Aspects of Kentish Local History

Woltun might well write it Waltham. Nor is it unusual for the syllable "ham" to creep into names in which it has no proper place. Thus, Cobbecumbe, Ranecumbe and Shillinghell have become Coakham, Rankham and Shillingham. Bossingcamp has become Bossingham and Coppingebury Cobhambury. A still more surprising and apposite example is modern Walthamstowe for ancient Wilcumstowe. Actual instances of -tun becoming -ham are hard to find but Cotham (D.B. Cotune) near Newark, and Smeetham (D.B. Smedetuna) in Essex, for which I am indebted to Ekwall's Dictionary of Place-Names, seem to be examples. We may therefore feel that we have overcome that objection to its occupying a subordinate manorial position at an early date which is inherent in the name Waltham.
   We have yet to show that Waltham alias Woltune was ever called suth-tun, although there is no doubt that its position in the parent manor would justify the name. The most cogent evidence of this dual name is the presence of this Sutton Hook Wood in a position which obviously relates it to the early settlement around the church of Waltham. It is therefore concluded that the Sutton of Sutton Hook Wood was Waltham itself, the suth-tun of Petham.

7. SUTH-TUN IN CHILHAM.

   This is no longer to be found on the map under this name but is cited as a boundary of Godmersham in the

charter already quoted. The other boundaries leave little doubt of the general position of this suth-tun which seems now to be represented by East Stour Farm. This later name indicates a farm to the immediate east of the River Stour and is a descriptive name of a sort which might easily displace an earlier suth-tun. In this case Chilham was presumably the head manor, whose records, alas, were almost all destroyed in the recent fire at Chilham Castle.

DEDUCTIONS.

   It is a great temptation to eke out this meagre list of Suttons with some notice of those occurring in other counties. But the writer has no sufficient evidence available and must content himself with a single example. The Royal Family of East Anglia are known to have had their residence at Rendlesham in Suffolk but the mounds of their ship burials are on a bluff over-looking the river at Sutton, some four miles to the south. Even on this evidence, and without any knowledge of local manorial history, it seems almost certain that this was the suth-tun of the Royal Manor of Rendlesham.
We must now see what we can deduce from the scanty evidence of our earliest history which bears on the question of the name suth-tun and how we are to ascertain its full meaning. The following