This note has nothing to do with the geology of the area. It arose out of curiosity concerning the use of the name “Nail Bourne” by the Ordnance Survey (OS) when referring to the Elham Valley stream when other references use “Nailbourne”. Historically it has been referred to as “Nailbourn”, Nailbourne”, Little Stour” and “Lesser Stour” but only since the early 20th century has the OS called it “Nail Bourne”. Examples of variations of the name have been included in Part Six of the “Lyminge a history” series published by the Lyminge Historical Society. This note supplements that article.
A nailbourne is an old, primarily Kentish, name for an intermittently flowing stream. The bourne part of the name, together with winterbourne, is widely used in chalk and limestone country beyond Kent and may also be incorporated in the names of associated settlements.
Nailbournes were believed to have had mystical properties in the past, and not in a good way, bringing bad luck when they appeared. Pregnant women aborted, crops failed, and beer turned sour – they were sometimes called woe waters. See also the following link to the Royal Geographical Society web page: Bourne free. That article suggests that the prefix ‘nail’ may derive from the old English ‘nahl’ meaning intermittent, or from ‘ail’ meaning trouble.
This reputation for bad luck still seems to be alive today. A quick internet search revealed two modern novels in which the appearance of a nailbourne features as a device warning of bad luck1. Nailbournes were said to appear every seven years. (For what it’s worth, a stream appeared in the normally dry Skeete Valley, sufficient to flow across the road at Ottinge, in February 2014 and again in February 2021).
These days, most people accept that nailbournes flow after prolonged periods of heavy rain, increasing the height of the water table, which can be present in permeable rocks. If it rises above the bottom of valleys it breaks surface causing streams to flow. So that at least is the explanation for the agricultural misfortunes, if not the gynaecological ones.
The current names.
The modern 1:25,000 scale OS maps (2 ½ inches to one mile) show three or possibly four names for the Elham Valley stream. Starting from its source in Etchinghill it is labelled East Brook, Nail Bourne, and Little Stour to its confluence with Great Stour / River Stour at Plucks Gutter. There is a short section downstream of Well Chapel labelled “Silver Dike” which appears to be a straight cut by-passing part of the main stream. The locations of the name changes are not specified on maps, the names serve only to indicate the name of that particular section but larger scale 1:2,500 maps (25 inches to one mile) might usefully narrow down the locations of name changes.
The most recent historic large-scale maps, revised 1938/95a show the name change from East Brook to Nail Bourne occurs somewhere between North Lyminge and Ottinge, downstream of the confluence with the stream rising from St Eadburg’s Well in Lyminge. (That well stream is not labelled but is shown running into the East Brook on the south side of the public park known as Tayne Field.)
The same map series show the change from Nail Bourne to Little Stour occurs in just downstream of Littlebourne 5b.
The use of maps to locate the position of name changes of streams may not be reliable. Names on maps can be wrong or miss-spelt. (I was once told by a cartographer that surveyors and cartographers can be unreliable witnesses!) Cartographers are not necessarily historians. Their placement of stream names may not have been chosen after consideration of any evidence from historic texts, but more out of a concern to position the text to avoid congestion or straddling between separate map sheets. So, the positions of name changes indicated on maps may differ from accepted local usage.
Another source of cartographic errors arises from the quality of information supplied by the surveyors who, unless they were local, would have relied on word of mouth to determine the names of features. This procedure is open to variations arising from locally used names or misunderstanding dialects and would not have provided reliable guidance on the spelling of names.
Historical evidence.
Christopher Packe, 2 in a commentary on his topographic map produced in 1743, used of the name “Nailbourn”. He was a medical doctor and cartographer working in Canterbury. His maps confirm his interest in topography, so it might be expected that this cartographer, at least, was reliable when it came to naming rivers (even though he used anatomical terms to describe topographic features!). In his section “Up-Hill East Kent”, which includes the Elham Valley, he wrote the following, when describing “The Great Valley of the Little Stour”:
“But at Bridge it Receives the Large Process from Barham, before described, that brings away the Little Stour from it’s head at Bourn-Place, and the Nailbourn from Barham, Elham, Liminge and Eching, as aforesaid, into the Bourn.”
This is an early use of Nailbourn(e) as a proper noun rather than a name for an intermittently flowing stream. He suggests that the stream rises at Etchinghill, with no mention of the upper section as East Brook. Also note that he states that the source of the Little Stour was in Bourne Park, upstream from the currently accepted source at Well Chapel springs. (This seems reasonable, given the gradual fall in the water table over the years which would have caused the springs in the upper part of the valley to become less reliable and the more permanent source to move downstream.)
