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Napoleon reputedly said “What is history but a fable agreed upon……”  So it is with both Whitstable’s name and origins.  We do not have available any clear evidence of how either came to be so we are reliant upon forming an opinion based on whatever others in the past cared to write – Napoleon’s ‘fable’.

Whitstable - The Name

The Problems of Language & Pronunciation

In considering past names, it should be realised that few people could write. Those that could often recorded words as heard. Furthermore, the English language was not formalised until 1830. 

Local pronunciation of the five vowels of the English language was sometimes quite different to that of the 20th century.  For example, the vowel ‘a’ could be pronounced as ‘e’ as in egg.... or both ‘a’ and ‘o’ individually pronounced as ‘e’ as in her.... or ‘i’ pronounced as ‘e’ as in he.  

The Schools Act of about 1830, providing education for the masses, gradually ensured the reasonably consistent pronunciation of the vowels we enjoyed in the 20th century.

Early Spelling

To date, the earliest known spelling as ‘Whitstable’ was recorded in 1610.  It would appear that modern historians, chroniclers and other recordists of the 19th & 20th centuries have used that spelling as an easy reference back to times beyond 1610. That practice has led to confusion as their works can be read as though that is how the name was spelt prior to that year.  It also appears as though the same practice has been applied when referring to the general area between Seasalter and Swalecliffe - thus inferring that the modern town of Whitstable existed much earlier than in fact it did.

In the following, I use ‘Whitstable’ as a general term of reference to identify the location and town known to readers.

The Hundreds

There does not appear to have been a specific area defined as ‘Whitstable’ until King Alfred ‘The Great’ reputedly introduced the defining of a specific area as a ‘Hundred’. (Note: There is some support for Hundreds being established before Alfred.). 

A Hundred is said to be the area occupied by or able to support 100 families. However that does not necessarily mean the area is in one contiguous lot contained within a single boundary.  Due to the nature of some areas, a separate parcel or parcels of land may have been included to provide a specific need.  An example of that may have been an area for the summer grazing of stock if suitable land was not available within the main Hundred itself. 

The Hundred which contained the location of present day Whitstable was known in Saxon times as Witenstaple Hundred. Some historians record Witenstaple as Witanstaple. Some as Witenestaple.

The boundary of this Hundred is not clearly recorded but it is generally accepted to have been that shown  by the two green areas designated as Whitstable and Westgate in the map below (derived from a map of 1646). 

Note: For reference, the boundary of present day Whitstable is shown as a white line.  At some time between the original establishment of Witenstaple Hundred and about 1610, part of Witenstaple Hundred was annexed as Westgate Hundred shown in bright green.

Neighbouring Witenstaple Hundred to the west was Bocton under Blean Hundred, with Feversham Hundred in the South west corner. (Bocton is now known as Boughton, and Feversham as Faversham).  To the east, was Bleangate Hundred.  South of the River Stour, Dredge and Pethan Hundred (containing Canterbury) sealed off the southern border of Witenstaple Hundred. 

Old maps show that the eastern border of Witenstaple Hundred appears to have followed The Burnan (today’s Swalecliffe Brook) to Bogshole valley then south across the valley into Clowes Wood before turning slightly east of south to pass St.Stephens church meeting the River Stour between Canterbury and Sturrey.  Following the Stour south east through Thanington, the border appears to turn North away from the Stour about Chartham to Harbledown then back to the coast.  

Manors and Boroughs

Hundreds contained a number of boroughs and manors. Witenstaple Hundred included Seasalter and Swaleciffe manors. Boroughs were an area considered convenient in size and population for the administration of levies and taxes.  A Borough may include a number of Manors - although a Manor may have land in more than one Borough. 

Manors were not clearly defined as an area of land being assigned to a Manorial title.  The lands of Manors may vary in area and richness compared to other Manorial titles. A Manor may hold several parcels of land in separate boroughs.

Origins and Evolution of the Name  

To this point, we have introduced the area, The Hundred’ which would eventually give its name and home to the present day town of Whitstable.

The true origin of the name "Whitstable" evolving from the name of The Hundred is obscure - there being several plausible explanations offered by various sources. Consider the following possibilities....

It is known that the name Witenstaple was recorded in Saxon times (circa 7th & 8th centuries) which evolved into Witstapel according to 1184 sources, and Whitstapl by 1226.  

Records from 1610 make reference to the modern spelling, "Whitstable".  It may have been used earlier or the modern spelling may have been used during translations of earlier works. On the other hand, there were still references to Whitstapel in the early half of the 1800s. 

Despite this, development of the name can be summarised broadly as follows.....

