Lathe of Scray

The Lathe of Scray is an historic division of the county of Kent, England, encompassing the present-day Districts of Swale, Ashford, and the eastern part of Tunbridge Wells[1] The Lathes of Kent were ancient administration divisions originating, probably, in the 6th century, during the Jutish colonisation of the county.

In the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries the hundreds of Barkley, Cranbrook, East Barnfield, Marden, and Tenterden were established within the lathe of Scray.

The Lathe was an important administrative, judicial and taxation unit for 600 years after the Domesday Book.

Scray was divided into an Upper and Lower Division, while a group of hundreds in the middle of the Lathe of Scray, centred on Ashford, were for convenience attached to the Lathe of Shepway for petty sessional purposes.

[14] For the purpose of Petty Sessions the Hundreds of Calehill, Chart And Longbridge, Felborough, and Wye were attached to Shepway.

[15] Although not formally abolished, hundreds and lathes fell out of usage at the end of the 19th century.