This evening’s speaker, Clive Church is an Emeritus Professor of European Studies in the faculty of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. He has been researching Thanington, the place where he lives, and hopes to publish a local history book on the subject later in the year.
The name Thanington means either the land or sons of Taner or the lands where the men of Thanet stopped when moving livestock. The ‘Without’ suffix which intrigues many people is due to part of the parish being under Kent County administration whilst another part was administered by the City and Borough of Canterbury. Today it is often jested that Thanington is without several things and is difficult to define as a village as it isn’t a traditional nuclear settlement, with church, pub and village green. Prof Church said that during his research he found very few historical sources for the area and therefore Thanington appears to be without much of an early history either.
During the late Anglo-Saxon era the area the main use of the area was agriculture. Traces remain on the hill of Bigbury Iron-Age ‘fort’, a pre-history Belgic settlement. There appears to have been a limited Roman influence in the area with a Villa but mainly the Roman period is defined by roads such as Stone Street. Thanington has largely been an area where people passed through on the way to and from Canterbury. A situation which continued until the late 19th century.
There is little evidence of habitation in the post Roman era and Prof. Church suggested that it was probably deserted during that time. In the Mediaeval period there is a wooden church and a Norman Manor the area being dominated by landowners. Thanington had a victim of the Swing riots but the major product being Hop Farming jobs were not under such a threat from machines and Irish Labourers as they were in other areas.
From 1840 to 1914 the Industrial age saw a growth in population
Report by Tricia Baxter