The Domesday Book makes no reference to a specific village or town called Whitstable in any form of the name. However, when considering the most likely origin of the name, the development of the town at its present site should not be allowed to divert attention from the fact that, in reality, it is the origin of the name of the long established Hundred of ‘Whitstable’ which we are trying to resolve.

So, what is the most likely origin ?  Consider several factors:

Prior to the known tidal surge of 1287 establishing the approximate present shoreline, the site of Church Street hamlet was approximately 1½ to 2 miles from the northern shore and about 6 miles from the southern boundary of the Hundred.  Therefore, it is unlikely that points 1. and 2. would be relevant. In "pre telescope" Saxon times, a navigation mark at Church Street hamlet, in the form of a white post, would not be eminently visible for year round navigation purposes. 

Whitstable - The Place

No more than a Swamp 

In Roman times, the actual site (ie the low lying area of present day Whitstable town) was no more than treed swamp land - in some parts into the late 1700s and, in places, open swampy land into the early 1800s. 

The Shoreline - A Changing Boundary

During the period from Roman times to a 1287 tidal surge, the shoreline receded to about where it is today - the old shoreline now being about 2½ fathoms underwater. (Refer to the map of local parishes below).

Precisely when or at what rate this happened is unknown but the initial cause is assigned to the English Channel being formed by the tilting of what became the British Isles. That process started in pre history times and continued over the centuries at a seemingly varying rate.

The tidal surge in 1287 can be considered to be the final singular event to approximately establish the present shoreline - not ignoring the necessity of the coastal erosion defence that has since defined a man made shoreline. 

Those attempts at erosion defence plus reclamation have probably obscured where the coastline was immediately after 1287. The perceived natural shoreline around the Seasalter Level after 1287 is shown by a white line on the map below. From about Codham’s Corner, it then extended eastward, around the southern edge of The Salts and along the line of today’s main street to about the Horsebridge.

The Surrounding Settlements

To understand the development of ‘Whitstable - The Place’, it is beneficial to have some awareness of what surrounded the area in times past. The above mentioned swamplands were within an area bounded by Blean Woods to the south, the settlements of Seasalter to the west, Swalecliffe to the east and, on the banks of the Swale to the North, several possibly transient and seemingly nameless clusters of fisherfolk dwellings. One of these clusters may have been the, as yet, unidentified ‘landing place’ called Le Craston - later known as Graystone and referred to as late as about 1830.

Those Un-Named Northern Clusters

The likely (but not known) locations of the clusters would be....

A fourth may have been the shallow area off The Pollard. The four locations are circled in the map below.

Above: The likely locations of the four clusters of fisherfolk dwellings 

In considering the locations of the clusters, a number of points are worth considering  (Note: I have used the present day spellings for Seasalter and Swalecliffe):- 

That is a summary of the likely small northern settlements. However none have, so far, been named or identified as such. 

Like Seasalter, Swalecliffe, Church Street and southern settlements, the clusters surrounded the eventual site of Whitstable town as shown in the map below. 

Above: The Settlements surrounding the eventual site of Whitstable town 

Seasalter

Seasalter ("Sea Salter" on maps until the mid/late 1800s) has long been accepted as a well established parish with known boundaries back into Roman times - although only ever accepted as a loose collection of dwellings along the line from above Seasalter Church through Codham’s Corner (which later became known as Granny Hart's Corner and, in 1756, Blue Anchor Corner).

The name Seasalter is said to be derived from the Saxon ‘sealterna steallas’ or ‘salt house by the sea’. It is also said to be Old English for "Salt Works on the Sea". Spelt as Sesaltre in the Domesday Book, it was later recorded as Sesalterstrete, thence Seasalter Street, Sea Salter and finally Seasalter.

For the purpose of defining ‘Whitstable - The Place’, it is worth outlining at least the eastern boundary of Seasalter Parish. Local boundaries are confusing as frequently old manorial, parish and later Registration boundaries share common lines between some points. As maps only show one type of boundary in those areas, some seemingly disappear. 

In terms of local features known today, the boundary of Seasalter Parish started about the landing place known as The Horsebridge, followed along the line of Middle Wall turning eastwards through Evelings or Hayes Alley, along High Street, eastwards around the St.Alphege church and Endowed schools sites (including the Oxford St Boys School). It then veered northwestwards around the site of the present day War Memorial to Nelson Road and proceeded Westward along Westcliff. Here, it continued to a point known as The Cross where an old path led from Joy Lane to Lower Island (an extension of the island of Island Wall see below). 

The boundary followed that path southwards (and therefore inland) to Joy Lane where we lose interest in it for our present purpose. However, it is interesting to know that Seasalter boundary, after looping westwards then turning north across the Marshes to pass the coastline just west of The Sportsman pub, finally terminates just after swinging around The Spit – one of the perceived early landing/dwelling sites.  

