The Bridge and the Castle

My weekly Tonbridge castle shot .

I did research the town name to see if has anything to do with bridges being able to carry a tun. ( Before 1861 the spelling was Tunbridge) , but no - 
Tun=  manor or farm in Old English
Bridge = could be old English brycg= bridge or causeway 
They would have needed something here to cross the five streams of the Medway and the marshy flood plain

A local legend is that the bridge was managed by a man called Tunna a popular Anglo Saxon name.  The trackway through the town was used and improved by the Romans before William the Conqueror gave the Manor (the "tun") and the Castle to his relative Richard Fitzgilbert in 1066. 

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