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were two free tenants who held from Hugh de Port a half
sulung with land for one plough, valued at twenty shillings; their estates
were called Didele and Soninges. Didele must surely be the same as Idleigh, out on a limb as, geographically, it always has been.
The, Domesday survey for Ash ended with a reference to ‘What
Richard of Tonbridge holds’, which was valued at forty shillings, and to
two coppices belonging to the King, valued at seven shillings.2 Richard
of Tonbridge was another of the Conqueror’s relatives and had been with
him at Senlac; by now, he was owner of the town and Lowy of Tonbridge. Two
years later, Bishop Odo and he sided with Robert of Normandy in his
quarrel with William Rufus. On Rufus capturing Tonbridge Castle, Richard
fled to Normandy, where he is said to have died in captivity.
It could be that the lands of Ash that Richard of Tonbridge
held were in fact in the Weald and within his Lowy of Tonbridge. Many
early settlements had dens in the Weald, where were pastured their
swine. Bromley’s dens were around Edenbridge and those of Bexley
near Hever. From the den of the men of Minster in Thanet |
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grew the fair town of Tenterden. Biddenden, Benenden,
these and many other Wealden parishes were born in like manner.
Conversely, the uplands must have had their attractions for the
lowlanders, as witness the detached lands of Kemsing that bit into Ash.
There, maybe, Kemsing men came to pasture their sheep.
There is little record of Ash for a hundred years and more
after Domesday. Then, early in the thirteenth century, began a
relationship that was to make an important impact on the history of the
parish and, especially, of its church. This resulted from the purchase, in
the year 1207, of the advowson of Ash by the Prior and Brethren of the
Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, otherwise the Knights Hospitallers. The
transaction was carried through by way of a Fine the proceedings
being before King John, sitting in person with his Justices at Woodstock.
The vendor was one Eudo Paterik, who was paid ten marks;3 that
proved a not unprofitable bargain for the Hospitallers, who for many years
contrived to levy upon Ash an annual tribute of the same amount. On the
other hand, it was |