CRANBROOK CHURCH.* BY REV. J. CAVE-BROWNE, M.A. THE first thought that rises in the mind of an archæologist, when he attempts to write the history of a parish church, is, "What says Domesday ?" Now as to Cranbrook, Domesday says nothing. The name does not occur. Its absence may be accounted for on two grounds. First, that unrivalled Record-the oldest of National Records in Europe-was not designed as a gazetteer, but as an authoritative Survey of lands held under the Crown, to shew for military and fiscal purposes who was in each case the responsible tenant or owner, and what was his military service, and the amount of rating and taxes his holding involved. Thus the existence of a manor, or of a church attached to a manor, would not necessarily be mentioned unless the manor or the advowson belonged to the Crown. The absence therefore of the name is no evidence either way of the existence of a church here. And, secondly, the state of the district would imply the improbability of a church being here at the time of the Conquest, when Domesday was written. Camden describes Cranbrook as "lying in the great wood." It lay in the heart of the "Andereds weald," or, as Isaac Taylor calls it, the "Great Forest Andredesleagh," now known as the "Weald," which stretched for about 120 miles, with a breadth of some 30 miles, through the central tracts of Kent and Sussex. This range of country, now famous for its fertility, was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries a vast forest, without township or even village, partitioned into The writer desires to acknowledge his obligation to the Rev. T. A. Carr, formerly Vicar of the parish, and to the late Mr. W. Tarbutt of Cranbrookwhose indefatigable researches into the history of his native town appears in three pamphlets, on the Church, the Clergy, and the Monuments for much of the information contained in the following pages. denes or wooded valleys for swine pasture, or, as Harris describes it, "A desart and a waste, neither planted nor peopled, but filled only with herds of deer and droves of swine."* In such a district it were vain to look for a Church. Not until the reign of King John was this wild district brought under what was called "Hundred Law," that is, so partitioned off into hundreds as to be brought within any jurisdiction. It was then divided into "the Seven Hundreds," and of these Cranbrook was the largest and most important. It first appears in this character in Testa de Nevill, the Survey instituted by Henry III. and Edward I. about 1270-1280, as Crennbroc, a part of the fee of Margaret de Redeware. It had now assumed a recognized place in county administration, and had a more settled population than that which previously existed of scattered roving parties of swine-herds; and the next step was the obtaining a market of its own. The grant for this was made by Edward I. in 1289 through Archbishop Peckham. Its position at the crossingpoint of many of the roads from every quarter, which, though probably little better than bridle-paths, supplied the only means of intercourse with other parts of the county, rendered this a necessity. The next mention we meet with of Cranbrook is in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Boniface in 1291, and then it is said to have a church. Twenty years later, in 1310, it had lost its probably first Rector, for in that year Archbishop Reynolds† collates William de Mepham to the then vacant rectory. Hasted says that Edward III., in the sixth year of his reign (A.D. 1332), appropriated the Rectory of Cranbrook to the See of Canterbury; and Tarbutt§ adopts the same view, adducing it as evidence of the King's zeal for the * Harris's History of Kent, p. 347. †The entry runs thus: "1310. Robertus Archiepiscopus," etc., etc. "Magistro Willielmo de Mepham, presbytero," etc., etc. "Ecclesiam Parochialem de Cranebroke nostre Diocesis vacantem, et ad nostram collationem pleno jure spectantem. . . . tibi conferimus intuitu caritatis et Rectorem instituimus," etc., etc. Vol. vii., p. 3. § Annals of Cranbrook Church, p. 6. But Church; both no doubt following Bishop Tanner.* the entry in Archbishop Reynolds's Register at Lambeth† distinctly shews that this appointment of William de Mepham was a "Collatio," meaning that the patronage was already in the hands of the Archbishop. Cranbrook must also have had its Vicars at this early date; for in the "Sede Vacante " Records at Canterbury it is said that in the year 1333 the custodia of the church was committed to the Vicar. This would probably have occurred on the death of William de Mepham, and during the interval between the primacies of Simon de Meopham and John de Stratford, when the spiritualities of the See would be in the hands of the Prior and Convent. In the same records mention is made of Vicars of Cranbrook in the years 1364 and 1371. It was in the reign of Edward III. that this little town received its great stimulus. The year 1332 forms an epoch in its history. Edward, having observed during his visit to Flanders the effect of the Flemish loom industry on the prosperity of the people, resolved to import into England some of those skilled craftsmen, and selected Cranbrook as one of the centres for weaving broadcloth, for which it soon became so famous. Why this still retired spot should have been selected is an enquiry of some interest. Perhaps its very retirement, which its very name, the haunt of Cranes, implies, constituted one of the attractions. Others no doubt were found in its ample supply of wood, and of water too; for fuel and water would be essential to the manufacture; and the Weald, with its milder climate, would perhaps be more congenial to the Flemish than the more Northern Forests of Sherwood or Arden; while its lordly oaks would furnish an ample supply of timber, and here, almost only through the length and breadth of the Weald, would be found the also equally needed water. It seems worth noting that while there are denes or dens§ wellnigh innumerable in that district, no less than seven of the *Notitia Monastica, p. 199. Vol. Q, f. 180. § Furley's Weald of Kent, vol. ii., pp. 728, 827. |