St Mary the Virgin, Speldhurst, Kent
The outstanding feature of this solid Victorian church, built by John Oldrid Scott in 1871, is the series of windows by the firm of Morris and Co. The east window of the north aisle represents some early saints including Alban and Aidan, while that in the west end shows six angels. Nearby is an early representation of Kentish saints, whose popularity was increasing in the middle of the nineteenth century, including Augustine, Ethelbert and Bertha. The east window is by the same firm, but dates from after the death of Burne-Jones and is not so finely executed. The oak reredos was added by Charles Oldrid Scott in 1925, who also worked on the altar rails and low chancel screen. In the churchyard there is a good monument made of Coade artificial stone in 1807.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Speldhurst
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SPELDHURST
IS the last parish remaining undescribed in this lath. It lies the next adjoining parish south eastward from Penshurst, and was sometimes written, in antient records, Speleberste, but in the Tex t u Rossensis, Speldburst.
THE PARISH of Speldhurst is about three miles across each way; the north-west part, in which the church stands, and Hallborough, is within the hundred of Somerden, as is the hamlet of Groombridge, three miles from the church, at the southern boundary of it, where a branch of the river Medway separates this county from Sussex, throughout all which the soil remains a stiff clay; the remaining part of this parish is in the hundred of Warchlingstone, which stretches across a narrow district, by Mitchell's and Tophill farms, and towards the parish of Ashurst, which it includes, thus entirely separates that part of the hundred of Somerden in which the hamlet of Groombridge lies, and surrounds three sides of it, from the other in which the church stands. The soil in the eastern part of this parish changes to an uninterrupted scene of losty hills, with deep vallies intersecting, the soils are a stiff loam and a barren sand, which covers a continued bed of rock stone, several of which appear above it, of large size and dimensions, greatly abounding with iron ore, which renders the springs of it more or less chalybeate; at the south east boundary of the parish is the noted resort of Tunbridge-wells, (of which a further account will be given hereafter) situated thirty-five miles from London, and five from Tunbridge town; here the high road branches off to the right, by Rust-hall, and the hamlets of Bishopsdown and Rust-hall common, on by Groombridge, across the branch of the Medway into Sussex.
The large and populous hamlet or village of TUNBRIDGE-WELLS is situated at the south-east boundary of this parish; part of it only is in Speldhurst, another part in the parish of Tunbridge, and the remainder in that of Fant, in the county of Suffex. It consists of four smaller districts, named from the hills on which they stand, Mount Ephraim, Mount Pleasant, and Mount Sion; the other is called The Wells, from their being within it, which altogether form a considerable town; but the last is the centre of business and pleasure, for there, besides the Wells themselves, are the market, public parades, assembly rooms, taverns, shops, &c. Near the Wells is the chapel, which stands remarkably in the three parishes above mentioned—the pulpit in Speldhurst, the altar in Tunbridge, and the vestry in Fant, and the stream, which parted the two counties of Kent and Suffex, formerly ran underneath it, but is now turned to a further distance from it. The right of patronage is claimed by the rector of Speldhurst, though he has never yet possessed the chapel or presented to it; the value of it is about two hundred pounds per annum, which sum is raised by voluntary subscription; divine service is performed in it every day in summer, and three times a week in winter. Adjoining to it is a charity school, for upwards of fifty poor boys and girls, which is supported by a contribution, collected at the chapel doors, two or three times a year.
The trade of Tunbridge-wells is similar to that of Spa, in Germany, and consists chiefly in a variety of toys, made of wood, commonly called Tunbridge ware, which employs a great number of hands. The wood principally used for this purpose is beech and sycamore, with yew and holly inlaid, and beautifully polished. To the market of this place is brought, in great plenty, from the South downs, in Sussex, the little bird, called the wheatear, which, from its delicacy, is usually called the English ortolan. It is not bigger in size than a lark; it is almost a lump of fat, and of a very delicious taste; it is in season only in the midst of summer, when the heat of the weather, and the fatness of it, prevents its being sent to London, which otherwise would, in all likelihood, monopolize every one of them. On the other or Suffex side of the Medway, above a mile from the Wells, are the rocks, which consist of a great number of rude eminences, adjoining to each other, several of which are seventy feet in height; in several places there are cliffs and chasms which lead quite through the midst of them, by narrow gloomy passages, which strike the beholder with astonishment.
THESE MEDICINAL WATERS, commonly called TUNBRIDGE-WELLS, lie so near to the county of Suffex that part of them are within it, for which reason they were for some time called Fant-wells, as being within that parish. (fn. 1) Their efficacy is reported to have been accidentally found out by Dudley lord North, in the beginning of the reign of king James I. Whilst he resided at Eridge-house for his health, lord Abergavenny's seat, in this neighbourhood, and that he was entirely cured of the lingering consumptive disorder he laboured under by the use of them.
