Early History

Many of our guests at Howfield Manor are drawn to the area by the allure of the City of Canterbury and its Great Cathedral.

However, Canterbury is a mere whippersnapper of an upstart in terms of the early history of the area; less than a mile north of Howfield, for instance, rises the ancient fort at Bigbury Hill.

Dating back to possibly 350BC Bigbury Fort formed a strategic stronghold high above the river Stour and remained so until the second Roman invasion under Julius Caesar.

One theory is that the word Kent comes from the word “Cantus” meaning “border” or living “on the rim” another is that it was named after the local tribe.

The Fort was occupied by the Cantiaci, a Celtic tribe from the Baltic who had arrived in East Kent from the second century BC, Bigbury Fort afforded a commanding position overlooking the plains below. Canterbury itself remained a mere swampy area somewhere downstream.

Having been seen off by the Cantiaci, or Cantii, the year earlier, Caesar returned in high season in 54BC with a much stronger force and, after despairing of finding available accommodation in Deal, he marched forth.

The Romans reached the Stour just below Bigbury on the 7th of July and set up camp.  The next day the first major Roman battle in Britain took place.

The Cantiaci first attacked on the flood plains at Tonford (part of the river from the Hotel into Canterbury), then after retreating to the fort were eventually defeated. In true Roman style, many were slaughtered.

“We marched by night [from Deal] for about 12 miles before coming in sight of the enemy forces. They had moved with their cavalry and chariots down from the higher ground [Bigbury] to a river [the Stour] and were trying … to engage us in battle. When our cavalry drove them back they hid in the wood where they enjoyed a position with extremely good man made defences … because many trees had been cut down and used to block entrances to it [the fort]. The Britons came out of the woods in small groups to fight …. But the men of the Seventh Legion holding up their shields to form a protective shell piled up earth against the fortifications and captured the place.”

Julius Caesar

Shortly after the defeat, the Cantiaci abandoned their lovely country house-style fort with views over the Chartham Downs to set up their new capital at Duroernon “Town by the Alder Marsh” – what is now modern-day Canterbury.

Following nearly a century of trade the Romans returned in 43AD and captured Canterbury, then known as Durovernum Cantiacorum.

Canterbury as a ‘Civitas’, or what we would consider today a formal Roman town or city, was however not established until some 70 years later.

The Cantiaci are considered to be a Belgic tribe. Unlike the Gauls who travelled southwards and through Switzerland, Italy and France, the Belgic travelled from the North, settling in Britain and on main land Europe. 

The Roman name for their territory Gallia Belgica provides the origin for both Belgains and Belgium. Gaul or France comes from the land of the Franks from the lower and middle Rhine

Man of Kent or Kentish Maid

In the early fifth century and as a declining Rome abandoned Britain, there followed a brief revival of a Cantiaci Kingdom until the arrival of yet more invaders the Germanic tribes: the Jutes and the Saxons.

With the Jutes settling in the eastern part of Kent and the Saxons to the west, Kent became two distinct areas.

Today anyone born to the south or east of the Medway, where the Jutes settled, is a Man or Fair Maid of Kent; those to the north and west are Kentish Men and Maids.

For anyone born on a boat in the middle of the Medway it would depend on which side of the boat they were born.

The Jutes in Kent called themselves Kentings and under the Jutes Durovernum Cantiacorum (Canterbury) became known as Cantwarabyrig – 'Fortress of the Men of Kent'.

St Augustine

At the time of Augustine’s arrival Canterbury was a relatively small settlement within the old Roman walls. With the establishment of his mission the importance of Canterbury grew rapidly becoming not only a centre for Christianity but a thriving town dealing in pottery, textiles and leather.

Unlike the invasion force by Claudius in 43AD which numbered a massive 40,000 troops, this invasion, which landed at Ebbsfleet near Ramsgate in 597, was comprised of a mere 30.

St Augustine arrived from Rome with the mission of converting the mostly Pagan people of Kent and their King Æthelberht to Christianity.

After successfully converting the King, St Martin’s Church was established as the Centre of Augustine’s mission, followed quickly by the founding of the Great Cathedral and the Abbey that now bears the saint’s name.

Today, Canterbury’s World Heritage status is based not only on the Cathedral and Abbey but the much overlooked St Martin’s Church, the oldest continuous place of worship in the English speaking world; while Christian activity on the site stretches back even further to Roman Britain.

Despite Viking raids, Kent flourished as a Kingdom and Canterbury developed into the seat of religion in England.

History records Kent as ceasing to be a Kingdom in its own right in 860 when it became part of Wessex under King Ethelbert.

However, as Ethelbert was already King of Kent when he became King of Wessex on the death of his brother Ethelbald then the opportunity for some Saxon rebranding of the new kingdom as Kent instead of Wessex was missed.

Kent and Canterbury were subject to Viking raids from the middle of 9th century and up to 1011 when the City was sacked and the Cathedral burnt.

At the time of the Duke Elfred’s charter of 871 (See Howfield Early History) there was already great concern that the church itself would not survive the attacks of what the locals termed “the heathen Army”

The Vikings did not settle in Kent, preferring smash and grab and siege and ransom. On one occasion they were paid by Canterbury nearly 18,000 kg of silver just to go away.

The last Viking raid of 1011 led to the capture of Archbishop Alphege.  The Archbishop refused to be ransomed and at a drunken celebration the Danes pelted him to death with the bones and the heads of cattle.

Early Howfield

Although Howfield Manor now lies in the Parish of Chartham Hatch it would have been originally part of Chartham or Certham which literally means ‘Village on rough ground’. This stemmed from the amount of flint and stone lying around and the wall of the original chapel – and Howfield is made of this very same local flint.

There is an early mention of Chartham is in 871 when a certain Duke Elfred swapped Chartham with Christ Church (the Cathedral) for some of their land in, of all places, Croydon.

“In the year 871, duke Elfred gave to archbishop Ethelred, and the monks of Christchurch,the parish of Chartham, towards their ‘cloathing’, asappears by his charter then made ,or rather codicil”

The Charter and Will of Duke Elfred

The will of Duke Elfred (Earl of Surrey) has historical significance in its own right. In the will he leaves the vast majority of his land to his wife and daughter and very little to his son who may or may not have been illegitimate.  The Estate was measured in value, however based on an accepted conversion it was over 30 times the size of Regent’s Park.

Elfred’s will is the oldest remaining and maybe the first will to be addressed to the King. It seems clear that to secure the inheritance for his female relatives against claims by his male folk he laid down in writing his “bookland”  before the King to avoid any future challenges.  A very small part of his Estate was left as “Folkland” over which the King could ultimately decide on any dispute over ownership.

The gift of Chartham to the Church was also unique among the other existing Saxon charters of the time. Elfred did not gift Chartham outright but included the use of Croydon until his death and bequeathed the charter in a will. Furthermore, he stipulated on his death that if Chartham was be leased his daughter had first refusal. This arrangement was witnessed by the Archbishop, lending it more authority to Elfred’s wishes.

Elfred also stipulated that his wife’s inheritance was conditional on her not remarrying, supposedly to preserve his estates through his daughter.

Elfred’s predecessor Huda is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as dying in 853 at the victorious Battle on the Isle of Thanet against the Heathen Army.

Huda was given land around Canterbury in 839 (possibly Chartham and Howfield) by Ethelwulf when he became king of Wessex. From 826 Kent, although still a separate kingdom, had been ruled directly by Wessex or the West Saxons and the land given to Huda was part of a process of establishing more direct control of the eastern part of the country.