Milton Regis
Milton Regis | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | Sittingbourne | |
Postcode district | ME10 | |
Dialling code | 01795 | |
Police | Kent | |
Fire | Kent | |
Ambulance | South East Coast | |
UK Parliament | ||
Milton Regis is a village in the district of
The ancient settlement was near the church, and the current Milton Regis dates back only to 1052. There are still many
The town and Manor of Middleton Regis, as it was called then, was recorded as the largest and most powerful manor in the
Geography
The area occupied by Milton Regis is low-lying, often marshy, land along the banks of Milton Creek.
The creek is a drying arm
One of the small hills in the area is occupied by Holy Trinity Church, and the area below this, between the hillock and the creek, was the original site of the town. The area is prone to flooding, and after the sack of 1052 the town centre was moved atop the next hillock south, where it remains to this day. The old site is now the northern part of the Milton Creek Country Park.
History
The very early history of the site is speculative based on geography and the few remains found.
An excavation at Castle Rough to the north of Milton Regis in 1972 uncovered around a hundred Mesolithic flint artifacts. They were present in disturbed material, but indicate an unknown flint factory was in the vicinity.[3] Slightly further north, beyond the modern Kemsley village, there used to be a Neolithic site from which worked stone implements have been retrieved. The site was destroyed by brick earth digging in the 1880s.[4]
The 1972 dig at Castle Rough also revealed sherds of Romano-British pottery in the disturbed layers.[5] The Romans noted the quality of the barley and the oysters from Milton and established the town.[6]
Local tradition records that princes
In 680, the Queen Seaxburh of Kent, the widow of King Eorcenberht of Kent, passed the Kingdom of Kent to her eldest son Ecgberht of Kent at his coming of age, crowning him King of Kent at a grand ceremony held at the doors of Holy Trinity Church, Milton. There she became a nun: St. Seaxburh ... took the holy veil at the minster which is called Milton in Kent. And the island in Sheppey belongs to Milton.[7]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 893 records: "Then ... Haesten came with eighty ships into the mouth of the Thames, and made himself a fort at Milton Royal".[8] This naval force was only part of a larger fleet of 250 ships, the remaining group under the command of Jarl Harald (Bloodhair) landing at Appledore in the Romney Marsh in the south of Kent.[6] It has long been supposed that this fort was at Castle Rough, but modern archaeological research has thrown doubt on the identity.[5]
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also records Godwin, Earl of Wessex, a powerful nobleman at the time, burning the town to the ground in 1052. This was one of several Royal towns and property possessions belonging to King Edward the Confessor that were destroyed by Earl Godwin's army, during a dispute which lasted over many years in respect of Earl Godwin's challenge and claim to the throne of England. The town was later rebuilt to its former eminence.
Edward Hasted notes that a document of 21 Edward I (1259–60) records the hundred as being the King's hundred. Queen Philippa was given the hundred by her husband King Edward II. A document of 1 anno Richard II (1367–68) exempts the men of the hundred from "all watch and ward" on the sea coasts; excepting Sheppey, most of which was within the hundred itself.[9]
Local folklore has assigned the origins of Castle Rough to the Iron Age, Romans, Hengist and Horsa, Haestan and to a medieval fortified manor house. In order to investigate it further, the 1982 dig put in a trench on the southern side of the mound. Various layers of dumped material were identified, giving a confused stratigraphy. The topsoil yielded a silver penny of Henry VI issued in York between 1454 and 1460. The base layer contained green glazed pottery of the 13th–14th century. The extant earthworks are therefore no earlier than circa 1300.[5]
In 1798, the town was described as "... nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers".[10]
Holy Trinity Church
The church has a long history. It is believed to occupy what was originally a
The
The present church is of
The church claims to have one of the thickest-walled Norman towers and to be one of the oldest churches in Kent.[11]
For such a large tower, the ring of bells is surprisingly light. A ring of five bells was recorded in 1681, tenor 12 long cwt 15 lb (1,359 lb or 616 kg), The tenor was recast as 11 long cwt 1 qr 24 lb (1,284 lb or 582 kg) in 1890. In 1934, the whole ring was retuned and rehung, the tenor again recast, and a new treble added. In 2019, two new trebles were added, bringing the ring up to eight bells with a tenor of 10 long cwt 3 qr 13 lb (1,217 lb or 552 kg) in G hung in the English style for full circle ringing.[13]
Local legend tells that after the village had moved to its current location, the church was going to be rebuilt in the centre. However, each time stones were moved from the old site to the new place, St Augustine came down and put them back overnight, because he had put the church where he wanted it to be and did not want it to be moved.
