View allAll Photos Tagged Continuance
This LSL/ Statesman Rail Settle - Carlisle circular was a Crewe- Liverpool- Wigan - Blackburn - Appleby working, with the return (1Z41) departing Appleby for a run north to the Upperby curve and then south vis the WCML to whence it came. The north bound working was plagued by poor time keeping, and began to accumulate a time deficit as it came north up the S&C. it was due at Kirkby Stephen at 1330 but was a no show - signals set at danger , finally it crawled into view about 20 late and was then held for some minutes at the signal while the bobby spoke with someone on the box telephone.
Top & tailed by 47805 ( D1935) and 47593 it got underway at 1350, its late arrival at Appleby resulted in no short layover but a continuance north as 1Z41,
Dotonbori was named after entrepreneur Nariyasu Dōton who constructed a series of canals in southern Osaka prior to his death during the 1615 Siege of Osaka. Hideyoshi's victory saw the continuance of the canal system, and the project was named after Doton. In 1662, Dotonbori became an impressive theater district with several kabuki and bunraku venues. Today, it is a bustling restaurant and entertainment district known for it's elaborate lights and visuals.
Dotonbori. Namba, Osaka.
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
Coal-tax post edge of Stocker's Farm
Coal imported into the City of London had been taxed since medieval times and, as it was originally all brought by sea to riverside wharfs, the collection of the duties was relatively easy. The city is a small (one square mile) but influential and rich part of London. The Port of London, within which the duties were payable, stretched far beyond the boundaries of the City, all the way along the Thames from Yantlet Creek (downstream from Gravesend) to Staines.
By the 19th century, however, there was increasing trade by canal and rail, and various Acts of Parliament extended the catchment area to include these new modes of transport. In 1845 the boundary was set at a radius of 20 miles from the General Post Office, London, from Langley in the west to Gravesend in the east and from Ware in the north to Redhill in the south. In 1851 an Act permitted the erection of boundary markers to indicate where this boundary lay; and about fifty markers, inscribed with a reference to the Act, were erected.
In 1861 a further Act – the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act 1861 – was passed, reducing the area to that of the Metropolitan Police District plus the City of London. This stretched from Colnbrook in the west to Crayford Ness, at the mouth of the River Darent, in the east, and from Wormley, Hertfordshire in the north to Banstead Heath, Surrey in the south. New marker posts (about 280) were erected to show the boundary within which the duty was payable. These again cite the Act by regnal year and chapter number, i.e. 24 & 25 VICT CAP 42. In some cases, notably on railways and canals, markers made for earlier acts were reused on the new boundary. Most (over 200) of these posts survive. Although the title of the Act refers to wine duties, these were collected only in the Port of London: the boundary marks have no connection with the wine duties and it is incorrect to call them "coal and wine duty posts".
The purpose of the posts was to give notice of where the boundary ran so that no-one could claim ignorance of liability to pay the duties. However, in general, duties were not actually collected on the boundary. The one known exception was the Grand Junction Canal: originally customs officers collected the duties at Grove Park, Hertfordshire. After the boundary was changed in 1861 a permanent house for the collector was built at Stockers Lock near Rickmansworth. In other cases the railway and canal companies or local coal merchants calculated the sums due and paid the money to the Corporation. The railway companies were initially allowed some coal free of duty for their engines.
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
Hyacinth Macaw
Southern Pantanal, Brazil
This magnificent bird is the largest (and arguably most stunning) of the world’s parrots, measuring up to a metre in length. They are extremely vocal birds with a raucous screech, and very sociable with a great sense of fun. It is also an endangered species – it is thought that just 6,500 birds remain in Brazil, eastern Bolivia and northern Paraguay. However, they are relatively abundant in the Pantanal and we certainly saw – and heard - a great number! They favoured a particular palm tree for roosting, in the grounds of one of the lodges we stayed in, and it was quite awesome to see and hear them as night descended and they came flying back in great numbers to their ‘bedroom’! The sound of their screeching was incredible as they argued and jostled for the best branch. This continued for about half an hour and then… the clamour just stopped and all was quiet again.
Their bills are extremely strong, and used for cracking nuts – even coconuts. Their diet consists mostly of the hard fruit from palm trees – mostly the Acuri and Bocaiuva. They find Acuri nuts , however, too hard for even their powerful bills and can only eat them after they have passed through the digestive systems of cattle.
The Hyacinth Macaw relies on the Toucan for the continuance of the species since it is is a major disperser of the seeds of the Manduvi tree, which is where the Hyacinth makes its nest. However, the Toucan is responsible for predating many of their chicks – a rather strange form of symbiosis.
Sicily is the land of contrasts: grandeur and poverty, beauty and sufferance, illusion and candor.
Continuing Education Preceptor site didn’t open, laptop needs to be charged . . . And here I am sitting, sipping coffee. Multitasking reading “That Summer in Sicily” while listening to the wind through the open patio door.
This could only be a story about Sicily. And Sicily could only be an island, less by the caprice of nature than by her own insolence. As though she might have quit Italy had she not already been born separate from it. Yet this is not a story about only the island but of a hamlet in the middle of that island. At the top of the island. A hamlet made of heaped-up stones and huddled in the cleft of an anchoritic mountain beneath the ruins of a temple. Above and all ’round the hamlet is a high plateau planted almost everywhere in wheat. On parched meadows, sheep and goats graze. The only water thereabout is a metallic smudge where the white sky meets the yellow earth and the only waves are of that wheat, the shuddering golden stalks of it roaring like the sea and crashing in the goddess-blown winds. Stone Age tangles of myrtle and broom and wild marjoram and wild thyme clutch at the steeps, and the only chink in the towering silence is the foul whispering of the scirocco.
