was one of the original endowments of the Leper Hospital at New Romney confirmed by Archbishop Baldwin in c. 1186-90, and by Twelfth-century reclamations a Papal Bull in 121 1. The land is described in the charter Documentary evidence suggests that reclamation as 'terra que fuit Galfridi Turcople', and in the Papal Bull as started early in the 12th century, in the time of Henry I '80 acres called terra Turcopule in the close of St. (1 100-35). At that time grants of land in Appledore by Th~mas'.~Of particular interest is the way that the Christ Church Priory made the tenants "engage to Rhee Wall cuts through this land -which suggests that maintain the walls and sewers against the salt and fresh the Rhee is younger, because if a major waterway had water and, as often as there should be need, to repair and already been cut across the land in 1186-90, it would strengthen them, according to the law of the marsh" surely have been mentioned in the charter. Also, on its (Teichman Dervillle 1936, 5). east and south sides this block of land is surrounded by The most interesting group of charters, however, an original wall of St. Thomas's Inning, which was concerns the area around Misleham, in Brookland probably built before the Christ Church land at Agney pari~h.~The first charter says that Prior Wibert had been reclaimed. The earliest maps of Romney (1 155-67) and the convent of Christ Church "granted Marsh and the Magdalen College map5show a windmill Baldwin Scadeway and his heirs all their land of on top of this bank (later called Millbank Lane), and this Misleham which lies in the marsh, in so far as Baldwin was probably on the same site as that erected soon after can inclose it against the sea". He will hold it free of all 1200, a moiety ofwhich belonged to the Hospital at New services for two years and then will pay 4d. for each acre. R~mney.~The famous Patent Roll reference in 1258, to The second charter (1191) settled a dispute between the building of the last part of the Rhee Wall (Cal. Pat. The Topography of the Walland A4arsh Area 107

Rolls 1247-58,635-6) probably refers to this land when it Table 9.1 Grants of Land to the 'Men of Misleham' in the time mentions where the new course of the channel was to be of Prior Geofrey (1191-1207) started. The channel was to run "from a cross of the (Canterbury Cathedral Arrhivcs, Reg. C. ff. 256-257. The Roman hospital of infirm persons of Rumenal which stands near numerals are the original charter numbers, given in the left hand Aghenepend". This must mean that there was a cross on column) the corner of the hospital lands. 'Aghenepend' must be a Acres Virgates ponded-up part of the older part of the Rhee to the xli and xlv (duplicates) north-east. Alwin son of Wateman To the west of Baldwin's Innings more land (later William son of Godard parts of the parishes of Snargate and Fairfield) was being Tedgar Prat and his brothers inned in the later 12th century. This is referred to in a Tureburn Godfrey son of Wuluric well-known dispute in 1400 relating to land in 'the Elphege and his brothers Becard' (now the Becket's Barn area).' This records that Aluric son of Wulmar and when Robertsbridge Abbey was founded in 11 76 they William son of Almar were given 700 acres of marsh in Snargate, but soon Walter son of Wudeman Alwin son of Alflod afterwards there was a dispute between Robertsbridge Norman son of Stefel and Alan, Prior of Christ Church (1 179-86) because Christ Church claimed that this land was partly in their 35 acres manor of Appledore. This was resolved and Roberts- xlii bridge got 100 acres "lying next to the bank of the Abbot Tureburn son of Wulmar and Convent (of Robertsbridge) near the land of Adam Aluric his brother of CharingX.Again, we know exactly where Adam of Norman son of Ailnoth and Charing's land was, as it was given shortly afterwards (c. Aluric his brother Alwin Blund 1186) to New Romney Hospital - and passed on to Alwin Wint and Wulfwin his brother Magdalen College, Oxford, in 148 1, being 40 acres of Hugh son of Alwin land shown on the Magdalen College map. Aluric son of Tureburn Yet another suggestion of major new innings in the Robert son of Wateman area was the creation of the new parish of Fairfield. The 342 acres church is dedicated to St. Thomas Becket, who was canonised in 1173, and church dedications to St. xliii Thomas are common in the later 12th and early 13th Aluric son of Frenar and 11 Snelgar his brother centuries. Unlike Brookland, this church was always of Lefwin son of Ordnod and William 8 3 timber, and in its exposed position clearly suffered in the de Grana and Livere son of Fuhel storms of the later 13th century. A visitation in 1294 Alwin son of Wulfwin and his brothers 8 3 records that "the church was never dedicated (i.e. it had and Meremius not formally been dedicated by the archbishop or his Henry Carpenter and 4 1 Snelgar