Industry past and present
In 1887, the area was heavily involved in the paper manufacturing industry, starting under the ownership of the Lloyd family (see Edward Lloyd), wealthy newspaper publishers from London. The local mill ceased production in January 2007.[14]
During a similar period, the area around Milton Regis and its marshlands was much involved with
The water flow from the creek provided a power source for the paper mills at Milton Regis and Kemsley to operate and was an effective, safe and cheap method of transporting the materials in and the goods out. The long commercial and industrial history of Milton Creek generated a need for a large fleet of trading barges at that time, now passed.[14]
A major industry remaining in the area is Milton Pipes, producers of pre-cast concrete drainage pipes.[16]
Starting in 2011, a
Places of interest
- Holy Trinity church.
- The Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway.
- The Periwinkle Water Mill. In 1985, plans to restore the mill and create a Periwinkle Water Mill Museum were announced, although the project was not completed.[18]
- The Old Court Hall (see right), and other timber-framed buildings in and near the village centre.
- Milton Creek Country Park, previously known as Church Marshes Country Park.
See also
- Regis (Place)
- List of place names with royal patronage in the United Kingdom
Notes
- ^ An arm in this context is a branch off the main river. A drying arm is one where the arm dries out at low tide.
References
- ^ LGCE p5. Estimate for 2005 before ward boundary changes which moved some of Milton into Kemsley
- ^ "Ward population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ^ KAR032
- ^ KAR045
- ^ a b c KAR031
- ^ a b c Risbridger
- ^ Lambeth Palace MS427 quoted in Dockray-Miller pp. 13-14: "sancta Seaxburh ... onfengon halig rifte on ðam mynstre þe is geeweden Middletune on kentlande. And þæt igland on Scæpyge hyrð into Middletune;" the reference to Sheppey establishes this as Milton Regis, not nearby Milton-next-Gravesend. Seaxburh subsequently founded Minster Abbey on the island before moving to Ely and becoming Abbess.
- ^ Quoted in KAR031
- ^ Hasted (1798a) pp2-4
- ^ Hasted (1798b) pp 163–192
- ^ a b c History of Holy Trinity
- ^ Rolfes
- ^ Love
- ^ a b Medway Pilots
- ^ "Milton Creek Memories | Milton Creek Sittingbourne Kent | » Bricks". miltoncreekmemories.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- ^ Milton Precast
- ^ "Welcome to Milton Creek Memories". Swale CVS and Swale Borough Council. Archived from the original on 22 January 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- ^ "Periwinkle Mill, Milton Regis". Mills archive. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
Bibliography
- Dockray-Miller, Mary (2000), Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon England, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0312227213
- Hasted, Edward (1798a), "The Hundred of Milton, Alias Middleton", History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. VI, retrieved 19 April 2012
- Hasted, Edward (1798b), "Milton", History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. VI, retrieved 19 April 2012
- "History of Holy Trinity", The Parish Church of Holy Trinity Milton Regis, archived from the original on 17 April 2014, retrieved 9 August 2014
- KAR031 (1973), "The Castle Rough Training Project - Part 1.", KAR articles, Council for Kentish Archaeology, retrieved 18 April 2012
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - KAR032 (1973), "The Castle Rough Training Project - Part 2.", KAR articles, Council for Kentish Archaeology, retrieved 18 April 2012
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - KAR045 (1976), "Apparent Demolition of the Neolithic Settlement at Grovehurst near Sittingbourne", KAR articles, Council for Kentish Archaeology, retrieved 18 April 2012
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - LGCE (May 2001), Final recommendations on the future electoral arrangements for Swale in Kent (PDF), Local Government Commission for England, archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2012, retrieved 18 April 2012
- Love, Dickon, "Milton Regis", Love's Guide to the Church Bells of Kent, archived from the original on 21 March 2012, retrieved 17 April 2012
- Medway Pilots, History of the River Medway, archived from the original on 25 March 2012, retrieved 17 April 2012
- Milton Precast, retrieved 17 April 2012 (Company website)
- Risbridger, Rob (2010), Castle Rough - Kemsley Down Milton Regis - revisited, Friends of Milton Creek, retrieved 18 April 2012
- Rolfes, Lloyd (6 January 2011), Godwin, King Harold II to the Norwood Family, ancestry.com, archived from the original on 17 March 2012, retrieved 18 April 2012
External links