The boundary from the Horsebridge to The Cross marked the ‘habitable’ or high tide coastline in the 1700s. Beyond The Cross that same ‘high tide line’ was joined by the shoreline which became the Lower Island swinging south to the end of the Golf course.  The lands encompassed by that ‘high tide line’ and the shoreline (ie today’s Cornwallis Circle and Seasalter Golf Course) were, into the 1800s, the floodable salt pans known as ‘The Salts’ - with Island Wall being an island in the 1700s.

Swalecliffe.

The Parish of Swalecliffe, derived from the Saxon ‘Soanclive’ as recorded in the Domesday Book, has been the site of habitation since prehistoric times and described since post Roman times as a loose settlement with the Domesday survey recording but eight cottagers in ‘Swalecliffe’.  

The east side of the Parish boundary starts from the western side of Studd Hill to meander south via Bodkin Farm, Frogs Island Farm, surprisingly on between Thornden and West Blean Woods to an obscure point in the woods and then turning west towards Clowes Farm.  The boundary then meanders around the northern side of Clowes Farm towards Pean Hill.

Chestfield

The name "Chestfield" derived from the word Caet (meaning forest) thence Caetville was created as a settlement in the 7th century within The Northwood and being within the Parish of Swalecliffe, not as a parish in its own right.

During 1005-1066, there were four cottagers in Chestfield.  The (1084) Domesday Book shows these as Bodkin Farm, Chestfield Manor, Balsar Street Farm and Highgate Farm.

Church Street and the link to Parishes and Manors

Between Seasalter and Swalecliffe was the Parish of Northwood - All Saints being the Parish church.  

There is certainty that Northwood shared Seasalter’s eastern boundary from the Horsebridge to at least the point where it turned west at the location of the war memorial. 

The ancient boundary between Swalecliffe and Northwood is obscure. However, there is certainty where part of it was located. In today’s terms, the western flank and top of Tower Hill (at about the start of Marine Parade) were in Northwood. Land to the east was in Swalecliffe.  

Northwood included the high ground back to and including Church St. hamlet and most likely around to Borstal Hill. Also included was the low, swampy and heavily treed ground between Seasalter to the west and Tower Hill to the east - the location of modern Whitstable but, as yet no singular habitable place named Witenstaple, Witstapel, Whitstapl or Whitstable.

Within the foregoing parishes, there were a number of Saxon manors said to be: Sesaltre, Herewic and Dodeham, and later the manors of Borgsteall (thus Borstal Hill) and Grymgil.  Dodeham, it is said, became known as Northwood or Nortone. The Manor of ‘Tangreton’ (Tankerton) should also be included from the time of Edward 1 (ie the 11th century). 

The manor of Sesaltre was, as one would expect, in Seasalter Parish.  The so called manor of Herewic was also in Seasalter Parish although parts of it were said to be in the Parishes of Northwood and Swalecliffe. 

Charters in the 8^th and 9^th centuries mention Herewic but one in 863 by King Ethelbert gives us a clue to its location by mention of ‘a salt works and its cottage in Herewic’. Herewic is recorded as an administrative district known as a Borough, although there are references to the Manor of Herewic, by common usage the name contracting to about the generally accepted area of today’s Horsebridge/Island Wall which was likely to have been higher ground in those centuries.

Origins of the Witenstaple Area

Where then was the ‘Witenstaple area’ reported by one historian as being in the 8th century ‘a small market town formed by the amalgamation of three Saxon manors: Sesaltre, Herewic and Dodeham’?

To me that statement, as written, is open to question simply because those three manors individually or collectively would have been considerably larger than ‘a small market town’. Perhaps ‘town’ was an over emphasis or a mistranslation for the salt marketing area mentioned earlier. Certainly, as we have seen above, the Domesday survey (1086) did not record a place known as Witenstaple or its various forms.

In Saxon times, there were five clearly known settlement areas within Witenstaple Hundred which could be considered as the nucleus for a future town taking on the name of the Hundred:-

Both Seasalter and Swalecliffe were directly connected to Canterbury and known to have been early trading ports serving that City.  But both were low lying, subject to sea encroachment and, at best, only ever recorded as a loose collection of cottages supporting a small church in poor parishes. Chestfield was not a parish, was without a church and, in the 11^th century, had but four cottagers. That leaves Blean and Church Street.

Due to it being in the centre of the Hundred and on the ancient Salt Way trading route from the coast to Canterbury, one could expect Blean to have taken on the identity of the Hundred...... but there is absolutely no evidence of that being so.

In 1086, the Manor of Nortone (containing Church Street) included All Saints church, 92 villagers and 40 smallholders. The Domesday survey shows that a subsidiary manor to Nortone was probably Herewic (later Harwich). This had seven salt works, 29 smallholders, five slaves and its own church considered to be All Saints (which eventually became the parish church of Whitstable itself.). 

