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Monument details
| HER Number: | TQ 66 SE 175 |
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| Type of record: | Landscape |
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| Name: | Deer park at Birling |
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Summary
There were two deer parks at Birling dating back to the 14th century - Birling Park and Comford/Comfort Park, also perhaps known as Little Park.
| Grid Reference: | TQ 6741 6114 |
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| Map Sheet: | TQ66SE |
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| Parish: | BIRLING, TONBRIDGE AND MALLING, KENT |
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Monument Types
- DEER PARK (Medieval to Unknown - 1318 AD?)
Full description
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There were two deer parks at Birling dating back to the 14th century - Birling Park and Comford/Comfort Park, also perhaps known as Little Park. The exact relationship between the two is unclear and some historic documents may refer to one or other. The earlier park was east and south-east of the Church though.
The oldest documentary evidence dates to 1318 when Geoffrey de Say complained about breaking into his park at Birling. In 1341 a licence to impark 100 acres was granted. The park appears on a 1575 map (Saxton). The second park, Comfort/Comford is not shown on early maps and so it is conjectured that it was disparked by 1558. Fieldwork in 2005 and 2010 identified surviving boundary features along the northern border and perhaps the western side. (1)
<1> Susan Pittman, 2011, Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent (Monograph). SKE32115.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | <1> | Monograph: Susan Pittman. 2011. Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent. |
