of a hamlet (or, since it has a church, a village)
wrongly called Sissinghurst, a name which it has borrowed from the
castle a mile or so away.
HLIFGESELLA.
F. reports a den of Little Chart named Lewcell as being in
Biddenden, and K.PN. not only allows that the name may well be a late
form of Hlifgesella but tentatively identifies it with Newcastle Farm, a
view that Wallenberg subsequently withdrew (Place Names of Kent).
We have therefore to turn to the M.R. to see what is to be found under
the heading Lewcell. It is to be remembered that 1620 is a very recent
date in the life of a manor and that many tenancies must be expected to
have fallen out in the course of preceding years. Certainly, what we
have left gives little more than hints. One holding bounds towards the
south to a wood called The Brookes which is of recent years shown on the
6 inch map as The Brogues. This tells the corner of Biddenden in which
Lewcell existed. The only other hint is little more than a suspicion.
There is a holding which has on the south a wood of the Dean and Chapter
of Canterbury, and another has on the south east a wood called Bigg
Wood. I suggest that the wood called Priory Wood and sold in 1917 as
"Priory alias Beak Wood" is just the Bigg Wood gone wrong and
included in that of the Dean and Chapter who certainly took over much
land from the Priory at the Dissolution of the monasteries. This wood is
shown on
the map and gives |
|
an east boundary to all we know of the site of Lewcell
alias Hlifgesella.
HEORATLEAG.
This is generally accepted as Hartley in Cranbrook. M.R.
shows that it was in Cranbrook and the identification may therefore be
accepted without hesitation.
TILGESELTHA.
This name does not occur in M.R. and K.PN. mentions High
Tilt in Cranbrook (formerly Tilthe) and Tilt's Farm in Boughton
Monchelsea (also Tilthe in times past) without any firm identification.
High Tilt lies south east of Milkhouse alias Cadaca Hrycg and may well
have been continuous with it so that the two dens came to be regarded as
one, which would account for the absence of the name Tilgeseltha from
the M.R. This, however, is all speculation, and further evidence must be
awaited before certainty is arrived at. Such evidence might be found in
the Tithe Map, a great source of old field names derived from very high
antiquity.
MONEKENESNOD.
This is the name of a den recorded by F. The name should
mean "The nun's wood" but F. does not identify it and I can do
no better |