The Diary of Ada Clara Lee
The Brann Family at Wittersham
Richard Brand (c1645-??), married 1668 to Joan Roaffe
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Richard Branne (c1670-??), married 1697 to Alice Baker
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John Brann (1707-??), married 1733 to Elizabeth Carley
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Richard Brann (1734-1774), married1756 to Mary Baker
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Richard Brann (1761-1831), married 1781 to Mary Cover
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Curteis Brann (1792-1878), married1814 to Jane Ramsden
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George Brann (1824-1887), married1843 to Frances Crossingham
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Jane Brann (1848-1937), married1866 to William Henry Williams
The Isle of Oxney and the Rother Estuary
The Isle of Oxney lies on the borders of Kent and Sussex. Oxney comprises the hamlets of Stone and Ebony, and Wittersham - a village of less than a thousand people. This area of high ground about 6 miles by 3 miles - 3,602 acres of land and 23 of water - was once an island, surrounded by the delta of the river Rother. The marshes are still frequently flooded in winter even though the Isle, which rises some two hundred feet above them, is now separated from the sea by the Romney Marsh. And although the Rother has been channeled and contained, still the only way onto Oxney is over bridges, where once ferry boats plied the waters.
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The earliest surviving description is by John Leland, writing nearly five hundred years ago that: "Oxoney Isle is compassed about with salt water, except where it is divided by the fresh water from the continent. Take the ferry over from Kent, and on the far bank in Oxeney is a village. Yet part of Oxney is in Kent, and part in Sussex. Some say that it is, or has been all in Sussex; some call it foresworn of Kent, because that when the inhabitants of it were of Sussex, they revolted, to have the privileges of Kent." In the early nineteenth century, William Cobbett describes a rural ride from Tenterden to Appledore around the north side of Oxney on which the fog was so "thick and white along some of the low land that I should have taken it for water, if little hills and trees had not risen up through it here and there". No wonder the isle of Oxney was a haunt for smugglers.
In times past, ferries crossed the river Rother at Maytham, Smallhythe, and Stone connecting Oxney with Rolvenden, Tenterden, and Appledore to the north. The ebb and flow of the tide was then much greater than would now be possible, and excavations have uncovered sand and sea shells some 40 ft below the present surface of the marshes. Not for nothing does the Celtic origin of the name Rother signify "red water" (although until about 1575, the river was known as the Lymme or Lymene, from the old British word for elm tree).
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The Elizabethan poet, Michael Drayton, wrote vividly in his epic Polyolbion, how the river Rother, having embraced the Isle of Oxney as his lover, is wooed by a jealous Romney Marsh, and Oxney is forced to defend her honor:​
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Of Rother's happy match, when Romney Marsh heard tell,
She thinketh with herself, how she a way might find,
To put the homely Isle quite out of Rother's mind.
Appearing to the Flood, most bravely like a Queen,
Clad all from head to foot, in gaudy summer's green.
Her mantle richly wrought, with sundry flowers and weeds;
Her moistful temples bound, with wreaths of quivering reeds.
Which loosely flowing down, upon her lusty thighs,
Most strongly seem to tempt the River's amorous eyes.
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Of these her amorous toys, when Oxney came to know,
Suspecting lest in time her rival she might grow,
The allurements of the Marsh, the jealous Isle do move,
That to a constant course, she thus persuades her Love:
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Though rich her attire, so curious be and rare,
From her there yet proceeds unwholesome putrid air,
Where my complexion more suits with the higher ground,
Upon the lusty Weald, where strength still doth abound.