The springs, which were then discovered, seem to have been seven in number, two of the principal of which were some time afterwards, by lord Abergavenny's care, inclosed, and were afterwards much resorted to by many of the middling and lower sort, whose ill health had real occasion for the use of them. In which state they continued till queen Henrietta Maria, wife of king Charles I. having been sent hither by her physicians, in the year 1630, for the reestablishment of her health, soon brought these waters into fashion, and occasioned a great resort to them from that time. In compliment to her doctor, Lewis Rowzee, in his treatise on them, calls these springs the Queen's-wells; but this name lasted but a small time, and they were soon afterwards universally known by that of Tunbridge-wells, which names they acquired from the company usually residing at Tunbridge town, when they came into these parts for the benefit of drinking the waters.
¶The town of Tunbridge being five miles distant from the wells, occasioned some few houses to be built in the hamlets of Southborough and Rusthall, for the accommodation of the company resorting hither, and this place now becoming fashionable, was visited by numbers for the sake of pleasure and dissipation, as well as for the cure of their infirmities; and soon after the Restoration every kind of building, for public amusements, was erected at the two hamlets above mentioned, lodgings and other buildings were built at and near the wells, the springs themselves were secured, and other conveniencies added to them. In 1664, the queen came here by the advice of her physicians, in hopes of reinstating her health, which was greatly impaired by a dangerous fever, and her success, in being perfectly cured by these waters, greatly raised the reputation of them, and the company increasing yearly, it induced the inhabitants to make every accommodation for them adjoining to the Wells, so that both Rusthall and Southborough became ruinous and deserted by all but their native inhabitants. The duke of York, with his duchess, and the two princesses their daughters, visited Tunbridge-wells in the year 1670, which brought much more company than usual to them, and raised their reputation still higher; and the annual increase continuing, it induced the lord of the manor to think of improving this humour of visiting the wells to his own profit as well as the better accommodation of the company. To effect which, he entered into an agreement with his tenants, and hired of them the herbage of the waste of the manor for the term of fifty years, at the yearly rent of ten shillings to each tenant, and then erected shops and houses on and near the walks and springs, in every convenient spot for that purpose; by which means Tunbridge wells became a populous and flourishing village, well inhabited, for whose convenience, and the company resorting thither, a chapel was likewise built, in 1684, by subscription, on some ground given by the lady viscountess Purbeck, which was, about twelve years afterwards, enlarged by an additional subscription, amounting together to near twenty-three hundred pounds.
About the year 1726, the building lease, which had been granted by the lord of the manor of Rusthall, in which this hamlet is situated, expiring, the tenants of the manor claimed a share in the buildings, as a compensation for the loss of the herbage, which was covered by his houses. This occasioned a long and very expensive law suit between them, which was at last determined in favour of the tenants, who were adjudged to have a right to a third part of the buildings then erected on the estate, in lieu of their right to the herbage; upon which all the shops and houses, which had been built on the manor waste, were divided into three lots, of which the tenants were to draw one, and the other two were to remain to the lord of the manor; the lot which the tenants drew was the middle one, which included the assembly room on the public walk, which has since turned out much the most advantageous of the three. After which long articles of agreement, in 1739, were entered into between Maurice Conyers, esq. then lord of the manor of Rusthall, and the above mentioned tenants of it, in which, among many other matters, he agreed to permit the public walks and wells, and divers other premises there, to be made use of for the public benefit of the nobility and gentry resorting thereto, and several regulations were made in them concerning the walks, wells, and wastes of the manor, and for the restraining buildings on the waste, between the lord and his tenants, according to a plan therein specified; all which were confirmed and established by an act of parliament, passed in 1740. Since which several of the royal family have honoured these wells with their presence, and numbers of the nobility and persons of rank and fashion yearly resortto them, so that this place is now in a most flourishing state, having great numbers of good houses built for lodgings, and every other necessary accommodation for the company. Its customs are settled; the employment of the dippers regulated; (fn. 2) its pleasures regulated; its markets well and plentifully supplied, at a reasonable rate, with sowl, fish, meat, every other kind of food, and every convenience added that can contribute to give health and pleasure.
