History's hand on Sutton Valence (compiled by Dr. David. Wilson)
Iron Age man was here! He - or perhaps she - lost a brooch on the field below the mill.
The Romans left traces too. They left a posting station and a cemetery on the site of Bowhalls allotments, while glass vessels and Samian pottery were also excavated and are now in Maidstone Museum. However there is no evidence for any substantial settlement. Two Romans also found themselves poorer after a visit to Sutton Valence. One gold coin was found in North Street in 1934 and another near Heneker's Oast in 1949.
Long stretches of the Romans' road from Maidstone to Bodiam survives to this day, and in their time carried iron from the Weald. In Chart Sutton this route had a lesser known branch through Sutton Valence and heading south, reaching the coast at Lympne, at the Roman fort of Stutfall Castle. The road was important enough to have a posting station just north of Chart Sutton church.
The road itself can be traced as an embankment or agger in the back garden of Heaven Cottage, and along the track from Sutton Place to Boyton Court. The cobbles in front of Sutton Place are traditionally referred to as the Roman pavement.
By 814 A.D. there was enough of a Saxon settlement here to warrant a mention in a charter of the Kingdom of Mercia. "I, Coenwulf, King of the Mercians, bestow upon Suinothe, my companion one ploughland in full possession … adjoining the wood called Chart, with fields, woods and pastures, meadows yielding 12 carts of hay, a mill and pannage [feeding pigs on forest acorns] at Dunbury, Bardingley, Foolkingbury, Spilsill, Aydhurst, Hrithden, Cunden, Bedgebury and Sponley and the wood between Langley and Suthtune". Suthtune is Sutton or the 'South Town' as opposed to the 'North town' or Norton in the neighbouring parish of Chart.
There is a tradition that the name of Sutton Valence School's playing field, Bloody Mountains, refers to a battle between Saxons and Danes - or in other versions between Britons and Romans.
The manor, including the castle, has frequently had royal connections. Before the Norman Conquest, it was held by Harold's brother Leofwine. When Leofwine was killed at Hastings. By the time of Domesday Book in 1086, the village had grown to be referred to as Town Sutton, and was granted by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Odo Fitzhubert, Bishop of Bayeux. Odo 'sub-let' them to Adam Fitzhubert, who was also one of the comissioners for the Domesday book. At this time there were 18 smallholders and 5 cottagers. While measurements are not exact, there were about 640 acres (300Ha) of cultivated land and pannage for 50 pigs. The weather prevailing must be fairly warm, as the neighbouring parish of Chart also had a vineyard. Odo's possessions were later confiscated for rebellion, though it is not clear if this involved Sutton Valence.
The village next appears in 1166, granted to Baldwin de Bethune, Count of Albemarle, who may have rebuilt the castle in stone. After his death in 1212 his widow was forced to marry a favourite of King John's, Fulke de Bréaute. Fulke did well by Sutton Valence, obtaining a charter for an annual Fair in 1221. But after a series of atrocities elsewhere, culminating in the sack of St Albans Abbey in 1217, he was exiled.
The manor then fell to Baldwin's daughter Alicia, who married William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. But she died in 1225 and in a bewilderingly rapid series of changes the manor passed to her husband, then to his second wife, Eleanor sister of Henry III, then to her second husband, Simon de Montfort. Simon is remembered for invoking the authority of Parliament to curb the king's excesses. However, it didn't do to criticise kings and Simon was killed at the battle of Evesham in 1265.