Historically, the main channel of the Rother flowed to the north of the Isle of Oxney, past Smallhythe and Reading Street, on to Appledore and then Rye, where it reached the sea. The river was an vital transport artery into the Weald of Kent, where the few roads that existed were an impassable sea of mud for much of the year. Sea-going ships were able to navigate up to Smallhythe, and small vessels could pass as far as twenty miles upstream to the bridge at Bodiam. A petition sent to the Privy Council in 1635 explained the benefits that navigation on the Rother provided:
It hath aunciently beene a navigable river for boates and barques of good burden and is soe for small boates at the least twentie miles from the Sea and Haven of Rie up into the Countrie, there beinge High waies and manie wharfes and landinge places and unladinge for all kinds of goods and commodities as at Appledore, Oxney, Redinge, Smalled, Pymminge, Newenden, Bodyham, and other places to the great ease and benefitt of the Townes of Rye, Tenterden, Appledore and the countrie adjoyninge unto ye said river, who by this means have manie commodities at farre more easie rates & prices then they can have by land carriage.
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Efforts to control flooding and drain the levels began as early as the thirteenth century, with the construction of the Knelle Damme sea wall across Wittersham Level. This succeeded in restricting flooding from the sea, but ultimately led to the Rother's Appledore Channel becoming silted up - "swerved up" as Hasted calls it - and unnavigable, sometime around 1600. After much debate, the Craven Channel was cut through Wittersham Level from Maytham Ferry to Blackwall between 1680 and 1684. The new channel diverted the Rother to flow south of the Isle of Oxney, and shortened its course by five miles.
The soil of the Isle of Oxney is mixed loam, on a subsoil of crowstone (sandstone), and the surrounding Levels have the rich silt of reclaimed marshes. Over 600 acres of the high ground on Oxney were wooded. An old directory that lists "farmers, graziers, and hopgrowers" captures the chief agricultural activities of the area. The main arable crops were hops, wheat, oats, and beans. The later decades of the C19th saw a shift from wheat-farming towards the cultivation of hops, fruit, and livestock, which were less affected by the falling prices caused by Free Trade and were in greater demand to feed the growing population of London.
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The marshy fields of the Wittersham Levels have long been renowned as fertile pasture for sheep and cattle. Writing in the 1720s, Daniel Defoe described the country roundabout as: "a rich fertile soil, full of feeding grounds, and where an infinite number of large sheep are fed every year, and sent up to London market; these Romney Marsh sheep are counted rather larger than the Leicester and Lincoln sheep. Besides the vast quantity of sheep, an abundance of large bullocks are fed in this part of the country; especially those they call stall'd oxen, that is, house fed and kept within the farmers sheds or yards all the later season, where they are fed for the winter market. These oxen are generally the largest beef in England."
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In time-honored practice, sheep were grazed in summer on the marshes, and wintered on the higher ground of the Isle of Oxney, together with the cattle, away from the possibility of flooding. In fact the name Oxney itself may derive from "oxen-ey", or island on which oxen were pastured.
The History of Wittersham
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In 892, the Danes, lead by Hasting, used the creeks of the Rother estuary to invade nearby Appledore, and used the Isle of Oxney as a vantage point to watch the troops of King Alfred the Great camped at Newenden, before they were finally defeated by him.
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The land on the Isle of Oxney was mainly covered by three ancient manors: Wittersham, Palstre (to the west), and Owley (to the north).
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The earliest mention of the manor of Wittersham is in 1032, when it was given by Eadsige, chaplain to the Danish King Canute, to the Bretheren of Christchurch, Canterbury as "foster-land", for the food and sustenance of the monks.
In 1395, Henry IV gave the manor of Wyghtresham to the Fellows of All Saints College, Maidstone, who held it until the supression of the monasteries. In 1546, it was let to Sir Thomas Wyatt for a yearly rent of fourteen pounds - until he led an unusuccessful rebellion against the catholic Queen Mary and was executed for treason on Tower Hill.
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In 1086, the Domesday Book did not mention Wittersham, but assigned the manor of Palstre to Odo, bishop of Bayeaux; it being one of only 4 places in the Weald with a church:
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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 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.
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In C18th, both the manors of Palstre and Owley came into the ownership of the Knight family of Godmersham, Kent, and later of William Levett of Bodiam. At the turn of C20th - by which time holding the manor had ceased to be equivalent with ownership of most land and property - the Body family held Wittersham, Colonel Heyworth held Palstre, and Mrs Samuel Rutley owned Owley.
