Bridge
Subject: Bridge
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 21:38:00 +0100
From: david gilmour <davidg@getaWay.c0.uk>
T0: Maurice raraty
Maurice,
I have read with great interest your article on Bridge and I will return
it to you this weekend.
I apologise for the length of time I have taken but I have some useful
information on Bridge in the early Anglo—Saxon period and I have been
searching frantically for the reference to substantiate it.
A. Everitt in "Continuity and Colonisation; The evolution of Kentish
Settlements, Leicester University Press, Leicester 1986 has proposed
that there was a manor or settlement of Bourne comprising the villages
now known as Bekesbourne, Patrixbourne, Bridge, Howisbourne and
Bishopsbourne and this "Great" Bourne was next to a smaller settlement
of Littlebourne. The parishes for these villages follow naturally along
the river but I do not think that Bridge was a distinct entity until the
bridge was built. After the bridge was built and this was obviously a
great event in the life of this area it was commemorated by the creation
of a parish of Bridge which was carved out of the other parishes. This
is also evident from the location of the parish of Bridge on the edge of
its hundred and not in the centre as one would expect.
I hope this is some help and will be received in the spirit in which it
sent.
David
david gilmour