The whole neighbourhood of Tunbridge-wells abounds with springs of mineral water, but as the properties of all are nearly the same, only those two, which at the first discovery of them were adjudged the best, are held in any particular estimation. These two wells are enclosed with a handsome triangular stone wall; over the springs are placed two convenient basons of Portland stone, with perforations at the bottom; one of them being given by queen Anne, and the other by the lord of the manor; through which they receive the water, which at the spring is extremely clear and bright. Its taste is steely, but not disagreeable; it has hardly any smell, though sometimes, in a dense air, its ferruginous exhalations are very distinguishable. In point of heat it is invariably temperate, the spring lying so deep in the earth, that neither the heat of summer, nor the cold of winter, affects it. When this water is first taken up in a large glass, its particles continue at rest till it is warmed to nearly the heat of the atmosphere, then a few airy globules begin to separate themselves, and adhere to the sides of the glass, and in a few hours a light copper coloured scum begins to float on the surface, after which an ochreous sediment settles at the bottom. Long continued rains sometimes give the water a milky appearance, but do not otherwise sensibly affect it. From the experiments of different physicians, it appears that the component parts of this water are, steely particles, marine salts, an oily matter, an ochreous substance, simple water, and a volatile vitriolic spirit, too subtile for any chemical analysis. In weight it is, in seven ounces and a quarter, four grains lighter than the German Spa (to which it is preferable on that account) and ten grains lighter than common water; with syrup of violets this water gives a deep green, as vitriols do. (fn. 3) It requires five drops of oleum sulphuris, or elixir of vitriol, to a quart of water, to preserve its virtues to a distance from the spring.
This water is said to be an impregnation of rain in some of the neighbouring eminences, which abound in iron mineral, where it is further enriched with the marine salts and all the valuable ingredients, which constitute it a light and pure chalybeate, which instantly searches the most remote recesses of the human frame, warms and invigorates the relaxed constitution, restores the weakened fibres to their due tone and elasticity, removes those obstructions to which the minuter vessels of the body are liable, and is consequently adapted to most cold chronical disorders, lowness of spirits, weak digestions, and nervous complaints. Dr. Lodowick Rowzee, of Ashford, in this county, wrote a Treatise of the Nature and Virtues of these Waters, printed in 12mo. 1671; and Dr. Patrick Madan wrote a Philosophical and Medical Essay on them, in 1687, in quarto.
THE MANOR OF SPELDHURST, in the reign of king Edward III. was in the possession of Sir John de Pulteneye, lord of the neighbouring manor of Penshurst, a man of great account at that time, as has been already noticed before, who, in the 19th year of that reign, on his perfecting the foundation he had begun of a college in the parish of St. Lawrence, Canon-street, London, afterwards called the College of St. Laurence Poultney, settled the manor with the church of Speldshurst on it.
¶It remained part of the possessions of the college till its suppression in the reign of king Edward VI. when it was granted among other premises, by the description of the manor of Speldhurst and Harwarton (then demised to Sir William Waller, at the rent of 16s. 8d. per annum) of the clear yearly value of 13l. 14s. 1d. together with the patronage of the church appendant to the manor, parcel of the late college of St. Laurence, Poultney, London, to Henry Polsted. (fn. 4) How the manor of Speldhurst passed afterwards I have not found, only that after several intermediate owners, it came into the name of Goodhugh, and in the latter end of the reign of king George I. was possessed by Richard Goodhugh, esq. from which name it passed by a female heir, Sarah, in marriage to Mr. Rich. Round, whose son, Mr. Richard Round, of Stonepit, in Seale, died possessed of it, and the trustees of his insant children are now in the possession of it.
SPELDHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which was dedicated to St. Mary, was a neat building, having a spire steeple at the west end of it, in which hung four bells.
On Thursday, October 22, 1791, a dreadful storm of thunder and lightning happened in these parts, which set fire to this church, a ball of fire being observed to enter the center of the shingled part of the spire, and instantly a thick smoke, followed by slames issued from it, and there being no help at hand, every thing contributed to its destruction. The high wind, the rain and hail having ceased, drove the flames from the steeple on the church, and in about four hours this beautiful structure was totally reduced to a heap of ruins, The bells were melted by the intense heat, the monuments in it, and every thing else which could become a prey to the fiery element were reduced to ashes; the stone walls only were left, but in so ruinous a condition as not to be fit for future use, and what is extraordinary, the font, though left entire, was turned upside down; the tombs and head stones near the church were considerably damaged. A brief was obtained towards the re-building of it, but the work, though the size of it has been greatly reduced, the new church, consisting but of one isle and a very small chancel, has gone on but slowly, and at this time is not near finished, and neither steeple nor bells are yet agreed upon, the brief not producing so much as was expected.
