ORIGINS OF THE DUNK NAME.

The Dunk name is probably German in origin but seems more wide spread in Holland and Belgium today. It is thought to mean the name of someone who lived on a raised piece of dry land within marshy surroundings. The name was probably shortened when the Dunk family came to England.
In 1331 Edward the 3rd invited cloth workers from Ghent in Flanders to come to England and bring with them their superior skills as most cloth of high quality was imported from abroad. They settled in areas suitable for the making of cloth and one of these areas was the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, among these families was the Dunk family.

The picture on the right is of three women, spinning, carding and combing the wool while the fourth is setting up the loom.
By promoting the growth of the cloth trade, Edward the 3rd changed the country from a primary producer to a large scale manufacturer. Aided by technical developments which made it possible to change from man power to water power in the process of fulling, and thus to move the process of fulling to the rural areas where the wool was grown.
Some of the other families who plied this trade were the Bathursts, Ongleys, Courthopes, Maplesdens, Gibbons’s Westons, Plumers and Stringers. They were usually called by their dress “The Grey Coats of Kent”.