son of Frenar suffragan), and the altars in the chancel were of wood, Alwin and Blakeman sons of \Yudeman 2 1 badly put together. Also the walls of the church were in and Fresnod bad condition because they were full of holes in the lower 35 acres parts. Moreover, the churchyard was dedicated, but not the church, because it was of wood and daub (de ligno et xliv plostra terra)" (Woodruff 1917, 162). Unlike all the other Robert son of Britheve churches it was never rebuilt in stone. The present Fresnod Alwin Blund church is still a 15th century timber-framed building, Norman son of Wakerild which was only clad in brick in the 18th century. Nearby Hugh son of Arnold and is the large Fairfield Brack (or Hole) which is shown on Lodowic son of Aluric the Soil Survey map as well as on the early Ordnance William son of Norman Survey maps, and which still floods in very wet winters. 35 acres

xlvii Suggested Model Aluric son of Wakerild and 173 Wulwin his brother The following is suggested as a model for the Godard son of Godric 4 1 f development of the Walland Marsh area between the Wulwin son of Ailmar 4 1) l l th and 13th centuries. Godit daughter of Quykeman 24 1 f 1. In the early l l th century a broad channel, the Kemet son of William 4 13 Robert son of Britheve !Z Rumen ea, runs from just south of the later East Guldeford Turebern son of Wulmar and 3 area in a curve up through Lower Agney to Old Alwin Blund Romney. This channel, which was later called the Wainway, is clearly shown on Green's soil map. It must 35 3 acres have provided the fine natural harbour which sheltered Note: In this area four virgates equalled one acre. the fleet of ships of Earl Godwin which William the Sandwich, the Patent Roll in 1285 records the digging of Conqueror sought to secure immediately after the battle another artificial trench to divert an upland stream to of Hastings in October 1066. Earlier than that, the flush out the port and bring fresh water to the town. This channel may have divided into two on either side of trench, which is nothing like the width of the Rhee, is Midley (the Middle Island) - into Green's creek ridges three miles long and remains a water channel 700 years numbers 1 and 2, and may have been the channel up later. which the Danes came in 892. By the 11th century, 4. Immediately following the period of the great however, Creek Ridge No. 1 must have become blocked storms the Walland and Denge Marsh areas, as well as at its east end (near Belgar and Caldecot) by the other marshes between Romney Marsh proper and the longshore drift of shingle and sand from the direction of County of Sussex, received Royal ordinances in 1288 Lydd, and the whole of the north and north-west facing and 1290 so that the many breaches in the sea walls shore of this area was the Langport or burh of Romney. made by the great storms of 1287-8 could be speedily The interior of Walland Marsh at this time was perhaps repaired. These walls and the creek relics behind them a large salt marsh (Domesday Book records many salt (probably scoured out during and after the great works there), in which there was a series of islands, the storms), are clearly shown on Green's soil map in the names of some of which survive - Cheyne, Scotney, area between Snargate and Fairfield, and on past the Agney and Midley. Woolpack Inn at Brookland, to Cheyney. There is then a 2. In the early 12th century the Rother is diverted to re-entrant area at the head of the Wainway ('The Great an outlet in the Old Winchelsea area, causing the broad Brack') before the irregular line of walls which runs channel between Lower Agney and Old Romney to silt south-westwards from south of Midley church to up rapidly and destroy the port of Romney. A new Broomhill. Behind these walls, particularly near Scotney planned town is created at New Romney. With the Court, is a series of creek relics, which must also date rapidly rising population of the time much new land is from the storms of the late 13th century. inned in the Old Romney to Snargate areas in the later The great storms also probably breached the shingle 12th century. This continues in the early 13th century barrier between New Romney and Willop (south of with the draining of the Agney Manor channel near Old ) for the first time, because in 1287 there was Romney and the reclamation of more land in the a meeting of the 24 jurats, the landholders of the marsh Fairfield area, where a church dedicated to St. Thomas and their representatives at Snargate, at which they Becket is built for a new parish. There is also more inning decreed "that a new wall should be built at Holewest on the south side of the Wainway (otherwise known as where once a jetty had been erected. They said that the the 'Water of Cheyne') in the Lydd (Scotney Court) and land could not otherwise be saved from flooding unless Broomhill areas (Gardiner 