From Roman to Christian Saxon and becoming Monastery land
The 400 years of Roman Britain and specially Roman Kent were a very mixed time. From about 270 to 400 life was often chronically unsettled, and Chestfield was in the front line of the struggles between incoming Anglo-Saxons and the settled people of the Imperial province. The picture opposite (Williams 179) is of a medieval copy of a document called the Notica Dignitatum, dating from the start of 400s, very shortly before Rome withdrew its protection and local people had to fend for themselves. It shows the forts of the Saxon Shore, a set of castles built to protect the local people from raids. The one near to Chestfield, Reculver, was apparently the only one that was anywhere near fully garrisoned for most of the time (Williams 181), and this tells how vulnerable the north east coast of Kent was to Saxon attacks.
The decline of Roman life was long drawn out, but the replacement of the old order was largely complete by the 450s, and East Kent was probably the first major area of Britain to be controlled by Saxons. Like many other stages in Chestfield's own history, this one was generated from the top down. The local King, Vortigeran, invited Saxon leaders to work with him, and by the next generation their family had taken over.
Like everywhere else in Britain there is virtually no evidence and great uncertainty over what happened next, but by the 590s Kent had its first Christian King and Reculver had become the site of an ambitious Monastery that steadily extended its lands to Swalecliffe and the Chestfield area. It is easy to forget that Monasteries were major business enterprises of the time, controlling and generating a large part of England's, and especially Kent's, wealth. They dominated important aspects of people's lives from land management to law courts, and were important in achieving what social mobility existed at the time. So to be part of a monastery was probably beneficial for local people.
At the same time the various Kent monasteries were competitors. Chestfield was taken over by St Augustine's Monastery in the 700s. St Augustine's had its own challenges, as the Bishop's See rivaled it in its need for income. The tensions created by this competition was exacerbated by limits on the arrangements we take for granted in resolving disputes. Mapping was virtually non-existent. Land boundaries were recorded using written descriptions of land including borders of woods, ditches, and other movable features, so disputes could be hard to settle.
Notes for completion
The way people lived - see Flavia Taylor page 8 forward and 39 forward
The first name for the area - Caethurst
The impact of the Norman conquest
The decline of Roman life was long drawn out, but the replacement of the old order was largely complete by the 450s, and East Kent was probably the first major area of Britain to be controlled by Saxons. Like many other stages in Chestfield's own history, this one was generated from the top down. The local King, Vortigeran, invited Saxon leaders to work with him, and by the next generation their family had taken over.
Like everywhere else in Britain there is virtually no evidence and great uncertainty over what happened next, but by the 590s Kent had its first Christian King and Reculver had become the site of an ambitious Monastery that steadily extended its lands to Swalecliffe and the Chestfield area. It is easy to forget that Monasteries were major business enterprises of the time, controlling and generating a large part of England's, and especially Kent's, wealth. They dominated important aspects of people's lives from land management to law courts, and were important in achieving what social mobility existed at the time. So to be part of a monastery was probably beneficial for local people.
At the same time the various Kent monasteries were competitors. Chestfield was taken over by St Augustine's Monastery in the 700s. St Augustine's had its own challenges, as the Bishop's See rivaled it in its need for income. The tensions created by this competition was exacerbated by limits on the arrangements we take for granted in resolving disputes. Mapping was virtually non-existent. Land boundaries were recorded using written descriptions of land including borders of woods, ditches, and other movable features, so disputes could be hard to settle.
Notes for completion
The way people lived - see Flavia Taylor page 8 forward and 39 forward
The first name for the area - Caethurst
The impact of the Norman conquest