Seal of Sandwich 1238

Sandwich was one of the main Cinque Ports. It was a fief of the Archbishops of Canterbury and was used by Becket to make good his secret escape to Flanders after the council of Northampton in 1164. And also for his return from exile in 1170. The people of Sandwich were his men, and owed fealty to him.

Very likely in Becket's time it was involved in the North Sea herring trade, and the people of this region of England were Men of Kent. It always had many small boats, especially fishing ones, ready for cross-channel traffic.

In 1023 it is alleged that king Cnut granted the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, the tolls of the port of Sandwich and all the landing place and water dues on both sides of the Wantsum channel [River Stour] along with half of any clothes, nets, weapons, iron, gold or silver found on the western shore of the Wantsum.

Sandwich [Sandvika] was an important channel port during the Middle Ages. For a very long time. however, the whole area has been silting up with sands, and the river channel of the long reach of the River Stour which led from the sea by Pepper Ness to Sandwich town is not as deep and wide as it once was. The land around Sandwich is low lying marshland liable to flooding, a kind of fenland, some of which has been deliberately reclaimed. For example there is the Monk's Wall constructed by the monks of Sandwich to reclaim land from the river and sea in the 13th Century. The port of Sandwich was known as Sandwich Haven [Portus Sandvicensis].

References

King Cnut of England grants his crown and the port of Sandwich to Christ Church, Canterbury, 1023: Stowe Ch 39

English Channel: Kent and Pas de Calais http://bit.ly/1pwDMq9

http://bit.ly/1pwDShu

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich,_Kent

Wikimapia Sandwich and Eastry

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=51.274696&lon=1.338959&z=13&m=b&v=8&tag=46520&show=/5301893/Eastry

Map of Sandwich, Kent

http://goo.gl/XNi9hQ

Lydden Valley Research Group- Maritime History

The Crawford Collection of Early Charters

1023 - Charter for the Grant by king Cnut to Christ Church, Canterbury, the port of Sandwich.

Anglo-saxon chronicle (1861). Annales Saxonici. Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. pp. 290–1.

Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Paris; Its (1815). Mémoires. pp. 198–9.

Caius Plinius Secundus (maior); Ajasson de Grandsagne (1829). Histoire naturelle de Caius Plinius Secundus. Panckoucke. pp. 332–3.

Saxon Shore Way - Wikipedia

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http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63619

Christopher Packe (1743). Ankographia, Sive Convallium Descriptio. In which are Briefly But Fully Expounded the Origine, Course and Insertion; Extent, Elevation and Congruity of All the Valleys and Hills, Brooks and Rivers, ... of East-Kent. ... By Christopher Packe, M.D.. J. Abree, for the author.

A Handbook for Travellers in Kent and Sussex: With Map. Murray. 1858. pp. 202–.

Oscar Baker (1848). History of the Antiquities of Sandwich and Richborough Castle in Kent. pp. 1–. & pp. 8-9.

Joseph Priestley (1831). Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways of Great Britain: As a Reference to Nichols, Priestley & Walker's New Map of Inland Navigation,. Canterbury Navigation or River Stour: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green. pp. 131–.

William Boys (May 2010). Collections for an History of Sandwich in Kent with Notices of the Other Cinque Ports and Members, and of Richborough by William Boys, Esq F a S. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1-140-81716-1.

http://archive.org/details/CollectionsForAnHistoryOfSandwichInKentWithNoticesOfTheOther

Sea Battle off Sandwich - Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris

Town Plan of Sandwich 1787

http://archive.org/stream/CollectionsForAnHistoryOfSandwichInKentWithNoticesOfTheOther/Sandwich2#page/n831/mode/1up

Town Plan of Sandwich 1787

StudyLight.org.

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Sandwich

http://www.studylight.org/enc/bri/view.cgi?n=28964

Eastry

http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/places_to_visit/villages/eastry.htm

Edward Hasted. "Parishes: Eastry." The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 10 (1800): 98-121. British History Online.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63616

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http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/becketgerv.html

Kentish or of Kent
http://www.petrichor.net/kenticisms/Kentish%20or%20of%20Kent.html

Richard Brooks (2014). The Knight Who Saved England: William Marshal and the French Invasion, 1217. Osprey Publishing. pp. 261–. ISBN 978-1-84908-550-2.

http://www.ffzg.unizg.hr/arheo/ska/tekstovi/port_customs.pdf

Wantsum Channel

http://www.ecastles.co.uk/wantsum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Wantsum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wantsum_Channel

Richborough Castle

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/richborough-roman-fort-and-amphitheatre

William Somner (1693). A Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent: To which is Prefixt the Life of Mr. Somner. J. Brome.

Isle of Thanet

Edward Hasted. "The island of Thanet: Introduction." The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 10 (1800): 217-237. British History Online.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63620

Medieval Thanet Archaeology
http://goo.gl/tt63tO