The name is first recorded in the 10th century as
apuldre (meaning apple tree in
Old English). Alternatively, a
Brythonic origin from or connected with "dwr/dor", meaning water, has been posited. Appledore was once a
port on the
estuary of the
River Rother. Famously, the greater part of the Danish army (280 ships - 5000 men) wintered at Appledore in 892–93, before moving into Wessex and suffering defeat at the hands of the Saxons led by
King Alfred's son
Edward the Elder at
Farnham in Surrey. The defeated Danes fell back to
Benfleet in Essex where they were again defeated in battle. The importance of Appledore as a port diminished suddenly in the 13th century when two great storms - the first on 4 February 1287 and again sometime the following December – caused the river Rother to change its course; the village street now leads down to the
Royal Military Canal. A
French raid in 1380 resulted in the burning of the church: it was later rebuilt. The village was permitted to hold a market in the main street by
Edward II. In 1804, when there was threat of invasion by
Napoleon the
Royal Military Canal was built: Appledore stands on its northern bank. The
Rhee Wall, a 13th-century waterway, was built to carry silt away from the eastern part of the
Romney Marsh; it runs from Appledore to
New Romney. ==Religion==