| Penenden Heath | |
|---|---|
 The remnants of Penenden Heath, now a recreation ground | |
  Penenden Heath Location within Kent | |
| OS grid reference | TQ771575 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Maidstone |
| Postcode district | ME14 |
| Dialling code | 01622 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
Penenden Heath is a suburb in the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. As the name suggests it is nucleated around a former heath (now park land).
Before the expansion of Maidstone, the heath was often used as a venue for a site for shire moots (or assemblies) during the Middle Ages. The most famous of these occurred shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and involved a dispute between Odo bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror and Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury (see below). [1] The Domesday Book of 1086 subsequently recorded Pinnedenna as the place for the landowners of Kent to gather to receive notice in matters of administration at the shire court (and, if they did not attend, they should pay forfeiture of "one hundred shillings" to the King). [2] [3]
The heath was used for local administrative meetings and executions for several hundred years as well as a site for large gatherings of the populace. Wat Tyler led a mob gathered at Penenden Heath to Union Street in Maidstone in an early skirmish in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. [4] The heath continued to be used as a gathering place in the 16th century to voice popular opinion or to amass the public, in particular during Wyatt's rebellion, [5] and early references to the heath as such were made in Alfred Tennyson's 1875 drama Queen Mary about the 1554 Rebellion. [6] George Goring, Earl of Norwich and leader of the Kent Royalists during the Second English Civil War gathered an army of 7,000 men on Penenden Heath in May 1648 in his unsuccessful defence of the town of Maidstone from the Roundhead army of Lord Fairfax. [7]
Executions took place at the site from the Anglo-Saxon period through to the 19th century and suspected witches are believed to have been tried and hanged on the heath between the 12th and 17th centuries. [8] [9]
It is reported that, in 1652 at Penenden Heath:
Anne Ashby, alias Cobler, Anne Martyn, Mary Browne, Anne Wilson, and Mildred Wright of Cranbrook, and Mary Read, of Lenham, being legally convicted, were according to the Laws of this Nation, adjudged to be hanged, at the common place of Execution. Some there were that wished rather, they might be burnt to Ashes; alledging that it was a received opinion among many, that the body of a witch being burnt, her bloud is prevented thereby from becoming hereditary to her Progeny in the same evill. [8]
In 1798 Edward Hasted described the heath as follows:
[T]hat noted plain Pinnenden, now usually called Pickenden heath, a place made famous in early times; the western part is in Maidstone parish, the remainder in this of Boxley. From its situation almost in the middle of the county or shire of Kent, this heath has been time out of mind used for all county meetings, and for the general business of it, the county house for this purpose, a poor low shed, is situated on the north side of it, where the sheriff continues to hold his county court monthly, and where he takes the poll for the members of the county, and for the coroners, the former of which, after a few suffrages is usually adjourned to Maidstone; on a conspicuous hill on the opposite side of the heath, though in Maidstone parish, is the gallows, for the public execution of criminals condemned at the assizes. [10]
During the 18th and 19th centuries the heath remained a common site for the execution of criminals (by hanging). [11] The Rev. James Coigly a United Irishman, was arrested en route to France. Upon his arrest, English authorities discovered a letter by the United Britons addressed to the French Revolutionary Government calling for an invasion of England, hidden in Coigly's garments. He was hanged at Penenden Heath, Maidstone on 7 June 1798. The last public execution on the heath took place in 1830, when John Dyke from the nearby village of Bearsted was hanged for burning a rick, although it later emerged he was innocent. [12] [13] New gallows were subsequently built outside Maidstone Prison. [14]
In 1828 the heath was again recorded as the site of a large gathering to debate the issue of "Protestant Ascendancy" before the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. A detailed report of the assembly on 24 October 1828 by Richard Lalor Sheil describes the heath as a "gently sloping amphitheatrical declivity" and still, in the 19th century, the principal venue in the area for massing the populace. [15]
However during this time the heath was also used for recreation and was the venue for at least two early examples of county level cricket matches. Between 31 August and 2 September 1795, a team from Kent played England on the heath with England winning by five wickets. [16] Later, on 20 July 1807, "All England" again played Kent at Penenden, with the county winning by 162 runs. [17]
During the 19th century the heath was slowly enveloped by the growth of the town of Maidstone, becoming a residential area at the junction of the main routes to Sittingbourne and Boxley. Following landscaping, the heath was presented to the people of Maidstone by the Earl of Romney in 1882 for use as a recreation ground. [18]
Odo de Bayeux was previously earl of Kent and the primary landowner of the region subsequent to his half-brother William the Conqueror's invasion of England in 1066. Several years after the invasion in 1070, Archbishop Lanfranc succeeded to the see of Canterbury and requested an inquiry into the activities of Odo (and Lanfranc's predecessor, Stigand) who had allegedly defrauded the Church (and possibly the Crown) during his tenure as Earl of Kent.