In the old church, before it was burnt down, there were the following monuments and inscriptions:— In the chancel, on the south wall, an antient and beautiful monument,. with the arms of Waller, with the augmentation and several quarterings, for Sir Walter Waller; a brass plate for John Waller, esq. obt. 1517. In the nave, were several brass plates for the same family, one of them for William Waller, esq. of Groombridge, obt. 1555. The porch was very curious, over which was an antique shield, cut in stone, being the arms of France, with a file of three flambeaux, for Charles, duke of Orleans, mentioned before. He built this porch, and was a good benefactor to the repairs of the church itself. (fn. 19)
By a fine levied in the 39th year of king Henry III. before Gilbert de Preston, and others justices itinerant, Walter de la Dene, the possessor of this advowson, granted it to the Walter Fitzwalter in tail general, to hold of him and his heirs for ever, at the yearly rent of one penny, and performing all other services due from thence to the capital lords of the fee.
¶Roger de Padlesworth was patron of the church of Speldhurst in the 48th year of the same reign, and he then released his right to certain rent and service due for lands granted to the chapel of Gromenebregge, situated within his manor of Speldhurst. In the reign of king Edward III. the manor and church of Speldhurst were part of the possessions of Sir John de Pulteneye, who, in the 19th year of that reign, on his perfecting the foundation and endowment of his college in the parish of St. Lawrence, in Canon-street, London, afterwards called the College of St. Lawrence Poultney, settled both manor and advowson on it. (fn. 20) Three years after which, anno 1347, Hamo, bishop of Rochester, at the instance and petition of Sir John de Pulteneye, by his instrument appropriated this church to that college for ever, reserving out of it nevertheless a fit portion to the perpetual vicar serving in it, to be presented to the bishop and his successors, by the master or guardian and the chaplains of the college, by which he might be supported decently, and be enabled to discharge the episcopal dues and other burthens incumbent on him; and he decreed, that they should take possession of this church immediately on the death or cession of Sir Thomas, then rector of it (whom he by no means intended to prejudice by this appropriation) without any further licence or authority obtained for that purpose, saving, nevertheless, and reserving to himself and his successors canonical obedience from the master or guardian and chaplains or their successors, on account of their holding this church as aforesaid, and the visitation of it, and other rights due to the church and the bishop of Rochester, and to the archdeacon of the place, either of custom or of right, and all other rights and customs in every thing whatsoever; and saving and reserving in the church a perpetual vicarage, which he then decreed should take effect at the death or resignation of the rector of it. And he willed, that a sit and competent portion should be assigned out of the fruits, rents and produce of it to such vicar to serve in it, who should first be presented by the master, &c. to be instituted and admitted by the bishop, or his successor, into it, before his admission, according as circumstances required, to the use of him and his successors for ever. And he willed and decreed, that the portion above-mentioned should for ever consist of the tithes of filva cedua, pannage, apples, and fruits of other trees, hay, herbage, flax, hemp, wool, milk, butter and cheese, lambs, calves, pigs, swans, pidgeons, fowlings, huntings, mills, fisheries, merchandizing, and in all other small tithes and dues of the church, oblations and obventions whatsoever belonging to the altarage, together with competent buildings situate on the soil of the church, to be assigned for the habitation of the vicar, and in which the visitors of the ordinary might be commodiously received. And he willed and decreed, that the vicar for the time being, (after the books and vestments belonging by custom to the rector to provide, should have been sufficiently provided by the master, &c.) should cause the books to be bound, and the vestments to be washed, repaired and amended, as often as need should be; and should find and provide, at his own expence, bread, wine, and processional tapers, and other lights necessary in the chancel, and the accustomed attendants in the church; and should keep and maintain in a proper state, at his own costs, the buildings allotted to his vicarage, after they should have been once sufficiently repaired, and assigned as an habitation for him and his successors, and should wholly pay all episcopal dues, and archidiaconal procurations, and should undergo and acknowledge all other extraordinary burthens, which should be incumbent or laid on him, according to the taxation of his portion, which, so far as related to them, he estimated and taxed at sixty shillings sterling; but that the master, &c. should undergo and acknowledge, at his and their own costs for ever, all other ordinaries and extraordinaries, according to the taxation of their portion, which he estimated at six marcs and an half. Lastly, that his cathedral church of Rochester might not be in any manner hurt, or prejudiced by this appropriation, he, in recompence of such loss, as it might happen to receive from it, either in the not receiving the profits of it whilst it should become vacant, or otherwise, reserved a certain annual pension of seven shillings sterling from this church to him and his successors, to be yearly paid at the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary, by the master, &c. as soon as they should have obtained effectual and full possession of it, &c. (fn. 21)
St Mary the Virgin, Speldhurst, Kent
The outstanding feature of this solid Victorian church, built by John Oldrid Scott in 1871, is the series of windows by the firm of Morris and Co. The east window of the north aisle represents some early saints including Alban and Aidan, while that in the west end shows six angels. Nearby is an early representation of Kentish saints, whose popularity was increasing in the middle of the nineteenth century, including Augustine, Ethelbert and Bertha. The east window is by the same firm, but dates from after the death of Burne-Jones and is not so finely executed. The oak reredos was added by Charles Oldrid Scott in 1925, who also worked on the altar rails and low chancel screen. In the churchyard there is a good monument made of Coade artificial stone in 1807.
