Wittersham
| Wittersham | |
|---|---|
|
Stocks Mill |
|
 Wittersham
|
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| Wittersham shown within Kent | |
| Area | 14.66 km2 (5.66 sq mi) |
| Population | 1,112 (Civil Parish 2011) |
| • Density | 76/km2 (200/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ899274 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | TENTERDEN |
| Postcode district | TN30 |
| Dialling code | 01797 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Wittersham is a small village and civil parish, part of the misnomer once part of a delta, the Isle of Oxney, which is simply low land close to the Rother, near Tenterden, south of Ashford in Kent, South East England.
The Domesday Book in 1086 does not mention Wittersham, but it does assign the manor of Palstre to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Palstre was only one of four places in the Weald, apparently, that had a church. The Domesday Book entry reads:- "In Oxenai hundred, Osbern Paisforiere holds Palestrei, from the Bishop. It is taxed at three yokes. Arable land for two ploughs. In demesne, nine smallholders have half a plough. There is a church, 2 servants, 10 acres (40,000 m2) of meadow, 5 fisheries at twelve pence, woodland for the pannage of 10 hogs. In the time of Edward the Confessor, it was worth forty shillings, now sixty shillings. Edwy the priest held it for King Edward."
An early variation of the village name may be Wyghtresham.
Early in the 18th century, the manor came into the ownership of Thomas Brodnax or May of Godmersham Park, Kent. May changed his name to Knight after inheriting estates from the Knight family in 1738 and, on his death in 1781, Owley passed to his son Thomas. The younger Thomas Knight died childless in 1794, and Owley passed to his widow Catherine, later of White Friars, Canterbury. Mrs Knight was lady of the manor in 1799, when Hasted wrote. When she died in 1812, her husband's estates passed to his adopted son, Edward Austen Knight, brother of novelist Jane Austen, and owner of Chawton House in Hampshire.
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Wikipedia