1988). such a wall was built 12 feet high and of a given length 3. In the mid-13th century the climate deteriorates and breadth" (Smith 1943, 169-70). Work was to start and there is perhaps a rise in sea level, requiring more on Monday February 4th and the wall should be six feet massive sea walls to be built. The documented great high after one month and finished by Easter (two storms of 1250, 1252 and particularly of 1287-8 breach months). Holewest (a significant name) was in many walls and flood much of the newly-drained land, , and there can be little doubt that this is the and also destroy many buildings including possibly the precursor of the wall, though extended, shown on the Court Lodge at Agney, Midley church and the whole of earliest maps of the marsh in the late 16th century the eastern part ofSt. Nicholas' church at New Romney. running from High Knock Wall end (now near St. It also piles up large quantities of sand and shingle in the Mary's Bay) to Everden Groyne (now near the town as well as in the port ofNew Romney. As a result of Dymchurch ). The east side of this wall was this, the huge new seven-mile long and 50-yard wide decreed as the responsibility of the Archbishop and the artificial channel, the Rhee, had to be cut in the mid Prior of Christ Church (whose manors of Willop and 13th century. The Patent Roll of 21 June 1258, in a Orgarswick were just behind the wall), while the rest of much-quoted reference (though wrongly dated 1257 in the cost was to be borne by the other marsh lords. For Green 1968,41) makes it clear that by this date much of later history of this wall, see Robinson (1988). the Rhee was complete (probably only recently 5. Once the major walls are erected and repaired, completed, however) and that it was being extended new innings are created and land drainage took place in from near the Hospital lands at Old Romney to the port various areas. At the Christ Church manor of Agney, of New Romney. This massive undertaking shows both records of 1292-3 and 1298-9 (Smith 1943, 182-3) the importance ofthe port and also that there was a large mention "three perches of wall repaired in Nova Terra local population which could supply the many diggers (Newland)" and "two furlongs and 22 perches of wall needed to be hired to carry out the work. The later 13th being built contra mare" at a cost of L3.5s.6d. This was century was, however, an age of great public works and followed by the construction of two dams in 1301-2 to the digging of the vast or around the Tower regulate the drainage, and in 13 15-6 Nova Terra was of London in the 1270s, for which hundreds of 'ditch cultivated with 5+ acres of oats and 4 acres of vetch, diggers' and 'hodmen' (carriers of earth in hods) were showing that desalination of the the soil in this area may required is perhaps the largest comparable example have taken about 20-25 years. Agney was still, however, which can be cited. At another major East Kent port, largely pasture and there were 300 sheep on this manor

110 Tim Tfi by 1322 (Smith 1943, 152). 'Newland' is in the area later in 1337 stated that 'an ancient trench' which passed called Upper Agney and innings there and in the through the manors of the Archbishop, the Prior of neighbouring archiepiscopal manors of Cheyne and Christ Church and Margaret de Basinges (i.e. Snargate, Midley (in Midley parish) continued throughout the Appledore and ) has become so ob- 14th and early 15th centuries. For example, a licence structed by shingle and sand that ships could not pass was given in 1359 for the Archbishop to grant to John of through to the town of Romney as they had used to do Gosebourn of Appledore "72 acres of land of his marsh (Scott Robertson 1880, 266 gives the original Latin lying outside the wall of his innings (inclusi) of La Cheyn text). There was, however, a 'certain other trench' called Estwall between the land of the Abbot of Boxley which had "lately been made by the force of the sea, by on the south and land called 'Newelond' on the north". which boats and ships might pass without hindrance" to Gosebourn was also granted a way one perch wide from Romney, and that this had been the case for "30 years St. Thomas's Inning as far as the land granted to him and more". The dimensions of both the old and the new above. This land is called 'Begham' in 1398 (modern channels are given (700 by 10 perches and 500 by 20 Baynham) and must be the inning between Old Cheyne perches respectively), and these can both be plotted on Court and Scott's Marsh House on Green's soil map the ground with the help ofGreen's soil map where three (Fig. 9.1). Areas of Romney Marsh proper were also old walls are shown running east from Appledore. 