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Medieval Twyford Bridge over the River Medway, Yalding, Kent by Barry Marsh via Flickr (Public Domain)
Yalding was one of the important parishes in Our Kentish Genealogy.
Yalding, in the Hundred of Twyford, was a market town 6 miles ssw of Maidstone, where the Rivers Teise and Beult join the River Medway. The name "Yaldinge" only dates back to 1642, but there has been a village in this area since the Jutish era. The population was 1,968 in 1801 and 2,555 by 1921.
Yalding prospered from the Weald's ironmaking industry. Five hundred guns passed through, en route to the British ships, after war broke out with Spain in 1625. King Charles I passed through a decade later to watch a bronze four-pounder canon, forty-two inches long, being cast in Horsmonden. Both sides purchased Kent's canons during the English Civil war.
Flour mills dotted many of the streams, and this part of Kent was famous for good fishing. Apples have been grown there since Roman times, the Normans introduced pears, and the Maidstone area was famous for its' beer a century before the arrival of my ancestor Jacob Hales. Flour mills dotted many of the streams, and this part of Kent was famous for good fishing.
It has the longest bridge in Kent, running across two rivers for about 150 yards." Arthur Mee (KENT, 1961 edition, p 495)
"Yalding itself is on the Beult, which is here crossed by a long causeway bridge of fifteenth-century date. This has to be the best village streets in this or any other county, a masterly piece of unconscious planning. Looking down from the head of the street by the war memorial, the pattern of cottage and manor house is almost flawless and a bend in the road as it turns to cross the river closes the picture most effectively with a church tower. Until recently a group of thatched cottages in the centre a homely note, but these were destroyed by fire and the gap has not been completely filled .." Marcus Crouch, KENT, edition of 1966, pp 139, 140
The Manor of Yalding
Yalding was called "Hallinges" in the Domesday Book (1086), where it says:
"Richard de Tonebridge holds Hallinges (Yalding). (Prior to the Norman Conquest) Aethelred held it from king Edward. It answered for 200 siblings then and now. Land for 16 ploughs. In Lordship 1 2/2. q6 villagers with 13 smallholdings have 6 ploughs. 2 churches (viz. Yalding and Brenchley) 15 slaves; 2 mills at 25s; 4 fisheries at 1,700 eels less 20. Meadow, 5 acres. Woodland, 150 pigs. Value before 1066 £20; later £30; now £40."
De Tonbridge's descendants adopted the name "de Clare," after one of their holdings. Over the course of the next two centuries, the de Clares took a leading role in the Irish and Welsh wars. They became one of England's leading families and at times opposed the crown. Their ancestral seat of Tunbridge, only 10 miles from Yalding, was stormed by Royal armies in 1087 and 1264. The first occasion was the Civil War that followed the death of William the Conqueror. The second occurred was the during the second Barons War (1264-65). Gilbert de Clare was one of the great Simon de Montfort's principal followers when he crushed King Henry III's army at Lewes. His subsequent defection led to de Montfort's defeat at Evesham. The last Gilbert de Clare led 500 knights north to Bannockburn, where he was killed in 1315.
The feudal system was breaking down by the time of his death. The de Clares found the old system, under which the inhabitants of Yalding could be called out for 40 days military service every year, untenable when their armies across the nation. By the end of the 14th century, they preferred cash payments. The last Gilbert de Clare also found it profitable to let serfs buy their freedom. % of his income By 1336, 40% of Yalding's population was free.
De Clare's son-in-law, Ralph Stafford, inherited Tonbridge, Yalding and many of the de Clare's other possessions. He was the first in a series of prominent generals that his family gave England during in the Hundred Years War. His great grandson Humphry Stafford, the first Duke of Buckingham, was killed when the Yorkists defeated his army at Northampton in 1460. His successor, as Duke, was the Henry Stafford who led the ill fated Buckingham's rebellion in 1483. You can read more of this, and some of Yaldings lesser manors, here.
Yalding in 1335
Thanks to the excellent records preserved by this village, and a program offered by Spartacus, we can access the records from 1335. They show which vegetables the inhabitants were growing (cabbages, onions, beans, leeks, peas and parsnips). All villagers could put their animals on common ground and had the right to fetch rotten wood. (No one has permission to cut down any part of a tree.) Though they were "free", No free man or woman is allowed to leave the village during the harvest months of August and September. Villagers wishing to sell their animals must first offer them to the lord of the manor. Though free villagers did not need their lord's permission to marry, everyone needed the lord's permission before they can brew and sell ale. (license fee is 4s) or .bake and sell bread (license fee is 5s). Though they were free to catch fish, they were not to be sold. All men between the ages of seven and fifty must take part in longbow practice every Monday evening.
Our Families in Yalding
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