Society Report on Paul Cullen’s Talk on Kent Place Names

Lynsted Community Room was filled to overflowing on the evening of April 15th as members and friends of the Lynsted with Kingsdown Society met to listen to a talk on Place Names in Kent. It has been said that place names are a ‘window’ into where and how people lived and viewed their homesteads in ancient times.

Dr. Paul Cullen, who is on the staff of the Institute of Names Studies at the University of Nottingham, is far from being the prototype of an academic lecturer. This young, colourful, speaker immediately shared with us his obvious love of Kent and his subject. The talk, well illustrated with local photographs, explained, to an appreciative audience, how many of the villages and hamlets came to get their names. For example, Kingsdown comes from “dun”, meaning a hill and Syndale contains “dael” which means a valley. Many Kent names are of Anglo-Saxon origin and a few are Celtic and were named after local features of the Kent countryside which are still to be seen today as he clearly illustrated with his photographs.

He started the evening by recommending a number of different books that could be useful to the Society in any future research projects members might undertake. As the current leading authority on place names of Kent he is in the process of compiling his own reference book, which we look forward to reading at a later date. (This may not be in the immediate future as he is juggling many balls in the air at present!)

I am sure that everyone present at Paul’s talk will agree that his enthusiasm for this subject inspired us all in our thirst for local knowledge.

We hope to invite him back at a future date to do some ‘hands-on’ research with us on the immediate area.

I will add that we were relieved to learn that Lynsted does indeed mean ‘place of the limes’, is derived from the word “stede” meaning “place”. So the lime tree planted for the Jubillee celebrations will not have to be replaced by something more appropriate!

Norma Baxter