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SPELDHURST
IS the last parish remaining undescribed in this lath. It lies the next adjoining parish south eastward from Penshurst, and was sometimes written, in antient records, Speleberste, but in the Tex t u Rossensis, Speldburst.
THE PARISH of Speldhurst is about three miles across each way; the north-west part, in which the church stands, and Hallborough, is within the hundred of Somerden, as is the hamlet of Groombridge, three miles from the church, at the southern boundary of it, where a branch of the river Medway separates this county from Sussex, throughout all which the soil remains a stiff clay; the remaining part of this parish is in the hundred of Warchlingstone, which stretches across a narrow district, by Mitchell's and Tophill farms, and towards the parish of Ashurst, which it includes, thus entirely separates that part of the hundred of Somerden in which the hamlet of Groombridge lies, and surrounds three sides of it, from the other in which the church stands. The soil in the eastern part of this parish changes to an uninterrupted scene of losty hills, with deep vallies intersecting, the soils are a stiff loam and a barren sand, which covers a continued bed of rock stone, several of which appear above it, of large size and dimensions, greatly abounding with iron ore, which renders the springs of it more or less chalybeate; at the south east boundary of the parish is the noted resort of Tunbridge-wells, (of which a further account will be given hereafter) situated thirty-five miles from London, and five from Tunbridge town; here the high road branches off to the right, by Rust-hall, and the hamlets of Bishopsdown and Rust-hall common, on by Groombridge, across the branch of the Medway into Sussex.
The large and populous hamlet or village of TUNBRIDGE-WELLS is situated at the south-east boundary of this parish; part of it only is in Speldhurst, another part in the parish of Tunbridge, and the remainder in that of Fant, in the county of Suffex. It consists of four smaller districts, named from the hills on which they stand, Mount Ephraim, Mount Pleasant, and Mount Sion; the other is called The Wells, from their being within it, which altogether form a considerable town; but the last is the centre of business and pleasure, for there, besides the Wells themselves, are the market, public parades, assembly rooms, taverns, shops, &c. Near the Wells is the chapel, which stands remarkably in the three parishes above mentioned—the pulpit in Speldhurst, the altar in Tunbridge, and the vestry in Fant, and the stream, which parted the two counties of Kent and Suffex, formerly ran underneath it, but is now turned to a further distance from it. The right of patronage is claimed by the rector of Speldhurst, though he has never yet possessed the chapel or presented to it; the value of it is about two hundred pounds per annum, which sum is raised by voluntary subscription; divine service is performed in it every day in summer, and three times a week in winter. Adjoining to it is a charity school, for upwards of fifty poor boys and girls, which is supported by a contribution, collected at the chapel doors, two or three times a year.
The trade of Tunbridge-wells is similar to that of Spa, in Germany, and consists chiefly in a variety of toys, made of wood, commonly called Tunbridge ware, which employs a great number of hands. The wood principally used for this purpose is beech and sycamore, with yew and holly inlaid, and beautifully polished. To the market of this place is brought, in great plenty, from the South downs, in Sussex, the little bird, called the wheatear, which, from its delicacy, is usually called the English ortolan. It is not bigger in size than a lark; it is almost a lump of fat, and of a very delicious taste; it is in season only in the midst of summer, when the heat of the weather, and the fatness of it, prevents its being sent to London, which otherwise would, in all likelihood, monopolize every one of them. On the other or Suffex side of the Medway, above a mile from the Wells, are the rocks, which consist of a great number of rude eminences, adjoining to each other, several of which are seventy feet in height; in several places there are cliffs and chasms which lead quite through the midst of them, by narrow gloomy passages, which strike the beholder with astonishment.
THESE MEDICINAL WATERS, commonly called TUNBRIDGE-WELLS, lie so near to the county of Suffex that part of them are within it, for which reason they were for some time called Fant-wells, as being within that parish. (fn. 1) Their efficacy is reported to have been accidentally found out by Dudley lord North, in the beginning of the reign of king James I. Whilst he resided at Eridge-house for his health, lord Abergavenny's seat, in this neighbourhood, and that he was entirely cured of the lingering consumptive disorder he laboured under by the use of them.
