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 |
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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 |