Tonge is a village near
Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...
in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England.
The hamlet is north of
Bapchild
Bapchild is a village and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England, about two miles inside of Sittingbourne. It lies on the old Roman road (Watling Street) now the A2, and according to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of ...
(where at the 2011 Census the population was included), close to
Murston
Murston is a suburb of Sittingbourne in Kent, England. It is about 1 mile north-east of central Sittingbourne, on the east bank of the Milton Creek.
History
According to Edward Hasted in 1798, it was once called 'Muston'. The parish contains about ...
Marshes beside
the Swale
The Swale is a tidal channel of the Thames estuary that separates the Isle of Sheppey from the rest of Kent. On its banks is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches from Sittingbourne to Whitstable in Kent. It is also ...
.
It is mainly farmland with one road (Church Road and Blacketts Road) passing through it towards Blacketts Farm.
History
In 1798,
Edward Hasted
Edward Hasted (20 December 1732 OS (31 December 1732 NS) – 14 January 1812) was an English antiquarian and pioneering historian of his ancestral home county of Kent. As such, he was the author of a major county history, ''The History and To ...
records that it was once called 'Thwang' (a
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
name).
Vortigern
Vortigern (; owl, Guorthigirn, ; cy, Gwrtheyrn; ang, Wyrtgeorn; Old Breton: ''Gurdiern'', ''Gurthiern''; gle, Foirtchern; la, Vortigernus, , , etc.), also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in ...
, King of Saxon Britain, rewarded two Saxon chiefs
Hengist and Horsa
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent.
Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...
after his victory over the
Scots and
Picts
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...
. Hengist requested, as a pledge of the king's affection, only as much land as on ox-hide could surround. This being granted, he cut the whole hide into small thongs (long, thin strips, generally of sturdy fiber or leather, typically used for binding), and inclosed within them a space of ground, this was large enough to contain a castle, which he accordingly built on it, and named it ''Thwang-ceastre'' (i. e. Thong-castle). The castle later became a ruin in the later years of the Saxon age.
[
Some writers record it at Thong Castle, near ]Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...
, in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, others place it at Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
.[
Leland, Richard Kilburne (Typographie, a Brief Survey of the County of Kent) and John Philipott (Visitation of the County of Kent, 1619) all record it near Sittigbourne.][ These events happened in 461, ]Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
and Gildas
Gildas (Breton: ''Gweltaz''; c. 450/500 – c. 570) — also known as Gildas the Wise or ''Gildas Sapiens'' — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', which recounts ...
mention nothing of it in their writings, and Malmsbury tells it only as a report.[
Leland also records a ''poor hospital'' called Pokeshaulle (during King ]Richard III of England
Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...
's reign). In 1662, during Queen Mary's reign it became
the hospital of St. James, of Puckleshall. It was given to Sir John Parrot.[
After the ]Domesday Survey
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
, the village belonged to Odo, Earl of Kent
Odo of Bayeux (died 1097), Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux, was the maternal half-brother of William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, second in power after the King of England.
Early life
Odo was the son of William the Conqueror's mother ...
, (as the Bishop of Bayeux
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Baiocensis et Lexoviensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Bayeux et Lisieux'') is a diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is coextensive with the Department of Calvados and is ...
). After Odo's trial for fraud, the lands were then granted to 'Hugh de Port' (an English feudal barony) for the defence of Dover castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England and is Grade I listed. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some sources say it is the ...
. In 1306 Bartholomew de Badlesmere
Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو ...
became the owner of the manor. It passed to Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere
Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd Baron Badlesmere (18 October 1314 – 7 June 1338) was an English nobleman.
Background and Biography
The son and heir of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere and his wife Margaret de Clare, he was born at Ham ...
, and then to Elizabeth de Badlesmere, Countess of Northampton
Elizabeth de Bohun (née de Badlesmere), Countess of Northampton (1313 – 8 June 1356) was the wife of two English noblemen, Sir Edmund Mortimer and William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton. She was a co-heiress of her brother Giles de Badlesm ...
, then to Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March
Sir Roger de Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, 4th Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, KG (11 November 132826 February 1360) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War.
He was the son of Sir Edmund Mortimer (d. 1331) and ...
, then to Richard, Duke of York. When he died at the Battle of Wakefield
The Battle of Wakefield took place in Sandal Magna near Wakefield in northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were an army led by nobles loyal to the captive King Henry VI of ...
in 1460, the manor was granted by King Henry VI to Thomas Browne
Sir Thomas Browne (; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a deep curi ...
, esquire of Beechworth Castle. His son sir George Brown in 1472, surrendered the manor to Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
Cecily Neville (3 May 1415 – 31 May 1495) was an English noblewoman, the wife of Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), and the mother of two kings of England—Edward IV and Richard III. Cecily Neville was known as "the Rose of Raby", because ...
. In 1547, it passed to Sir Ralph Fane. He then transferred it in 1558, to Sir Rowland Clerke (whose wife was Grisold the 3rd daughter of William Paget William Paget may refer to:
*William Paget, 1st Baron Paget (1506–1563), English statesman
* William Paget, 4th Baron Paget de Beaudesert (1572–1629), English colonist
*William Paget, 5th Baron Paget (1609–1678), English peer
*William Paget, ...
. Who then passed it on through various private hands.[
]
Also in the parish is the estate of Cheeks Court (which was anciently recorded as ''Chicks-court''). One owner in 1444, Sir William Cromer (a High Sheriff of Kent
The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instrum ...
)[ This survives as the ]Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
Cheke Court.
Also the estate of Newburgh, commonly called Newbarrow (which was on the southern portion of the parish (close to Lynsted
Lynsted is a village in Lynsted with Kingsdown civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The village is situated south of the A2 road between Faversham and Sittingbourne and the nearest M2 junction is Faversham three miles east. Lyns ...
). Before 1524, John Roper, esq. of Eltham
Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...
had possession of it. He was attorney-general
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
to King Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
. In 1616, another owner, Sir John Roper became Lord Teynham.[
In the nineteenth century the village was sometimes referred to as Tong - see for example the dedication stone on the original building of Bapchild and Tonge primary school.
The village has a parish church. The Church of St Giles, which is in the ]diocese of Canterbury
The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering eastern Kent which was founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The diocese is centred on Canterbury Cathedral and is the oldest see of the Church of England.
The ''Report ...
, and deanery of Sittingbourne.
This is Grade I listed.
References
External links
{{authority control
Villages in Kent