Tonge is a village near Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles east of Gillingham in England, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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Local history has it that a man wished to wed the daughter of a local chief and as a wedding gift, the chief, not approving the marriage, granted the man as much land as could be held in a bulls hide. The man, being crafty, cut the hide into strips or thongs and laid them in a large circle, thus 'holding' a very large area. This is apparently the origin of the name Tonge.