Lanfranc demanded that the matter should be settled by the nobles of Kent and William I ordered that an assembly be formed at Penenden Heath for the purpose. [19]
Various prominent figures in the country at the time were called including Geoffrey de Montbray bishop of Coutances (who represented the King), Lanfranc (for the Church), Odo de Bayeux (defending himself), Arnost bishop of Rochester, Æthelric II bishop of Chichester (an elderly bishop regarded as the authority on the laws of the realm), Richard de Tunibridge, Hugh de Montfort, William de Arsic, Hamo Vicecomes and many others.
Precisely when the inquiry was held is unclear although many historians have determined it to be between 1075 and 1077. [20] The trial itself lasted three days and ended in the partial recovery of properties for the church from Odo and others. [3]
Today a residential suburb of Maidstone, Penenden Heath is situated between arterial roadways at junction 6 of the M20 motorway and the A249 Sittingbourne Road. The area includes a variety of shops, a public house and a playground.
The heath has been recorded under several names. First appearing in the Domesday Book as Pinnedenna, it has also been recorded as Pinnenden, Pickenden, Pinenden and Pennenden. [10] It has been suggested that the name derives from the Saxon pinian meaning "to punish", [21] which may date the site as a place for executions before the Norman Conquest.
Certain remnants of the heathland and its environment remain. Mature lime trees, with some younger replacements, line the boundaries to the recreation ground. In addition, large oak, chestnut, hawthorn, sycamore and ash trees feature.
Heath Wood, which lies just beyond the suburb boundary, is a privately owned chestnut coppice. To the north, dense planting of native trees separates the Heath from the M20 motorway. [22]
Soil at the northern end of the recreation ground displays characteristics of heathland and dry acid grassland. Other areas evidence sheep's sorrel and common heath. Gorse and broom have been introduced in recent years. [22]
Odo of Bayeux was Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy, and was also made Earl of Kent in England following the Norman Conquest. He was the maternal half-brother of duke, and later king, William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, William's primary administrator in the Kingdom of England.
Lanfranc, OSB was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen's Abbey in Caen, Normandy and then as Archbishop of Canterbury in England, following its conquest by William the Conqueror. He is also variously known as Lanfranc of Pavia, Lanfranc of Bec, and Lanfranc of Canterbury.
Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river carried much of the town's trade as the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, which is known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of settlement in the area dating back before the Stone Age. The town, part of the borough of Maidstone, had an approximate population of 100,000 in 2019. Since World War II, the town's economy has shifted from heavy industry towards light industry and services.
Bearsted is a village and civil parish with railway station in mid-Kent, England, two miles (3.2 km) east of Maidstone town centre.
Hollingbourne is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the North Downs to the east of the county town, Maidstone. The parish population is around 900 and has three conservation areas: Upper Street in the village centre and the outlying hamlets of Broad Street and Eyhorne Street.
Æthelric was the second to last medieval Bishop of Selsey in England before the see was moved to Chichester. Consecrated a bishop in 1058, he was deposed in 1070 for unknown reasons and then imprisoned by King William I of England. He was considered one of the best legal experts of his time, and was even brought from his prison to attend the trial on Penenden Heath where he gave testimony about English law before the Norman Conquest of England.
The A249 is a road in Kent, England, running from Maidstone to Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. It mainly functions as a link between the M2 and M20 motorways, and for goods vehicle traffic to the port at Sheerness.
Tunstall is a linear village and civil parish in Swale in Kent, England. It is about 2 km to the south-west of the centre of Sittingbourne, on a road towards Bredgar.
Coldred is a settlement and former civil parish, now in the parish of Shepherdswell with Coldred, in the Dover district of Kent, England. The main part of the village is Coldred Street which lies 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) to the south-west. In 1961 the parish had a population of 153.
Tonge is a village near Sittingbourne in Kent, England. The hamlet is north of Bapchild, close to Murston Marshes beside the Swale.
The trial of Penenden Heath occurred in the decade after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, probably in 1076, and involved a dispute between Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror and Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury and others.
Mote Park is a 440-acre (1.8 km2) multi-use public park in Maidstone, Kent. Previously a country estate it was converted to landscaped park land at the end of the 18th century before becoming a municipal park. It includes the former stately home Mote House together with a miniature railway and a boating lake. A ground of the same name within the park has also been used as a first-class cricket ground by Kent County Cricket Club.
Events from the 1080s in England.
Events from the 1070s in England.
Sandling is a hamlet to the north of the town of Maidstone, Kent, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It falls within the parish of Boxley.
Bromley Palace is a manor house at Bromley in the London Borough of Bromley. It was the bishop's palace of the Bishops of Rochester from the 12th century to 1845. The building, which is now part of Bromley Civic Centre, is a Grade II listed building.
Holy Cross is a parish church of the Church of England in Bearsted, Kent. Its construction began in the 13th century.
Wulfstan v Thomas was an early court case in English law. Bishop Wulstan, later Saint Wulfstan, was appealing to the new king against the taking of estates that had belonged to the Cathedral at Worcester.
'Abbot Scotland v Hamo the Sherrif' or more precisely versus Hamo the Steward, Sheriff of Kent as agent for Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the Earl of Kent (1076) was a determination by William the Conqueror of an English land law suit.
Hamo the Steward, the Sheriff of Kent was a leading person during the 11th century, Norman Conquest of England.
