Thursday 8 December 2011

Swanley Heritage No 11 - Swanley Hills' Time Line and Chronicle - No 1 ...to Norman Times

True historians will, I hope, forgive my forway into their realm. As a historical vandal I have extracted and twisted what I have wanted to glean from your kingdom. As I glean more and your "corrections" are taken on board, this post will become eventually (I hope) a worthwhile read.

So....as individuals or groups have passed through the Swanley Hills some have settled here or left traces of their past presence. This post has taken a wide geographical and historical remit or context of the term "Swanley Hills". It stretches from the centre line of the Medway to the centre line of the Thames.

An aside to the post's main content .....In the past it was all part of the Ancient Kingdoms of Kent. This was until both: 
  •  the London County Council was created in the 19th Century; and,
  • when the LCC was expanded to the Greater London Council and divided into the London Boroughs.
Thus about half of the Swanley Hills was taken by the "robber-barons" (RBs) of London from the Men of Kent, Maidens of Kent, Kentish Men and Kentish Maidens.  The RBs have then absorbed "their" half into the Great Wen.  However, many of the residents of "their half" still regard themselves as Kentish, eg Bromley and Bexley people, by still using "Kent" in their postal addresses. (All the others, those living in "their half " up to Lambeth Bridge know where their hearts are (my assumption.))

Hopefully the reasons for the wide  geographical and historical will become clearer as you read the earlier posts and later posts or follow the many updates of this one!!!.

Mesolithic (more to come)
  • How did the hunter-gathers store grain?
Stone Age (more to come)

Bronze Age (more to come)

Neolithic Era (more to come)
  • Somewhere on the hillside of Lullingstone Castle and/or above the Roman Villa at Lullingstone (both well worth visiting) I was told that there are two small Neolithic sites - I recall the word "farmstead" being used 
Iron Age
  • Settlement created above Wested Lane, Hextable - pits with animal bones, teeth, etc (c 880BC?)
  • local Iron Age hillfort was Oldbury (near Ightham)

Roman Era
  • some archaeological evidence that Oldbury Hillfort was attacked and burned - was it Julius Ceasar or later Roman invaders? (I have no idea!)
  • Watling Sreet constructed from Dover to London
  • Romano-British villas built down the Darent Valley, eg at Lullingstone; their sites are about 2 to 3 km apart and are shown on Ordnance Survey (OS) plans [locations to be specified]
  • Lullingstone Villa developed by extensions, etc over some 250 years as a Roman or Romano-British dwelling and farm [dates to be obtained]
  • Tile kiln operating at Orpington [Dates and location to be specified]
  • 410  Roman Empire ends in Britain about 410, and
  • 450  Probably the end of Romano-British influence and way of life, eg ruined Roman villas of Darent valley derelict or occupied by Celts and surviving Romano-Britons
Times of the Jutes, Saxons, and Others
  • 410 Jutes (and Angles?) probably began to settle in Kent
  • 450 Prbable that Jutes came in strength in two waves and a succession of Jutish kingdom created in Kent ("Kent" derived from  word "Jute"(?)).
Anglo-Saxon Times
  • Built between say, 550 and  say, 650 is Faesten's Dic - a dyke-like earthworks in the Swanley Hills (Joyden's Wood to us)
  • the Swanley Hills (about Bexley) were teeming with local tribal wars about this time (see Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)
  • A line of Kingdoms of Kent lasted until Alfred the Great by mutual consent established alliances to beat off and eventually settle down with the Danes and their Danelaw area
  • 814 Anglo-Saxon' Survey of Boundaries mentioned Faesten's Dic (I would love to see the survey document! What was it for? Maybe it set out Lathes and Hundreds for administration of the kingdom.)
  • by the end of the 10th Century England divided into a) Alfred's Wessex, Mercia and dependant kingdoms including Kent, and b) Guthrum's kingdom (a Danelaw area on the opposite bank of the Thames to the Swanley Hills).
  • Swanley Hills and beyond might have been a target for King Guthram's forces and later Danes prior to his "peace" with Alfred the Great - who can say not?
  • the Kngdom of Kent would have had its own law until Alfred the Great adopted two sets of laws for his "England" - one of which was the law previously governing the Swanley Hills
  • late Anglo-Saxon peoples of Swanley Hills would have contributed to many Danegelds - enforced by the Danes' threats of local invasions 
Norman Dynasty
  • 1066 William took England and Anglo-Saxon Kent was absorbed into Norman England.
  • Many  of Kent's Anglo-Saxon nobility would probably have perished as the Norman's settled Kent
  • Domesday book mentions the following places - Swanley Hills might have been customary alloidal common lands 
  • During the Norman Dynasty  common lands came to be non-alloidal, ie owned by the local Lord of the Manor
  • the manor became the local government unit for the customary law
  • Any Royal Forests (RF) would have had Forest Law imposed (RFs were arears of rural countryside - woodlands, common land, manors etc)
  • in feudal Norman England the language of the ordinary folk of the Swanley Hills would have been Anglo-Saxon at first
  • the barons, Lords of the Manor and other invaders would have spoken Norman French at first
  • many castles were project managed by the Normans and no doubt constructed by the Anglo-Saxon slaves etc. (Who knows?)
  • Eynesford Castle, and Shoreham castle are two Darent Valley examples where Norman nobility lived the high life
  • Rochester Castle is an early major castle guarding the Medway crossing of Watling Street as it marches towards William's "white" castle, we call the Tower of London (on the Thames)  

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