Whitaker 3 (1908) reviews reports of water flowing from intermittent streams. He quotes the Rev. J. Childrey writing in 1661:
“That the sudden eruption of springs where they use not always run should be a sign of dearth is no wonder. For these unusual eruptions (which in Kent we call Nailbournes) are caused by extreme gluts of rain, or lasting wet weather (witness the year 1648 when there were many of them) in which years Wheat and most other grain thrive not well (for plain reason) and therefore dearth succeeds the year following.”
So here is the generic use of nailbourne with the modern spelling (if reported correctly by Whitaker) as a local name for an intermittently flowing stream. He also quoted the names of some of these streams: “The Elham Valley Nailbourne”, “The Petham Nailbourne” and the “Drillingore Nailbourne” in the Alkham Valley. He did not consider “The Nailbourne” was the name of the Elham Valley stream.
William Smith, on his famous geological map published 1819 – 1824, labels the stream between Elham and Lyminge as “The Stour”.
George Dowker 4 in 1887 confused matters when he wrote:
“The Little Stour, which in its upper part of its course constitutes the Nailbourne .…has its first spring at Etching Hill.”
But also:
“I have before mentioned the source of the Lesser Stour as taking the character of a Nailbourne from Etching Hill to Beakesbourne.”
So, here Dowker is using Nailbourne in both the specific and the general senses. This may highlight the problem, which is that perhaps both uses were common and interchangeable.
The OS has not always used the names East Brook, Nail Bourne and Little Stour for the Elham Valley stream. The 1906 revision of these maps was the first to use the current name of “Nail Bourne” for the stream between North Lymingeand Littlebourne 5c.
The 1896/7 revisions of the 25-inch OS maps used the name “East Brook” for the section from its source at Etchinghill through Lyminge and then “Little Stour” for the section downstream of Lyminge to Plucks Gutter 5d. There is no mention of “Nail Bourne”.
The half inch Bartholomew map, published in 1941, used the pre 1906 OS names 6.
The Geological Survey memoir published in 1966 7 also uses the pre 1906 OS names, referring to the entire section stream upstream of Plucks Gutter as the Little Stour (the name East Brook is not used for its upper section but that may be because there was no specific requirement to refer to it).
Where the OS got the name “Nail Bourne” from is a mystery. It may just have been that it decided to invent the name to distinguish it from the general term for an intermittent stream. It may just have been the result of a map editor correcting what they thought was a spelling error. Or, in answer to a surveyor’s question “What is this river?” a local may have replied “That’s a nailbourne.”
Andrew Coleman
Rev. 01/08/2025
References:
1a Harriet Hudson, 1998. Not in Our Stars. Severn House Publishers.
1b Charles Todd, 2015. A Pattern of Lies. Harper Luxe.
2 Christopher Packe, M D., 1743. “Ankographia, sive convallium descripto. The Origine, Course and Insertion; Extent, Elevation and Congruity Of All The Valleys and Hills, Brooks and Rivers, (As An Explanation Of A New Philosophico – Chorographical Chart) Of East-Kent.” Pub. J. Abree, Canterbury. P 61.
3 Whitaker, W. 1908. The Water Supply of Kent: Memoirs of the Geological Survey, England and Wales, pp 56-58, 204-205.
4 Dowker 1887. Water Supply of East Kent, in Connection with Natural Springs and Deep Wells. Geological Magazine. New Series. Decade III. Vol. IV. January – December 1887, pp 202 – 212.
5a Ordnance Survey Sheets, Kent LXVI.12 Surveyed 1871-2, Rev.1939. and Kent LXVI.15 Surveyed 1871, Rev. 1939.
5b Ordnance Survey Sheets Kent XLVII.5 Surveyed 1872, Rev. 1938 and Kent XLVII.2 Surveyed 1871, Rev. 1937-8.
5c Sheet Kent LXVI.12, Surveyed 1871-2, Rev. 1906.
5d Ordnance Survey Sheets Kent LXVI.16, Surveyed 1860, Rev. 1897, and Kent LXVI.11, Surveyed 1871-2, Rev. 1896.
6 Bartholomew half inch map of Great Britain, sheet 10 (England & Wales No. 31). – Kent Publication date: 1941.
7 Smart, J. G. O., Bisson, G. and Worssam, B. C. 1966. The Geology of the Country around Canterbury and Folkestone: Mem. Geol. Surv. p 90.
Geomusings 