The springs, which were then discovered, seem to have been seven in number, two of the principal of which were some time afterwards, by lord Abergavenny's care, inclosed, and were afterwards much resorted to by many of the middling and lower sort, whose ill health had real occasion for the use of them. In which state they continued till queen Henrietta Maria, wife of king Charles I. having been sent hither by her physicians, in the year 1630, for the reestablishment of her health, soon brought these waters into fashion, and occasioned a great resort to them from that time. In compliment to her doctor, Lewis Rowzee, in his treatise on them, calls these springs the Queen's-wells; but this name lasted but a small time, and they were soon afterwards universally known by that of Tunbridge-wells, which names they acquired from the company usually residing at Tunbridge town, when they came into these parts for the benefit of drinking the waters.
¶The town of Tunbridge being five miles distant from the wells, occasioned some few houses to be built in the hamlets of Southborough and Rusthall, for the accommodation of the company resorting hither, and this place now becoming fashionable, was visited by numbers for the sake of pleasure and dissipation, as well as for the cure of their infirmities; and soon after the Restoration every kind of building, for public amusements, was erected at the two hamlets above mentioned, lodgings and other buildings were built at and near the wells, the springs themselves were secured, and other conveniencies added to them. In 1664, the queen came here by the advice of her physicians, in hopes of reinstating her health, which was greatly impaired by a dangerous fever, and her success, in being perfectly cured by these waters, greatly raised the reputation of them, and the company increasing yearly, it induced the inhabitants to make every accommodation for them adjoining to the Wells, so that both Rusthall and Southborough became ruinous and deserted by all but their native inhabitants. The duke of York, with his duchess, and the two princesses their daughters, visited Tunbridge-wells in the year 1670, which brought much more company than usual to them, and raised their reputation still higher; and the annual increase continuing, it induced the lord of the manor to think of improving this humour of visiting the wells to his own profit as well as the better accommodation of the company. To effect which, he entered into an agreement with his tenants, and hired of them the herbage of the waste of the manor for the term of fifty years, at the yearly rent of ten shillings to each tenant, and then erected shops and houses on and near the walks and springs, in every convenient spot for that purpose; by which means Tunbridge wells became a populous and flourishing village, well inhabited, for whose convenience, and the company resorting thither, a chapel was likewise built, in 1684, by subscription, on some ground given by the lady viscountess Purbeck, which was, about twelve years afterwards, enlarged by an additional subscription, amounting together to near twenty-three hundred pounds.
About the year 1726, the building lease, which had been granted by the lord of the manor of Rusthall, in which this hamlet is situated, expiring, the tenants of the manor claimed a share in the buildings, as a compensation for the loss of the herbage, which was covered by his houses. This occasioned a long and very expensive law suit between them, which was at last determined in favour of the tenants, who were adjudged to have a right to a third part of the buildings then erected on the estate, in lieu of their right to the herbage; upon which all the shops and houses, which had been built on the manor waste, were divided into three lots, of which the tenants were to draw one, and the other two were to remain to the lord of the manor; the lot which the tenants drew was the middle one, which included the assembly room on the public walk, which has since turned out much the most advantageous of the three. After which long articles of agreement, in 1739, were entered into between Maurice Conyers, esq. then lord of the manor of Rusthall, and the above mentioned tenants of it, in which, among many other matters, he agreed to permit the public walks and wells, and divers other premises there, to be made use of for the public benefit of the nobility and gentry resorting thereto, and several regulations were made in them concerning the walks, wells, and wastes of the manor, and for the restraining buildings on the waste, between the lord and his tenants, according to a plan therein specified; all which were confirmed and established by an act of parliament, passed in 1740. Since which several of the royal family have honoured these wells with their presence, and numbers of the nobility and persons of rank and fashion yearly resortto them, so that this place is now in a most flourishing state, having great numbers of good houses built for lodgings, and every other necessary accommodation for the company. Its customs are settled; the employment of the dippers regulated; (fn. 2) its pleasures regulated; its markets well and plentifully supplied, at a reasonable rate, with sowl, fish, meat, every other kind of food, and every convenience added that can contribute to give health and pleasure.
