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Ash next Ridley - Parish Information

W.I. History of Ash and Ridley from Earliest Records to 1957 - Page 41

Place & Field Names

Peckham Wood and Peckham Wood Corner
These got their names from that splendid family of Peckham that dwelt at Yaldham Manor in Wrotham through 14 Generations, until 1713.

Billet Hill
There was an Inn called The Crooked Billet which ceased to exist in about the year 1830,  and was converted into two cottages. A woman who lived in one of them remembered many tubs and barrels which were locally reputed to be part of  the stock-in-trade of smugglers and their associates. Since then it has all been pulled down, and on the site now stand a farmhouse and cottages. The name still lingers in Billet House and Billet Hill. A "billet" is the equivalent of a "swingle-tree", and to assist in preventing this from hitting the "Horses hooves it was often curved, and as such is known as a "crooked billet".

Berry’s Maple
There are two theories about the origin of this name, one is that it was the name of an Inn now a private house known by that name, and the other that the gibbet post of a highwayman named Berry was erected there and afterwards sprouted into a maple tree.

Turner’s Oak
Tradition has it that a highwayman named Turner was hanged here and that the gibbet post later sprouted into an oak tree.

West Yoke
The Roman land measurement "jugium" of about 50 acres became a "yoke" during the period of the Jutish Kingdom of Kent. "Yoke" is a word peculiar to Kent.

Wallis Terrace
This gets its name from its builder, old Solomon Wallis who died in about 1817.

The field names are somewhat intriguing, we have Millfield Square on which stands the "Royal Oak", Bowling-Green Mead to the north of the Churchyard must have seen many changes in sports outfits from the time of Queen Elizabeth I down the ages. Just opposite the "White Swan" is a field called "The Vineyard." We know that the Archbishop of Canterbury had vineyards at Northfleet in 1298, so wine was probably fermented in Ash from grapes grown on the spot in the long ago. Another curious field is now  "Milbury Hockley" alias "Milvery Knockley" a field of 6 acres lying on the south side of Pease Hill. Then "Seafield" which runs down to the "Old Malt House". We have "Punch Cup", "Cold Steadles", "Thunder Hole", "Peplands" all falling within the Manor of Ash. Other field names and their owners can be traced through the Court Rolls going back at least to 1793.

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