Saxon Seaxe Anglo Saxon History
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Map Position
This map shows the position of locations of type 'town or village or hamlet or farm' containing 'ham' centered on Wartling in Sussex. Alongside the location map is one from http://flood.firetree.net of the same scale, showing the high tide level of 5 metres so you can comparison current day with Saxon times.
Map Logic

 
Icon Key:
Village
Farm/House

Ham 1 - Saxon village names containing the word ham near Pevensey in Sussex



We are currently unable to include the flood map on our pages, so please click here for the map in a pop up window

 

While investigating our local village names we noticed that the majority of villages with 'ham' in the name could be found in valleys, this meant nothing really until we identified that the high tide mark in Saxon times was around 5 metres above sea level see The magic 5 metre tide level page.

Once we had identified this sea level and as we live near to Hastings, we decided to plot the local villages and farms containing ham and as you can see these locations fit very closely to the 5 metre sea level.

Right so what Saxon word can the ham part of the village name actually be translated into ?

If we now look at Saxon words we can identify a word hjem meaning home or to go home. This means that the village or location was originally settled in valleys with sea access hence access to Home for the Saxons who were mostly a seafaring tribe - in later years this derivation changed to mean near water.

Please click here to see the hams in the Tillingham and Rother valleys.



External References in no particular order :-
Anglo Saxon Chronicles
Online Anglo Saxon dictionary
Online Etymology dictionary
Open Domesday Book - The first free online copy of the Domesday Book
The Ermine Street Guard Roman re-enactment and research Society
The "Kent A" cadastre - page 5 - Peterson 2002
Archaeologia Cantiana Online
Romney Marsh Research Trust
Romney Marsh the Fifth Continent
VillageNet the reference guide to villages in Kent & Sussex
Global warming Flood Maps
The Anglo Saxon Chronicles
Google Maps - the core of the system
GeoPlaner - Useful site for plotting map data
Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars 55BC(Books 4 & 5)
Wikipedia - Caesar's invasions of Britain
Wikipedia - Portus Istus
The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy (Bill Thayers)
Roman Britain.org
Runetree Beowulf
Bayeux Tapestry Online
The Secrets of the Norman Invasion
Chronicles of John of Worcester
Battle Historic Society
Binsted village website(Mearcredesburnan Steðe)
The Spears of Andred
Find British Archaelogical Sites
Wealden Iron Research Group
Topographic Map of the UK

 

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Author: Simon M - Last Updated: 30/05/2024 08:00
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Data is derived from a number or sources including the Ordnance Survey Gazetter data overlayed onto Google Maps