Thanington: an Introductory History
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Thanington: An Introductory History © Clive H Church 2015 1. Problematique: Within, Without, Wherever ? To date, nobody has ever tried to write the history of Thanington. Indeed, when the Community Treasures organization tried to get locals to undertake one, for performance, they got nowhere. This is most probably due to the apparent insignificance of the place and people's lack of any background knowledge. However, as I have found, it is also because so many problems emerge when we try to write a history, problems related not to size but to uncertainties about the place as such. What follows here is therefore only a beginning. It is an attempt to provide the background information which is so clearly lacking. At the same time, it is also an attempt to identify issues, possibilities and sources, so as to confront the methodological difficulties which Thanington presents. In other words, it is only an introductory history, a narrative meant to open the way to more detailed and solid studies. To begin with, what problems does writing the history of Thanington, as opposed to any other locality actually pose? To begin with, problems start with the fact that it depends what we mean by 'Thanington'. Historically this was a very small settlement, hardly justifying the name hamlet according to one historian. Indeed, it often seems to have been as much a description of an area of activity as the name of an actual settlement around the church of St Nicholas, let alone a village. However, with the passage of time Thanington has both expanded and changed its name. All this has raised considerable questions about its actual identity. Firstly, in terms of expansion, it has moved both eastwards towards Canterbury and also southwards into the hills above the Stour valley, into what I like to call the 'Thanington High Lanes' area, rather than Hilltop which is not a very accurate term. Moreover, the actual core also been very closely linked historically with nearby settlements in the Stour Valley from Horton eastwards to Wincheap, all of which have had somewhat different histories. The borders of Thanington, in other words, have been very porous and embrace both the urban and the rural. So, in line with Charlesworth's warning about hyper-localism, we need to see Thanington in the context of the areas around it since it was never hermetically sealed from the outside world. 1 Only by doing this are we likely to gain a full appreciation of the past of Thanington. This is especially so for the mediaeval period. Then, secondly, there is further problem where names are concerned. In fact, from the 1890s civil servants reflected the first move by giving the new civil parishes the fanciful new names of 'Within' and 'Without', even though both were well outside the city walls if not the city boundary. Of these only the second has really persisted, even though it has now lost its original significance. Indeed, in early 2014 the City Council and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, briefly decided that the South Ward of the Civil Parish is actually 'Thanington Without' and the north is just Thanington. However, the initial change of name does make it clear that the 'Thanington' of today is very different in nature and scope from the old hamlet which emerged in the Dark Ages. Indeed, though it is fairly old, Thanington is actually also very new since it has undergone more changes in the last hundred years than ever it did in previous centuries. Thirdly, in terms of identity, for some Thanington today is simply a suburb, even though it is parished. Hence it has to be considered an integral part of the contemporary urban fabric. Thus the City Council does not include it in its list of villages, seeing it as more a part of the city. Others have found it difficult to place or classify in different ways. In fact, Thanington seems to have had a love-hate relationship with the city. One source thus referred to it as 'Thanington beside Canterbury' and another called it 'the first hamlet out of Canterbury'. This lack of certainty and status is symbolic of the fact that 'Thanington' is a very mixed area, and we have to look in several places to find out about its history. Only by including a number of outliers can we get an approximate idea of the way Thanington as such expanded, developed and changed. In other words, it is not bereft of identity, as some have claimed, but has always had a very unusual identity: changing, fragmented and often multiple. Fourthly, nobody has ever written a history of Thanington before, which creates further difficulties. Hence there is no easy starting point. Nor is there an established historiography to which we can turn for guidance. Moreover, specific primary sources are often lacking. Unfortunately, Thanington's core, such as it was, has never been a large or rich place, so it has produced precious few records especially for earlier periods. Often we are very dependent on the church and here, one major loss are the Select Vestry and PCC Minutes between 1905 and 1945. Possibly departing vicars took such records with them when they left, so that we have no information for crucial periods of Thanington's recent transformation. And we have to turn to a 2 whole range of scattered and peripheral sources. As a result, this often means that we are limited to pointing out what did not happen, such are the gaps in our knowledge. This leads to a fifth and final problem. This is that we need to avoid considering Thanington in the abstract and on its own. We have to see it not just in the context of Canterbury but in terms of wider English social and political history. Unless we know something of these it is hard to establish what the parameters of Thanington's history actually are. And these can give us helpful hints about what was happening. So we have to rely on setting out the context so as to tease out how the place may have developed. This often means deducing things from the national and social background, something too often ignored by previous commentators. This also often means posing questions that we cannot yet properly answer. All this makes it hard to produce what is needed, which is an introductory narrative which will provide a starting guide for interested readers and, ultimately, other historians. Nonetheless, this is the aim here, to tell a story - as consistent, comprehensible and as complete as possible - and not just to list disparate facts or retell colourful anecdotes as so many writers have done in the past. Indeed, doing any kind of research suggests that some attractive myths have to be debunked. To sum up, the aim is to play a door opening role, and not to provide the last word. In fact, a narrative has to be the key to further work. Only when this is there can we see where more intensive and professional research needs to be concentrated. Hence, because this attempt at a history is likely to serve as a starting point, footnotes are hardly necessary. What seems to me to emerge from my investigations, and what shapes the following pages, is firstly, that Thanington's history is often shaped by its geographical setting, so this needs spelling out. Secondly, its history falls into several clearly defined periods. In both prehistory and Roman times we know nothing of it. So, though there could have been something there beforehand, for instance in early Anglo-Saxon times, its origins - and its real history - really begin as an indeterminate agricultural area in late Anglo- Saxon times. After 1066 it was socially unchanging for many years as part of post Conquest feudal society, dominated by its Lords. Then, after 1485, it was somewhat affected by the conflicts of the Reformation era although it seems to have ridden out the Civil War years easily enough. From the later 17th century onwards, it entered a new aristocratic age as new landed elites took over control and resisted challenges. Then, from about 1840 onward, it moved into industrial modernity, beginning in the later 19th century. The period involving the two world wars carried on the process of modernization. 3 After 1945 Thanington expanded further so that it developed a new suburban identity. And change has continued since 1990. Not only were the boundaries altered, but new building projects came to dominate Thanington's life. Indeed they could well change it dramatically in the future. And socially it experienced considerable new difficulties which tested its new network of community organizations. In other words, history in Thanington, accelerates rather than dying away. It is very much on going and does not end years ago as people too often think is the case with history. 2. The Setting. Geography obviously plays a role in making the history of Thanington so problematic, at least in earlier times. This is because the geography of the area is so diverse. So, before starting the history proper, it is worth analyzing the geography of Thanington. Here we can take the modern civil parish as our starting point. In fact, we find that Thanington is a very mixed area, geographically and geologically. Agriculturally, the area is divided between the North Kent fruit belt and the East Kent arable belt, hence it has often been an area of orchards and grain fields. To the south it includes the hilly uplands above the Stour Valley (part of the Ashdown beds) and described by Hasted as being poor, flinty soil.