The whole neighbourhood of Tunbridge-wells abounds with springs of mineral water, but as the properties of all are nearly the same, only those two, which at the first discovery of them were adjudged the best, are held in any particular estimation. These two wells are enclosed with a handsome triangular stone wall; over the springs are placed two convenient basons of Portland stone, with perforations at the bottom; one of them being given by queen Anne, and the other by the lord of the manor; through which they receive the water, which at the spring is extremely clear and bright. Its taste is steely, but not disagreeable; it has hardly any smell, though sometimes, in a dense air, its ferruginous exhalations are very distinguishable. In point of heat it is invariably temperate, the spring lying so deep in the earth, that neither the heat of summer, nor the cold of winter, affects it. When this water is first taken up in a large glass, its particles continue at rest till it is warmed to nearly the heat of the atmosphere, then a few airy globules begin to separate themselves, and adhere to the sides of the glass, and in a few hours a light copper coloured scum begins to float on the surface, after which an ochreous sediment settles at the bottom. Long continued rains sometimes give the water a milky appearance, but do not otherwise sensibly affect it. From the experiments of different physicians, it appears that the component parts of this water are, steely particles, marine salts, an oily matter, an ochreous substance, simple water, and a volatile vitriolic spirit, too subtile for any chemical analysis. In weight it is, in seven ounces and a quarter, four grains lighter than the German Spa (to which it is preferable on that account) and ten grains lighter than common water; with syrup of violets this water gives a deep green, as vitriols do. (fn. 3) It requires five drops of oleum sulphuris, or elixir of vitriol, to a quart of water, to preserve its virtues to a distance from the spring.
This water is said to be an impregnation of rain in some of the neighbouring eminences, which abound in iron mineral, where it is further enriched with the marine salts and all the valuable ingredients, which constitute it a light and pure chalybeate, which instantly searches the most remote recesses of the human frame, warms and invigorates the relaxed constitution, restores the weakened fibres to their due tone and elasticity, removes those obstructions to which the minuter vessels of the body are liable, and is consequently adapted to most cold chronical disorders, lowness of spirits, weak digestions, and nervous complaints. Dr. Lodowick Rowzee, of Ashford, in this county, wrote a Treatise of the Nature and Virtues of these Waters, printed in 12mo. 1671; and Dr. Patrick Madan wrote a Philosophical and Medical Essay on them, in 1687, in quarto.
THE MANOR OF SPELDHURST, in the reign of king Edward III. was in the possession of Sir John de Pulteneye, lord of the neighbouring manor of Penshurst, a man of great account at that time, as has been already noticed before, who, in the 19th year of that reign, on his perfecting the foundation he had begun of a college in the parish of St. Lawrence, Canon-street, London, afterwards called the College of St. Laurence Poultney, settled the manor with the church of Speldshurst on it.
¶It remained part of the possessions of the college till its suppression in the reign of king Edward VI. when it was granted among other premises, by the description of the manor of Speldhurst and Harwarton (then demised to Sir William Waller, at the rent of 16s. 8d. per annum) of the clear yearly value of 13l. 14s. 1d. together with the patronage of the church appendant to the manor, parcel of the late college of St. Laurence, Poultney, London, to Henry Polsted. (fn. 4) How the manor of Speldhurst passed afterwards I have not found, only that after several intermediate owners, it came into the name of Goodhugh, and in the latter end of the reign of king George I. was possessed by Richard Goodhugh, esq. from which name it passed by a female heir, Sarah, in marriage to Mr. Rich. Round, whose son, Mr. Richard Round, of Stonepit, in Seale, died possessed of it, and the trustees of his insant children are now in the possession of it.
SPELDHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.
The church, which was dedicated to St. Mary, was a neat building, having a spire steeple at the west end of it, in which hung four bells.
On Thursday, October 22, 1791, a dreadful storm of thunder and lightning happened in these parts, which set fire to this church, a ball of fire being observed to enter the center of the shingled part of the spire, and instantly a thick smoke, followed by slames issued from it, and there being no help at hand, every thing contributed to its destruction. The high wind, the rain and hail having ceased, drove the flames from the steeple on the church, and in about four hours this beautiful structure was totally reduced to a heap of ruins, The bells were melted by the intense heat, the monuments in it, and every thing else which could become a prey to the fiery element were reduced to ashes; the stone walls only were left, but in so ruinous a condition as not to be fit for future use, and what is extraordinary, the font, though left entire, was turned upside down; the tombs and head stones near the church were considerably damaged. A brief was obtained towards the re-building of it, but the work, though the size of it has been greatly reduced, the new church, consisting but of one isle and a very small chancel, has gone on but slowly, and at this time is not near finished, and neither steeple nor bells are yet agreed upon, the brief not producing so much as was expected.
