Places
In September 2005 the local history society welcomed Dr Paul Cullen, who gave a talk on the origins of place names in Leigh and across Kent. Dr Cullen, who is preparing a six-volume study of Kent place names beginning with East Kent, illustrated his talk with a power point presentation, and members with questions or further interest were invited to contact him at paul.cullen@nottingham.ac.uk.
The story of our local names begins with Old English, the prime source for West Kent place names. Old English was not a single tongue but a family of related languages brought by the Angles, Saxons, Friesians, Swabians and Jutes. According to Bede, Kent itself was settled by the Jutes, as were the Isle of Wight and the Hampshire coast facing the island. Interestingly, although Bede singled out the Jutes, no particular evidence exists of a separate Jutish language. Whatever their precise origins, the incoming settlers imposed their own names over whatever Celtic or Norse names they found. The Norman and French invasion, by contrast, changed very few Kent place names, so the names we use today are overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon survivals.
Dr Cullen then took his audience through a rich vocabulary of Old English words that still shape our landscape. Leigh itself comes from Lēah, meaning a woodland clearing, and Lēah is the most common Old English word found in place names. Weald derives from walda, forest, while Hurst, from Hyrst, describes a wooded hill. Speldhurst may take its name from Speld, a wood chip, and Penshurst could reflect a personal name relating to pen. Wickhurst probably comes from Wīc, a specialized farm; names of this kind often lie along Roman roads. Sandhurst speaks for itself: a sandy wooded hill.
Other words describe woodland and land use. Den meant a wooded pasture. Moorden comes from mōr, moor or marsh, and Haysden from hāes(e), brushwood. Barden might be drawn from a personal name, while Blackhoath combines blaec, black, with heath. Borough, from berg, a rounded hill, appears in Hildenborough, Bidborough and Crowborough. Down, from dūn, an upland rise, gives us the North Downs and Kingsdown, and Hill, from hyll, a steep slope with a long view, survives in Ide Hill, which means Edith's Hill.
Water features and smaller landmarks yielded their own explanations. Vexour's vex probably comes from feax, meaning hair or coarse grass, and Ashour means a ridge with ash trees. Tonbridge comes from bryeg, a town bridge. Hever means a high ridge place, Swaylands means labouring man's land from swegen, and Mark Beech comes from mearc, a boundary. Bough Beech comes from boga, a bow or bent thing. Charcott contains cott, cottage, while Nizels combines nīge, new, with ge-sell, a shed. Chiddingstone possibly derives from cīding, meaning to chide or brawl. Rivers and streams had their own terms: Medway combines med, middle, with way, a river; a bourne is a clear stream often found on chalk; and a brook is a muddy stream running through marsh.
Finally, Dr Cullen reminded the audience that not all local names are ancient landscape words. Some of Leigh's place names come from people, including Applebys and Prices Farm, recording the families who lived and worked there.
The talk offered a fascinating reminder that every road sign in the village carries a message from more than a thousand years ago. Whether describing a clearing, a marsh, a bridge or a boundary, these names were practical labels coined by the first English speakers of Kent, and they remain a living record of how our ancestors saw and used the land.