Harrietsham owes its existence to the
series of springs at the foot of the Downs, some of which now
feed the lakes in Woodlands Walk. Others simply feed streams such
as that at Goddington. Water was a pre-requisite for human settlement,
and an attraction to wildlife and game for the pot. Immediately
to the east of the Woodlands Walk lakes there have been important
archaeological finds from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and from Roman
and Saxon settlement. A Roman dwelling lies partly under the Rectory
garden and nearby Harrison Drive. Saxon burial urns have been
found on the Glebe Field and in the churchyard.
These earliest
areas of settlement were subsequently abandoned, but for what
reason? This left the ancient Parish Church of Saxon origin, detached
from its The original written name ·Heriagierdeshamme·
clearly signifies the importance of water to the permanent settlement.
The name means ·Heriagierde·s water meadow·.
The meadows were probably in the area of the ·Osier Beds·
(willow trees), which now lie beneath the M20 and CTRL to the
south of the Alms Houses. The whole area would have been well
watered by the River Len, which rises in nearby Lenham and joins
the Medway at Maidstone.Several areas in the parish were prominent
enough to be mentioned in the Domesday Book · Marley, Polhill,
Fairbourne (East and West) and Harrietsham itself, given to Robert
de Crevecouer by Duke William. The waterways running through the
parish were sufficient to operate grinding mills at Fairbourne
(·fair stream·), Selesburne (·holy stream·)
and at Polhill. In mediaeval times the beech woodlands of the
North Downs and the oaks of the Kingswood were abundant in food
for the pigs of the community. Track-ways ran northwards up Stede
Hill and southwards up Fairbourne Lane and then on into the ·dens·
of the Weald.The village envelope of today is has been shaped
over the centuries by the influence of the several route-ways
that pass through the area from east to west. The Pilgrims Way
(North Downs Way) was the mediaeval equivalent of a motorway,
linking as it did the great cities of Winchester and Canterbury,
with a spur off to the port of Dover.
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A subsequent road ran from
Maidstone to Ashford via West Street and East Street until the
Turnpike Road gave quicker access to Lenham. In the 1880·s
the London to Ashford railway line was built, further determining
the east-west layout of the community. In the 1930·s West
Street was by-passed, by an improvement to the A20 running south
of the main street. Until the completion of the M20 in the 1990·s,
A20 remained a very important trunk road to the Channel ports.
Most recently the final addition to the ·transport corridor·
the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was added to our collection of routesvillage. |