Over the years, several residents left bequests to care for the poor of Wittersham. In 1463, Thomas Bewfrere left five acres, known as Ruffins Land, to be applied to the church when needed. In 1578 Thomas Beredg left a yearly sum of 3 shillings to be given every Good Friday to the poor, under the thorn tree in the churchyard. And in 1597, John Truelove left 20 shillings with his tenement and garden to provide an annuity for the Poor Man's Box.
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In 1824, Jere Greenland of Beckingham bequeathed £700 for the care of the deserving poor. The money was to be invested in government stock and the dividends used to pay for the purchase of bread, to be distributed in the six winter months to 20 poor housekeepers of the parish who regularly attended church. He left an additional £100 to pay for administrative expenses and auditing of the bequest, including a dinner for the trustees on his birthday.
According to Hasted, a small fair was held at Wittersham every May 1, on the feast day of St Philip and St James, for "toys and pedlary", on the old village Green which used to be next to the church. The fair continued to be held until the early twentieth century, by which time May 12 appears to have been the preferred day.
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In 1834 a famous cricket match was held at Wittersham, in which Ned Wenman and Richard Mills, two Benenden men, took on a complete Isle of Oxney team of eleven men. Wenman and Mills were no novices, both being Kent county players, and the match drew two thousand spectators. There was heavy betting in favor of the Benenden pair, who in fact did win by 66 runs. Most of the Oxney team, which included three members of the Neve family, were bowled out by Wenman.
A contemporary eyewitness reported: "these two scientific players secured to themselves an honour that will not easily be surpassed in this manly exercise." Both players are commemorated on the current Benenden village sign. In a centenary re-enactment of the game in 1936, two professional cricketers, Bill Ashdown of Kent and Bert Wensley of Sussex, again beat the Oxney XI.
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The first railway through Kent, in the early 1840s, was the South Eastern Railway from London to Dover, whose nearest station was 13 miles distant, at Headcorn, west of Ashford. The first line into the area was the South Eastern's branch line from Ashford to Hastings, built in 1851. This passed through Appledore and Rye, following the line of the Royal Military Canal along the edge of Romney Marsh.​
Several attempts were made to build a railway through Tenterden, but it was not until 1900 that the Rother Valley Light Railway (later known as the Kent & East Sussex Railway) opened. This line ran from Robertsbridge to Tenterden (later extended to Headcorn), with a station at Wittersham Road. This station was a simple platform stop located two miles outside the village.
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Four trains ran each morning and afternoon, and a connection at Robertsbridge to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway enabled a traveler to reach London's Cannon Street station in about two hours. This railway operated passenger services until 1954, specials for hop-pickers until 1958, and was eventually closed in 1961. The section from Tenterden to Bodiam was restored and re-opened in 1974 for excursions, which can now be taken during the summer months.
During WWII, the railway sidings at Wittersham Road housed a pair of 9.2" rail-mounted guns, which were set up in 1940 as part of the anti-invasion defences.
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The guns, which could hurl a 315lb shell for 26,000 yards, were not used offensively against enemy shipping in the Channel, but would have been able to fire an air-burst of heavy shrapnel upon an invading army landing on Romney Marsh. Each gun had its own "fighting train" of ammunition wagons, workshops, living quarters, and food wagons.
The Buildings of Wittersham
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The parish church of St John the Baptist dates from the 13th century, and is built in the Early English to Perpendicular styles. The nave has "free seatings" for 750 people. The buttressed tower, constructed towards the end of the 15th century, is one of the finest in Kent. It contains five bells: three cast by Joseph Carter of Whitechapel in 1609, one by John Wilmar in 1629, and the most recent by Thomas Mears & Son in 1808. The bells would have been brought from London by sea to Rye, and then carried up the old northerly channel of the river Rother to the Reading Street Wharf, where an ox-cart would have been waiting to drag them up the hill.
