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- [S384560255] Kent Garden Trust Glassenbury Park, (https://www.kentgardenstrust.org.uk/research-projects/Tunbridge%20Wells/Glassenbury%20Park.pdf), 10 Mar 2019, https://www.kentgardenstrust.org.uk/research-projects/Tunbridge%20Wells/Glassenbury%20Park.pdf.
Glassenbury (sometimes Glastenbury) is an ancient manor that takes its name from the Saxon words glastney (meaning watery) and burh (a fortified place) (Greenwood). The manor was the property of the Tilley family until 1377 when, following the marriage of Joanne Tilley to a Stephen Rockhurst, the land was transferred to her husband (Hasted). In 1399, they built an imposing stone house, ‘a fair sumptuous mansion’ (Hasted), on Winchet Hill, to the south-east of the present mansion. The Rockhursts were descendants of an ancient Scottish family and when Walter Rockhurst inherited in 1470, he was keen to improve his family’s standing. He changed his name to Roberts and built a new mansion ‘which he moated around, and inclosed a large park’ (Hasted). The new moated mansion was in a valley below Winchett Hill on the site of the present Glassenbury. The 1629 Great Pedigree of the Roberts family described it as situated ‘before Moorishe [marshy] ground, very woodye and nigh their former habitacion upon the hill’. The soil from the moat was evidently used to construct a platform for the house and the valley was dammed to ensure a good depth of water (Wyndham).
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