Tonge, Kent

Tonge is a village near Sittingbourne in Kent, England. The hamlet is north of Bapchild (where at the 2011 Census the population was included), close to Murston Marshes beside the Swale.It is mainly farmland with one road (Church Road and Blacketts Road) passing through it towards Blacketts Farm.HistoryIn 1798, Edward Hasted records that it was once called 'Thwang' (a saxon name).Vortigern, King of Saxon Britain reward two saxon chiefs Hengist and Horsa after his victory over the Scots and Picts. Hengist requested, as a pledge of the king's affection, only as much land as on ox-hide could surround. This was granted, he cut the whole hide into small thongs (long, thin strips, generally of sturdy fiber or leather, typically used for binding), and inclosed within them a space of ground, this was large enough to contain a castle, which he accordingly built on it, and named it Thwang-ceastre (i. e. Thong-castle). The castle later became a ruin in the later years of the saxon age.Some writers record it at Thong Castle, near Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, others place it at Doncaster. Leland, Richard Kilburne (Typographie, a Brief Survey of the County of Kent) and John Philipott (Visitation of the County of Kent, 1619) all record it near Sittigbourne. These events happened in 461, Bede and Gildas mention nothing of it in their writings, and Malmsbury tells it only as a report.