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The living of Wittersham was in the direct gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and considered very desirable; in the C19th it was worth £730 per year, including 17 acres of glebe land and a rectory. The parish registers date back to 1551, although there was also said to be an earlier book that was "very old and illegible".
The earliest recorded rector was Thomas de Shenefield in 1232. Edward Tenison, later Bishop of Ossory, was rector from 1697-98. He was followed by Theophilus Dorrington (1698-1715), theologian and translator of Puffendorf's "Divine Feudal Law". In 1708, Dorrington wrote to Queen Anne's secretary of state, Charles Delafaye, to complain of the "rising price of wheat in markets towards the river and selling off of stores of corn".
The most famous rector was Dr Bielby Porteus, who held the living from 1762-65. However he probably never resided in the parish, since he was at the same time chaplain to Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth; he was later chaplain to the King, before succeeding Robert Lowth as Bishop of London in 1787.
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The longest-serving rector was William Cornwallis, who was at Wittersham for fifty years from 1778 to 1827. (His daughter, Caroline Frances Cornwallis, born in 1786 at Wittersham, became a prolific and widely-read authoress on philosophy, theology and law, and lived many years in Italy.) Julius Deedes was the rector from 1828 to 1846, and was succeeded for the next ten years by Edward Nares - who rebuilt the chancel. Newton Smart held the living from 1856 to 1872, and Samuel Hadden Parkes was the rector from 1872 to 1906. Algernon Howell Smith took over in 1906 and was the incumbent until 1926.
A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was erected in Wittersham in 1808. On the day of the religious census of 1851 (Sunday, 30 March), 500 people attended the evening service at St Johns and 40 people worshipped at the Chapel.
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The Free School was founded in 1820 by the Rev William Cornwallis and his wife, in memory of their grandson. It provided education of poor boys of the parish, who were entitled to five years of free instruction. Cornwallis endowed the school with 18 acres and 13 perches of marshland at Smallhythe (confusingly known as the Sixteen Acres), which by 1882 was producing an annual income of £70 for the school. The school's master for its first 50 years - as long-lived as its founder - was Jeremiah Poile. In 1868, he was succeeded by Samuel Calvert.
The school-master was required to be qualified according to the rules of the National Society, and to be a "sound" member of the Church of England, not given to immoral conduct or seditious practices. The school-day ran from 9am until 12am and from 2pm until 5pm in summer, and commenced with an "orderly repeating of the Lord's Prayer".
Boys were required to be arrive with their hands and face washed, and hair combed. They were instructed in religious duties, reading, writing, the English language, and the first four rules of arithmetic. For every dozen marks won by a pupil, he was paid two pence and the master received four pence - payment by results!
In November 1874, a National School was incorporated with the Free School. It opened that year in new buildings of blue stone with red-brick facings in the Gothic style, erected at a cost of £1800. The new school could hold 173 pupils, although the average attendance was much less - around 150 in 1880 and 124 by 1900. Running the larger school was something of a family affair. In 1880, when the schoolmaster was William Day, his wife Mary was the schoolmistress, their daughter Margaret was a monitor, and the assistant mistress, Emma Reeder, boarded with them. In 1900, the schoolmaster was Arthur Mason, his wife was schoolmistress and his daughter was assistant mistress.
There was also a Men's Institute & Reading Room, described as a "literary Institution for the working class and shopkeepers", whose 40 members could enjoy a good supply of London and provincial newspapers.
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The other local meeting places were, of course, inns. From at least the early nineteenth century, the village pub was the Ewe and Lamb, which was located at the top of Wittersham Street. It was joined in the 1870s by the Swan Inn, located at the top of Back Street or - as it is now known - Swan Street. The Swan still operates today. Adjoining the churchyard in Wittersham Street, there was also the Queen's Head, which appears to have operated as a beerhouse from about 1880-1925.
Nearby was Neve's Shop, for many years the only store in the village. It was always run by an ancient local family, by the name of Neve: Sarah from 1787, David from 1807, Thomas from 1848, and Benjamin after 1897. In the store's early days, David Neve would make a two-day journey on horse-back to London twice a year to buy stock, which would then arrive by waggon several weeks later. It is still a shop today, although the Neve family finally sold out in 1947.
