A HISTORY OF KENT 



well wooded. The size of the woods on the different manors of Kent that are mentioned 

 in the Survey is roughly given by the total of the pigs they could support. At the head of 

 the list comes Wye, four miles to the north-east of Ashford, with 300 pigs ; this is followed 

 by Milton, 220, and by Boughton Aluph, 200. Otford and Yalding had each sufficient woods 

 for 150 pigs, Pluckley for 140, and only four other manors for 100 or upwards. Some of the 

 Domesday Commissioners reckoned the number of the swine as those that were payable to 

 the lord in recognition of pannage rights, but there is no doubt from the form of expression 

 in a few of the Kent entries that the total of the swine turned out for feeding is implied ; 

 thus at Wye the entry names silva ccc porcorum de pasnagio. In thirteen cases there is distinct 

 mention of pannage and not merely of the number of the swine. 



There are twenty-four separate references to denes in the Kent Domesday, and in six 

 of these cases they are expressly described as being denes of wood. Thus at Dartford the 

 king held of wood eight small and three large denes ; at Orpington there were five denes 

 of wood for fifty swine ; at Milton three denes for thirty swine ; and at Hawley and at Ridley 

 one dene for five swine ; at Norton there is mention of one little dene of wood, but pigs are 

 not named. An interesting entry under Blean mentions that it contained 1,000 acres of fruit- 

 less wood [sylvae infructuosae), that is of wood that was neither oak nor beech to supply acorns 

 or mast for the swine. In three cases there is mention of small woods fit to provide fencing 

 {silvulae ad clausuram). There are two references to alder (or possibly osier) beds, namely 

 on the king's manor at Dartford, and on the Bishop of Bayeux's manor of Berdewelle which 

 has not been identified. A good many of the manors mentioned in the north of the county 

 contain no reference to woods, and in several others the amount of wood was so insignificant 

 that it could only find pannage for a single pig, or for two, or for three. There is one reference 

 to deer throughout the county. The Bishop of Bayeux held at Chart Sutton a park for beasts 

 of the forest. 



A scholarly estimate formed as to the chief woods of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex after the 

 Conquest supplies the following list for the first of these counties. The great Andred Wood 

 or Weald, extending into Sussex and Surrey ; Blean Wood, in Westgate Hundred, containing 

 the 1,000 acres of unpannaged woodland of the Domesday Survey; Bocholt, probably Bough ton- 

 under-Blean ; Caestnnvarowalth Wood, probably the woods between Rochester and Maid- 

 stone ; Challock Wood, part of which is now included in Eastwell Park ; Chart Wood, in 

 the hundred so called ; Norwood, near Heme Bay ; Ripwood, on the borders of Sussex, near 

 Romney Marsh ; Saenling Wood, in Eastry Hundred ; Saltwood, near Hythe ; Sandhurst 

 Wood, on the southern fringe of Andred Weald ; Shoreham Wood, north of Sevenoaks ; and 

 Westwood, near Graveney.i 



Although there was no royal forest in Kent, of which there is any record, after the Conquest, 

 the kings of England had two royal parks in the county, namely those of Eltham and Greenwich, 

 the former of which was by far the older. 



Eltham was a royal residence in the time of Henry III, and there the king and his court 

 kept the Christmastide of 1270. It was subsequently in the hands of Anthony Bek, the great 

 Bishop of Durham ; but that prelate, who died here in 13 10, left the reversion of it, with 

 all the improvements he had made, to Queen Eleanor.- When John, king of France, honourably 

 returned to England in December, 1363, Edward III was staying at Eltham. Froissart gives 

 a glowing account of the magnificence of the palace and of the splendid reception given there 

 to the royal captive and guest.^ Two Parliaments of this reign, held respectively in 1329 

 and 1375, were summoned to Eltham, and here Richard II frequently resided, enjoying the 

 hunting in the various parks by which it was surrounded. The manor of Eltham was used 

 much by successive sovereigns for entertainments and for the sport of hunting until the days 

 of Henry VIII when Greenwich came into favour. Henceforth Eltham saw little of royalty. 

 Among the various offices showered by Elizabeth on her favourite. Sir Christopher Hatton, 

 was that of keeper of the palace and parks of Eltham. Charles I granted the office of keeper 

 of the great park of Eltham to Patrick Maule, groom of the bedchamber, at 6d. a day, and 

 he also held the offices of ranger and master of the game, to each of which certain perquisites 

 were attached. 



After the king's execution, a careful survey was made of the Crown possessions at Eltham, 

 early in 1649. The area of the parks was considerable ; it was found that the Great Park 

 comprised 596 acres ; the Little or Middle Park 333 acres ; and Home or Lee Park, which 



1 Pearson, Hist. Maps of England. - Furley, op. cit. ii. 112, 247 j Hasted, Kcni, i. 50-1, 

 » Froissart, Chron. (1803), i. 609-10. 



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