In the old church, before it was burnt down, there were the following monuments and inscriptions:— In the chancel, on the south wall, an antient and beautiful monument,. with the arms of Waller, with the augmentation and several quarterings, for Sir Walter Waller; a brass plate for John Waller, esq. obt. 1517. In the nave, were several brass plates for the same family, one of them for William Waller, esq. of Groombridge, obt. 1555. The porch was very curious, over which was an antique shield, cut in stone, being the arms of France, with a file of three flambeaux, for Charles, duke of Orleans, mentioned before. He built this porch, and was a good benefactor to the repairs of the church itself. (fn. 19)
By a fine levied in the 39th year of king Henry III. before Gilbert de Preston, and others justices itinerant, Walter de la Dene, the possessor of this advowson, granted it to the Walter Fitzwalter in tail general, to hold of him and his heirs for ever, at the yearly rent of one penny, and performing all other services due from thence to the capital lords of the fee.
¶Roger de Padlesworth was patron of the church of Speldhurst in the 48th year of the same reign, and he then released his right to certain rent and service due for lands granted to the chapel of Gromenebregge, situated within his manor of Speldhurst. In the reign of king Edward III. the manor and church of Speldhurst were part of the possessions of Sir John de Pulteneye, who, in the 19th year of that reign, on his perfecting the foundation and endowment of his college in the parish of St. Lawrence, in Canon-street, London, afterwards called the College of St. Lawrence Poultney, settled both manor and advowson on it. (fn. 20) Three years after which, anno 1347, Hamo, bishop of Rochester, at the instance and petition of Sir John de Pulteneye, by his instrument appropriated this church to that college for ever, reserving out of it nevertheless a fit portion to the perpetual vicar serving in it, to be presented to the bishop and his successors, by the master or guardian and the chaplains of the college, by which he might be supported decently, and be enabled to discharge the episcopal dues and other burthens incumbent on him; and he decreed, that they should take possession of this church immediately on the death or cession of Sir Thomas, then rector of it (whom he by no means intended to prejudice by this appropriation) without any further licence or authority obtained for that purpose, saving, nevertheless, and reserving to himself and his successors canonical obedience from the master or guardian and chaplains or their successors, on account of their holding this church as aforesaid, and the visitation of it, and other rights due to the church and the bishop of Rochester, and to the archdeacon of the place, either of custom or of right, and all other rights and customs in every thing whatsoever; and saving and reserving in the church a perpetual vicarage, which he then decreed should take effect at the death or resignation of the rector of it. And he willed, that a sit and competent portion should be assigned out of the fruits, rents and produce of it to such vicar to serve in it, who should first be presented by the master, &c. to be instituted and admitted by the bishop, or his successor, into it, before his admission, according as circumstances required, to the use of him and his successors for ever. And he willed and decreed, that the portion above-mentioned should for ever consist of the tithes of filva cedua, pannage, apples, and fruits of other trees, hay, herbage, flax, hemp, wool, milk, butter and cheese, lambs, calves, pigs, swans, pidgeons, fowlings, huntings, mills, fisheries, merchandizing, and in all other small tithes and dues of the church, oblations and obventions whatsoever belonging to the altarage, together with competent buildings situate on the soil of the church, to be assigned for the habitation of the vicar, and in which the visitors of the ordinary might be commodiously received. And he willed and decreed, that the vicar for the time being, (after the books and vestments belonging by custom to the rector to provide, should have been sufficiently provided by the master, &c.) should cause the books to be bound, and the vestments to be washed, repaired and amended, as often as need should be; and should find and provide, at his own expence, bread, wine, and processional tapers, and other lights necessary in the chancel, and the accustomed attendants in the church; and should keep and maintain in a proper state, at his own costs, the buildings allotted to his vicarage, after they should have been once sufficiently repaired, and assigned as an habitation for him and his successors, and should wholly pay all episcopal dues, and archidiaconal procurations, and should undergo and acknowledge all other extraordinary burthens, which should be incumbent or laid on him, according to the taxation of his portion, which, so far as related to them, he estimated and taxed at sixty shillings sterling; but that the master, &c. should undergo and acknowledge, at his and their own costs for ever, all other ordinaries and extraordinaries, according to the taxation of their portion, which he estimated at six marcs and an half. Lastly, that his cathedral church of Rochester might not be in any manner hurt, or prejudiced by this appropriation, he, in recompence of such loss, as it might happen to receive from it, either in the not receiving the profits of it whilst it should become vacant, or otherwise, reserved a certain annual pension of seven shillings sterling from this church to him and his successors, to be yearly paid at the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary, by the master, &c. as soon as they should have obtained effectual and full possession of it, &c. (fn. 21)