For many years, Wittersham had two windmills, although today only one remains.
The Old Post Mill stood near the center of the village, opposite the Ewe and Lamb Inn. The earliest record of it is around 1736, and it operated for nearly 200 years before being demolished in 1922. Robert Parton, the miller from 1816-54, raised the structure on brick columns in 1817 to better catch the prevailing winds. In 1870, Thomas Collard, who operated both this and Stocks Mill, added a fantail to improve control.
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Stocks Mill stands about a mile north east of Wittersham, and is named for the village stocks that once stood nearby. The white, weather-boarded mill is built on a single-story tarred-brick roundhouse, and is the largest post mill in Kent. The huge, oak main post bears the initials RV and the date 1781. This is most likely either the date that the mill was originally built or else moved from another location, by Thomas Venus. It operated for 120 years until 1900, when the demand for locally-milled flour declined - in 1908, the owner, Norman Forbes-Robertson, could not get a miller to use it even rent-free. It was later purchased by Kent County Council, has since been further restored, and is now a open to the public.
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In 1884 a reservoir was constructed, at the expense of Rev. Edward Sladen of Wittersham Court, to supply the village with pure water. This was enlarged in 1912 and provided with a larger pumping engine.
Of the houses in the village, Wittersham House was remodeled by the noted architect Edwin Lutyens between 1906-09. The large Georgian house had been the Rectory, but had become a burden on the incumbents and was in some state of disrepair. In 1906, there was a newly-appointed rector, Algernon Howell Smith, who had not yet moved in. When Alfred Lyttelton, MP, who had been in search of a country home, made an offer to buy the house, the Rev. Smith was glad to accept.
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Apart from its condition, the square red-brick house was also rather plain. Lutyens made subtle additions: a low-pitched roof with pantiles, round windows, and garden features such as an outdoor parlor, summer house, and pergola. Country Life noted how "new interest can be given to a place, once of no charm, by simple additions devised with taste and judgment." Lutyens also designed the War Memorial in Wittersham Church to the twenty-one men of the parish who were killed in WWI, and one of his grandest country houses is nearby at Great Maytham, Rolvenden.
Palstre Court is a rambling 16th century farmhouse on a hill overlooking the Rother levels - its name originates from the Latin word "paluster" meaning marshy. Though now faced in brick and tile, it is in fact constructed of ancient oak timbers. Nearby, within a moated enclosure now covered by fruit trees, once stood the even more ancient house of the manor of Palstre. There was a tradition that treasure lay buried round about Palstre Court, but excavations have yet failed to find any.
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The house north of the church that is now called Wittersham Court was, for centuries, known as Wittersham College, as it stands on the site of the ancient manor-house of Wittersham that was given to the College of All Saints at Maidstone in the reign of Richard II.
Smallhythe Place is a half-timbered house at north-west edge of the Isle of Oxney. Formerly known as Port House, it was built around 1480 as a customs house to serve a thriving shipyard. In the Middle Ages, Smallhythe was a shipbuilding center for the Cinque Port of Tenterden. Oak timber and iron from the Weald was transported to Smallhythe for building warships. As early as 1342, four ships from Smallhythe formed part of a fleet which accompanied Edward III on an expedition to Brittany.
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In 1420, Henry V's 1000 ton ship Jesus was built there, and in 1537, Henry VIII visited the dockyard to oversee the construction of his warship The Grand Masters. In 1822, the wreck of a ship was found in the Rother near Maytham Wharf; it was a 64 foot vessel with two short decks, of the "cog" type, favored in northern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Smallhythe was later owned by Ellen Terry, the actress, and was given to the National Trust in 1939 by her daughter. The house is now open to the public, and houses a theatrical museum containing many of the lavish costumes created for Terry by her partner Henry Irving, her make-up box, and a theatrical library including Terry's annotated copy of Shakespeare.