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Woodnesborough (St. Mary)

WOODNESBOROUGH (St. Mary), a parish, in the union and hundred of Eastry, lathe of St. Augustine, E. division of Kent, 1¾ mile (W. S. W.) from Sandwich; containing 792 inhabitants. It comprises 2922 acres, of which 29 are common or waste. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10. 0. 7½., and in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester: the tithes have been commuted for £350. The church is principally in the decorated English style. On Woodnesborough Hill is a lofty artificial mount, supposed by some to be either a place where the Saxon idol Woden was worshipped, or the burial-place of Vortimer; whilst others state it to be the Woodnesbeorth of the Saxon Chronicle, and the scene of the battle between Celred and Ina, kings of Mercia and the West Saxons, in 715. A fine gold coin, bearing on one side the figure of an armed warrior, and on the other that of Victory, was found here in 1514.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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