Aspects of Kentish Local History

wood, for six weeks after Pentecost, where other men go into the wood, i.e. in the king's commoning.
   It is likely that the grant of Lenham in 946 (B.C.S. 459, 854.) also included salt works at Harwich although this name is not actually mentioned. The phrase is "locus in quo sal adipisci potest et cum gressu trium carrorum in silva qui dicitur Blean", i.e. a place at which it is possible to obtain salt, with entry for three carts in the wood called the Blean.
   The last mention of Harwich, before the conquest, is in 946 (B.C.S. 874b, 1345), but we have only a very indifferent copy of the original charter. Harwich appears as "Here pit", involving two usual mistakes, namely "p" for "w" and "t" for "c", both of which are very common in early documents when these letters were written in a very similar shape. This charter is a grant by King Eadred to a man called Heresige of some land at Swalecliffe "et seo wudu reden the ther mid rihte to gebirede ............ et the sealttaern steal aet here pit", i.e. and the wood clearing that therewith rightly belongs ........... and the salt works at Herewic (Harwich).
   That this Herewic was in fact the borough of Harwich, now roughly represented by Tankerton, cannot be doubted, but difficulty has arisen because in one case the saltworks are said to be "at Faversham" although the wood rights are, as usual, in the Blean. This needs explaining and is a difficulty which we shall meet again when we consider the place of Whitstaple in Domesday

Book. The great forest of Blean extended from near Faversham (where the name Westwood, once "west of the wood", commemorates it) to the confines of Reculver and Chislet. It was undoubtedly a forest attached to the royal manor of Faversham, and the Hundred of Faversham has still two detached portions in the centre part of what was once Blean wood. They are shown on the map as detached parts of the parishes of Hernehill and Dunkirk and lie to the south of Swalecliffe. The ancient forest was slowly parted with. Grants were made to individuals of rights of access which presently became proprietary rights over stretches of woodland with known boundaries. It is scarcely possible to prove that the salt works as well as the wood were once in the royal manor of Faversham but the mere fact that the grant of 858 describes a salt works as being "at Faversham" points in this direction, for there are no suitable places at Faversham proper for salt works. However high the tide may come up Faversham creek the stream would certainly be diluted with fresh water and so would not be suitable for evaporation for salt. This would presumably apply to the whole of the Swale. There are, in fact, only two places on the north of Kent which are really suitable for salt making, i.e. the Seasalter-Harwich area and the old mouth of the Wantsum, in which were a great number of saltpans at the time of Domesday Book. On the south coast the best saltpans