The hamlet of Essesole in 1501
Roads and tracks shown on the 1501 map.
View the Easole area as it it now on Google Earth.
The location of Easole in Nonington in East Kent
R1-Le Churcheway: from Nonington church [ and beyond to Womenswold] to Chillenden [and beyond].
R2-The Common Way (name used in description of plots 28 & 53): now Beauchamps Lane. In the description of B5 called le Becham [Way].
R3- the Church Way (ecclesistica via), the name used in the description of plot 92:the foot-path from opposite the Baptist chapel in Easole Street to Nonington church.
R4 (also part of R6-The King’s Way)- believed to be the location of the Porteway ?,. lit the carry or carriage way- the foot-path that originally ran from the road by Tor Cottage across the Green and came out by the Baptist Chapel. Re-routed when the bungalow was built there in the late 1960’s. The path then ran across the road to join the footpath along the side of the terrace of houses and on to NoningtonChurch. See R3, the Church Way above.
R5-le Schereway (also sheerway and shireway-a bridle path or way through grounds or land otherwise private, separate and divided from the common road or public highway-A New Dictionary of Kent Dialect by Alan Major, 1981): now Butcher’s Alley and the way from the end of the alley which then ran through what is now the old White House farmyard and onto Beauchamps Lane. Recorded as le Schereway until it reached the boundary of plot 30 with plot 53 when it became R2, the Common Way, also le Becham.
Other Shereways ran from the end of Sleigh Lane (opposite the Oak) across FredvillePark to come out at what is still known as Sheerway Gate onto the Y junction of the St. Alban’s Downs to Barfrestone road with the road from Frogham. Another shereway is now the foot-path from behind Church Farm across the filed to Old Court House and then on across the road past the old game-keepers house, now called Pinner’s Farm, and on to the top of Goodnestone Park.
R6-the Kings Way: now Easole Street from the junction with Holt Street and Ok Hill through to the junction with Mill Lane beyond which it becomes the Sandwich Road. It included what is now the foot-path next to the Baptist Chapel along the side of the Village Hall. The lower part of the footpath once ran from the corner of the Village Hall across the Green the road side corner of Tor Cottage. This was re-routed when the bungalow was built on the Green in the late 1960’s. At the same time the foot-path which ran from Easole Street down the side of Tor Cottage’s garden and across the field to FredvillePark was relocated to become the foot-path at the corner of the Village Hall across the field into the Park.
R7- the Common Way: now Mill Lane. In the 1377/8 rental it was referred to as the common way to Kedyngdon (Kittington).