'The being better drained at this time as a Visitation Roll of channel on the north, which is the longer and narrower 1293 makes clear from the parish of Newchurch. Here one, appears to be the old man-made one, while that on "the lands which used to be grass, and on which animals the south, which is shorter and wider and is shown with a were pastured, which were of much profit and meandering water-course in it, is likely to be the new convenience to the vicars, are now under the plough on channel made by the force of the sea at the end of the account of the drying up of the marsh" (Woodruff 191 7, 13th century (see also Vollans 1988). 158). 6. During this period the Rhee continues to be used as a ship canal, though silting is already obviously a problem. From the late 14th century until about 1420 Conclusions desperate efforts were made to dig out the Rhee and to The changes in the central area of Romney Marsh and keep the sluices clear, and between 1409 and 14 13 the Walland Marsh in the 12th and 13th centuries are sluice at the port was replaced by a new 'Great' or crucial to our understanding of the earlier history of the 'Harbour' Sluice, which probably brought in water from marsh, and it is hoped that the model given above can the surrounding marshes. But after this these efforts are now be refined, and that individual key areas around given up and the sluices at Snargate and the port were Old and New Romney, Agney Court, Appledore and taken down, and from about 1427 'the land between the Snargate can be examined in detail. Fieldwork and walls' was first rented out for pasture (Scott Robertson excavation in these areas may well locate the 1880, 2734 footnote; Vollans 1988). In the late 13th waterlogged remains of ancient channels and sluices, as and early 14th centuries, however, this remarkable well as possibly the remains of some of the ships and channel was still very much in use, and ships must have boats that moved through the area. moved regularly up and down the channel between Appledore and New Romney. The sluice gates at either end (seven miles apart) must also have incorporated some sort of larger gates making it a gigantic lock. Acknowledgements A record in the Calendar of the Patent Rolls on May I am extremely grateful to Dr. Nigel Ramsay for very 20th 1337 of a licence tells us that a great change had kindly helping me to read many of the original medieval happened in the north-western two miles of the Rhee, documents in Canterbury Cathedral Archives, and to between Appledore and Snargate, in the late 13th Jill Eddison for her typing and helping to make this a century, perhaps as a result of the 1287 storm. The jury much more readable paper.

References (Superscript numbers in the text refer to unpublished sources, listed below.) Eddison, J. 1985: Developments in the lower Rother \alleys up to 1600. Arch. Cant. 102, 95-1 10. Elliott, J. 1862: suggestions and maps. In T. Lewin, The Inuasion of Published sources Britain by Julius Caesar. (London). Brooks, N. P. 1988: Romney Marsh in the Early Middle Ages. In this Gardiner, M. F. 1988: Medieval settlement and society in the volume, chapter 8. Broomhill area, and excavations at Broomhill church. In this Butcher, A. F. 1980: The hospital ofSt. Stephen and St. Thomas, New volume, chapter 10. Romney: the documentary evidence. Arch. Cant. 96, 17-26. Green, R. D. 1968: Soils ofRomney Marsh. Soil Surv. Gt. Britain, Bull. 4. Cunliffe, B. W. 1980: The evolution of Romney Marsh: a preliminary (Harpenden). statement. In F. H. Thompson (editor), Archaeology and Coastal Hasted, E. 1797-1801: The History and Topographical Survey of the County Change (London, Soc. Antiquaries), 37-55. ofKent, 2nd edition (Canterbury). The Topography of the Walland Marsh Area

Robinson, G. W. 1988: Sea defence and land drainage of Romney Marsh. In this volume, chapter 13. Unpublished sources Scott Robertson, W. A. 1880: The Cinque Port Liberty of Romney. 1. British Library, MS. Cotton, Galba E iv, f. 104 (Prior Henry of Arch. Cant. 13, 261-80. Eastry's Memorandum Book). Smith, R. A. L. 1943: Cantrrbtrry Cathedral Priory, a Study in Monastic 2. Amiens, Bibliothtque Municipale, Ms. 1077. Administration. (Cambridge). 3. Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Reg. C, ff. 568. Steers, J. A. 1964: The Coastline of and Wales. (Cambridge). 4. Magdalen College Muniments, Deeds (Romney Marsh) 58 and Teichman Derville, M. 1936: The Level and Liberty of Romncy Marsh. 31; and Magdalen College, map 24 (map of their Romney Marsh (Ashford). estates, William Web, 1614). See also Butcher 1980, 18-9. Vollans, E. C. 1988: New Ron~neyand the 'river ofNewenden' in the 5. Magdalen College, map 24 Later Middle Ages. In this volume, chapter 11. 6. Magdalen College, Muniments, Deeds (Romney Marsh), 37. Ward, G. 1952: The Saxon history of the town and port of Romney. 7. Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Reg. C, ff. 2556. Arch. Cant. 65, 12-25. Woodruff, C. E. 1917: Some early visitation rolls preserved at Canterbury. Arch. Cant. 32, 143-180.