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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 58  1945  page 2

The Lost Dens of Little Chart by Gordon Ward, M.D., F.S.A.

Names), and M.R. (Rolls of the Manor of Little Chart from the year 1620 now in the writer's hands).

AETINGDEN.
   K.PN. says: "According to Furley there is in Pluckley a dene called Iddenden belonging to Little Chart Manor. It is tempting to suggest that Aetingden and Iddenden are identical". K.PN. also quotes Karlstrom as saying that the name means the den of Atta, Aetti, or some like name, but is evidently not really happy about the meaning. There is no doubt, however, that Aetingden might easily become Iddenden in common parlance, especially as the term "Iden" is a very common component of place names in the Weald. On the 6 inch map there are Iden Farm, Green, etc., in Egerton, Goudhurst, Benenden and Staplehurst. I can add Iden Lands in Biddenden, as well as this Iddenden with which we are now concerned. The M.R. tell us quite a lot about it. Thus, in 1698, we have a steward's memorandum: "Ye free school of Rumney was not entered lying in Iddenden at ye rent of 2d." There is a clue to this ground in "School Wood" on the 6 inch map in Smarden, and Sale Particulars of the adjacents Oaklands (then called Perrin's Farm) show a field there belonging to Romney School. It is just opposite the wood. Evidently Iddenden was not in Pluckley alone, for here is a part of it in Smarden. There was also woodland in Smarden which is mentioned in 1822 as lying south of the highway and

north of Burnt Wood. I suspect that all this woodland is now included in Dering Wood, adjacent to Perrin's Farm and extended over the eastern end of Smarden, adjoining Pluckley. Possibly it once went further for there were two woodland tenancies in Iddenden which lay actually in Pluckley, 23 acres in all. It seems therefore that Iddenden lay in Smarden and Pluckley, and it will appear later that it was adjacent to other known dens of Little Chart, of which we will next take that which lay to the west of it, namely, Meredenn.

MEREDENN.
   F. says that there was a den in Smarden of this name which belonged to Little Chart, but the name does not occur in the M.R. from 1620 onwards, although it may well have occurred in earlier rolls seen by F. There is, however, ample evidence of a large den, over 400 acres, of this name, in Smarden, belonging to the manor of Chilham and I am indebted to Mr. R. F. Jessup for a copy of so much of a 1680 rental of Chilham as deals with the dens. This gives 17 tenants of Marden in Smarden. One of these has the river to the south and the way to Hedcrone (Headcorn) on the north. This was of 60 acres and may well have included Morley's and Munk's Farms. Several holdings were adjacent to "Udmund Green", now Smarden Bell, and there was a holding of 100 acres in Burnt Wood which we already know to have

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