Herewic is again linked to All Saints church by virtue of both being granted in 1089 as ‘the Manor of Herewic and All Saints Church’ to Fulbert de Lacy who held the barony of Chilham and, then, in 1394 to the newly founded College of Pleshey in Essex.

All Saints church progressively becomes the link between the 8th century ‘Witenstaple area’ (and, thus, the Witenstaple Hundred) and present day Whitstable.  The location gained some eminence as the tower of All Saints church is considered to have been an ancient Watch tower with its commanding views over both surrounding waters and countryside - protecting locals against the many raiders of early times. 

Whitstapl Street...  Whistapl.... Whitstable 

By the 1500s, the Manor of Nortone had become the Manor of Northwood, had encompassed further lands and taken on the identity of Whitstapl focused on Church Street. Also, by the 1500s, a fishing settlement had become established on the shoreline about the area where lower High Street is today. Evidence of the growing importance of this settlement is shown in 1523 by John Roper of Canterbury’s bequest of 100 marks for “the making of an horseway to Canterbury for fish wives and fishermen”. The horseway eventually becoming the Whitstable/Canterbury road.

By 1566, 60 people were occupied in fishing and oyster dredging at ‘Whitstable’, where there were 82 houses. Most of the houses were located in a small strip along the line of lower High Street/Harbour Street. In 1583, Valley Wall was built to protect the settlement against the rising sea level. By this time, the fishing settlement had become known as Whitstapl Street. Valley Wall survives as Middle Wall and Sea Wall to Reeves Beach. 

In addition to salt production, fishing and oyster dredging, in 1588 Cornelius Stephenson established  the production of copperas based on iron pyrites collected from the beach at Tankerton (Beach Parade.) In 1565, he had been granted a Royal Patent for the processing of green vitriol or copperas used in the dying, tanning, ink and paint industries.  Within 100 years, Whitstapl was to become the main supplier of copperas to London.  Within that time, records would finally show (in 1610) the modern name Whitstable replacing Whitstapl. 

Sea Defences - A Basis for Stability and Expansion

After the tidal surge of 1287, work commenced on building a sea wall in 1290 from about the Horsebridge eastwards along the coastline to today‘s Beach Walk/ Tankerton cliffs area.  

In 1325 a sea wall was built along the present Seasalter shoreline.  That was not totally successful until rebuilt in 1340.  (Final drainage took place in the 1700s to establish the Seasalter Level).  The 1340 wall gave a reasonably secure shoreline along Seasalter eastwards, south of The Salts then along the line of today’s Oxford and High Streets to the Horsebridge continuing eastwards to the high ground of Tankerton. Inland of the "Horsebridge to Tankerton" section of the line, the area was swampy largely useless land although salt production took place on the land eventually used by the Harbour and its facilities. 

On the 26th November 1703, a great storm washed away the eastern end of the Sea Wall of 1583 from the area of Reeves Beach to Tankerton.  That must have been repaired because, despite the great storm of 8th Jan 1735 and very strong gales with a great Spring tide and strong NNW gales on 6th February, no breaching or flooding appears to have been recorded.  But, in 1779, it and about 20 acres were abandoned to the sea when Jurdan’s inset sea wall was built from today’s Beach Walk, along what became Harbour Road westwards past the later harbour site.  (Middle Wall was also rebuilt in 1779 after a serious breach by the sea).  With the building of this more substantial sea wall further inland, more effective reclamation of swamp land became possible although flooding would still occur well into the 20th century.

Whitstable Street could now grow inland to become Whitstable town.  Growth foreshadowed by the recognition of the importance of the link to Canterbury by an Act of Parliament in 1735 - "An Act for repairing and widening the Road leading from Saint Dunstan's Cross, near the City of Canterbury, to the Water-side at Whitstable, in the County of Kent."  The road being declared a Turnpike road in 1736.

In 1790, the extension of Island Wall commenced to enclose the ‘Salts' on the western side of Whitstable which enabled the town to further expand.  Island Wall was built along the shoreline, extending westwards from the Horsebridge to enclose Upper Island and Lower Island.  Subsequent drainage of the adjacent inland areas enabled the town to expand over much of the former salt marsh back to about the line of the North Kent railway.  Ship repairing and building now developed along Island Wall to further expand the town’s industry.

And So.... To Whitstable

By 1844-45 the medieval Seasalter parish church of St Alphege was in such a poor state of repair that it was demolished and replaced by the St Alphege Church in High Street, Whitstable giving an Anglican presence in the town itself although the new church was still within the territory of Seasalter Parish.

This symbolised the transition from ‘Whitstable Street’ village to a town now called just ‘Whitstable'.