A survey was bought by the Centre for Kentish Studies, containing an unusual amount of detail about the farms, fields, their occupiers and acreage. A medieval historian transcribed and translated it and four residents of Hadlow have built up a Unique picture of life there between 1460 and 1600.
The book discusses the landholdings, sources of livelihood, families and family relationships, the lord's demands in rent and labour services and the doings of the manorial court. Many maps and plans of tenements incorporate information from the survey, woven in with invaluable detail culled from the archive of another former Hadlow historian/resident who worked on the parish's history from the 1930s until his death. No one before has been able to map a medieval survey at this level of detail, so it will clearly stand as a model for others.
It also offers many insights into the distinctive structure of Wealden society generally. Parishes often had many manors (Hadlow has seven, apart from the main manor studied here) and their administrative framework could be quite ramshackle.
The changing course of the Medway is a theme in this book, as is the scrappiness of its small pieces of common land and the multitudinous parks. A fierce crackdown by Thomas Cromwell in 1538 on deer poaching in the Weald is illustrated by some lively testimonies by poachers who were caught and questioned and who candidly revealed their opinions of the gentry.
The Earl of Wiltshire at Hever, Anne Boleyn's brother, was evidently considered 'an extreme man' by local people and 'no lover of the country'. This all conjures up a vivid picture of joyous hunting by courtiers from Tonbridge Castle and equally enjoyable nights (and sometimes days) out for the deer poachers, including the occasional parson and schoolteacher. It was nothing to catch ten deer in a night.
Significant local families feature, like the Fanes and the Rivers, and lesser yeoman families like the Bishops, the Bealdes and the Stubberfields. Topographical problems about Hadlow Stair, roadside crosses, and a so-called Lawday Place are discussed, and reflections offered on Hadlow in a wider Wealden context.
The full text in English of the 1460 survey is included, showing how many field names, place names and personal names survive to the present, and it certainly whets the appetite for more studies of the Weald 500 years ago.