Eye was once the smallest borough in the country, its claim based on the 1205 Charter of King John. The Charter was renewed in 1408, then many more times by successive monarchs. However, in 1885, the Town Clerk of Hythe, south by land, proved that the original Charter belonged only to Hythe in Kent, the error having arisen from the similarity of their original Old English names, both building off a related root phrase (Hythe: landing place, Eye: land by water). The error was confirmed by archivists in the 1950s, but borough status was not discontinued until 1974 after government reorganization when Eye became a parish but retained a Town Council, a Mayor and the insignia.