THE
P RTAL
March 2013
Page 13
Pembury in Kent
by Harry Schnitker
Kent was amongst the earliest part of England where Anglo-Saxons settled. Its sheer proximity to the
Continent meant it was an obvious first landing place. Large swathes of Kent soon fell under a new Anglo-
Saxon kingdom, established soon after the Roman legions left in 410 A.D.
The Weald was a different story,
however. This was a large
upland region, which the new
settlers viewed with some
discomfort. The very name,
Andredesweald, or the Forest
of Andredes Ceaster (a
Roman fort at the edge of the
forest), showed a lingering
dislike for this deeply-wooded
region. Paradoxically, it was
also the centre of an extensive
iron industry, based on the
plentiful supply of wood.
Saxon saints, then? There is one, very
tenuous link with a great figure
from the early English Church.
The link may be rather weak,
but the saint is all the greater
for it: he is none other than St
Dunstan (909-988).
battles with the
Devil
He was a Somerset man and
a favourite with several kings.
He became a monk, Abbot
of Glastonbury, and, in 959,
Archbishop of Canterbury.
‘Fort of the Peppins’
A man of great charity and
or
the virtual prime-minister of
‘Pippin Apple Tree’
England, he was recalled for
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
centuries for his holiness. St
noted that in 477, when the
Dunstan’s greatest exploits
Anglo-Saxons
conquered Dunstan playing his harp as the Devil is paying a visit were his battles with the
southern Sussex, the locals
Devil. Charles Dickens, in A
fled to the Weald and held out there. Later, Anglo- Christmas Carol, summed it up neatly:
Saxons would use the Weald for pasture or orchards,
and established fortified farms.
“St Dunstan, as the story goes,
Once pull’d the devil by the nose
In Pembury, the home for this month’s Ordinariate
With red-hot tongs, which made him roar,
group, the name suggests that this occurred here, too.
That he was heard three miles or more”.
It comes from the Anglo-Saxon, and means either
‘Fort of the Peppins’, or ‘Pippin Apple Tree’. The latter the devil came running past
Our saint was an accomplished silversmith, and was
is somewhat fanciful, the former startling. Peppin is
making a chalice when the devil tried to tempt him. As
not an Anglo-Saxon but a Frankish name.
the poem says, he grabbed the evil one by the nose and
first mention was not until 1120
chased him away. And the link with Pembury? Well,
Place names are fantastic tools to trace a story it happened at Mayfield, some miles to the south, and
that locals forgot to write down. However, we have the devil came running past Pembury on his way to
one drawback at Pembury: its first mention was not the cold wells at Tunbridge, then just a field, to cool his
until 1120. This is not to say that there was no church burning nose there! The wells have been sulphurous
here at all. By 1042, it was noted that there were ever since.
over 400 churches across Kent. We simply have no
we all need examples like this
documentation that Pembury’s was one of them.
Make of this what you will, but Pembury’s Ordinariate
St Dunstan (909-988)
group is certainly blessed with even this slightest
For all the Anglo-Saxon names in the region, it is of links with St Dunstan. A man who fought evil,
clear that intense clearing and settlement did not take generous, but above all a politician with a conscience,
place until after the Norman Conquest. No Anglo- driven by his Faith: we all need examples like this.