Here, the substance of life lived three millennia ago or in the mid-nineteenth century or, as in this case, some seventy years distant, can seem essentially the same as that which formed the incidents of the day before yesterday. Nothing much has been lost or forgotten or left to languish from the time before now so a stunning tribal continuance prevails here. The ancient past, the more recent past, and the present congregate, abide together in that continuance. And apart from the evidence of a vacillating fancy for some fashionable goods and ideas, one might be hard put to divine a particular historical moment for the way it looks and feels and sounds here. Especially of an evening’s wandering in the fallow of Demeter’s broken temple. Tramping among the great fluted columns, supine, lustrous under the moon, our boots bruise the wild thyme and weeds tear my dress. A scrap of white linen on a rock rose.”
— That Summer in Sicily: A Love Story by Marlena de Blasi
How can something that beautiful & historical can even exist in this world . . . I would travel every spot there not leaving anything behind. And of course if I can ever manage pasta & tomato sauce making the way I see it. Not the way they now make it at popular Italian restaurants but the way I had it in Italy . . . Well, that would just make me super happy ♥️ Of course it will be overfilled with garlic 😂
"Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen."
– Prayer of President Roosevelt on 6 June 1944.
Droplets gather as if in a meeting place on this small leaf.
There is nothing subtle about a garden. When you look
about, life and death scenes are being played out all over
the place.
This is my continuance into the small world all around us.
There is so much going on, that it is hard to fathom it all.
I hope the coming week is good for everyone. Here in the
great Pacific Northwest, we are being promised sunshine
for four straight days. Could be a record :)
(further information and pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
German Master monument
German Master monument in front of the Roßauer barracks
The German Master memorial is a monument at Deutschmeisterplatz in the first Viennese district Innere Stadt. It was the first great monument of the Danube monarchy which was not dedicated to a single person, but a troop unit. Perhaps the German Master monument in 1945 was also the model for the hero monument to the Red Army on the Schwarzenbergplatz.
Infantry Regiment No. 4 High- and German masters (Hoch- und Deutschmeister)
The High- and German masters were founded during the Turkish wars in 1695 in Donauwörth (Bavaria, where the Danube is very young!). Named was the new regiment contrary to the tradition not after the commander Franz Ludwig Duke of Bavaria, Count Palatine of Neuburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, but according to whose office, namely "German Master".
Among the most important battles in the regimental history are those of Zenta against the Turks (September 11, 1697) and of Kolin against Prussia (18 June 1757).
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the regiment it came in 1895 to the Imperial resolution to relocate the High- and German masters again from Moravian garrisons Jihlava and Brno to Vienna.
History
On the occasion of the continuance jubilee the Council of Vienna decided to erect a monument, but due to financial reasons he saw himself in a position not to be able to build this one without financial support from the population. The city for itself provided 20,000 crowns. Furthermore, during the Municipal Council meeting on 10th July 1896 the on 26th September 1876 denominated Deutschmeisterplatz between Maria Teresa Street and Scots ring was set as the location for the planned memorial at the Rossauer barracks.
The laying of the foundation stone took place on 7th September 1896 in the presence of many celebrities (Prime minister Kasimir Felix Badeni, governor Erich Graf Kielmannsegg, mayor Josef Strobach and in the dual function as the representative of the imperial family and as a commander of the regiment Archduke Eugen of Austria-Teschen).
1898 Karl Lueger urged with the city council Felix Hraba the circumstance that the meanwhile founded German Master Rifle Corps and run by the City Council should pay more attention to the establishment of the German master-monument and less to other matters.
After granting of official authorizisation on the organisation of a German Master Memorial Lottery was constituted on 27th September 1899 the German Master-Schützenrat (Infantry council) as German Master Memorial Committee. At the request of this committee Archduke Eugen on 9th October 1899 deigned to have announced that he would fulfill the request of taking over the guard of honor.
After from February 1900 posters to this lottery with the draw on 4th October of the year pointed - name day of Emperor Franz Joseph I. - the Schützenrat first limited itself again to its activities within the scope of the rifle corps.
Subsequently controversial was the question of whether a competition on the design of the monument should be held or not. After clarifying this problem, a competition was yet tendered.
On 11th February 1903, the winners of the competition were determined. The first award was granted by the jury to Hans Bitterlich, the second to Wilhelm Seib, and the third to Artur Strasser and Rudolf Dick who had competed together.
At the meeting of the Monument Committee on 15th February 1903 the members but had to find out that the winning designs did not meet their expectations. However, were found among the rejected works more which were more to the liking of the committee members.
On 2nd March a narrower committee chose four works. After an exhibition in the City Hall and further meetings of the monument committee the artists the desired changes were announced.
In the decisive meeting on 19th October 1903 in the City Hall of Vienna finally the design number 9 ("With God for Kaiser and Fatherland") by Johannes Benk for realization was determined. After further discussions with Johannes Benk an estimate of costs of 192 860 crowns was fixed. The costs for the manufacture of the foundation, however, were not included. The unveiling ceremony finally took place on 29th September 1906.
During a mass meeting in front of the German Master monument on 1st November 1918 the communist "Red Guard" by corporal Haller, the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch and Leo Rothziegel was founded.
The damages incurred during the Second World War were repaired by decision of the Vienna City Council in 1957. In 1998, the German Master monument was restored at a cost effort of 1.5 million shillings one more time and in 2006 repaired the stairway.
German master monument: The "Zenta- relief"
German master monument: The "Kolin-relief"
The German Master monument stands in a partially fenced green space that is accessible by steps and was designed as a multi-part monument. Shown are important events in the history of the regiment.
Creator of the monument is Johannes Benk. The solution of architectural problems, especially the design of the slightly overhanging square, was the task of the architect Anton Weber. The cast works were carried out by the Kunsterzgießer (art ore caster) Hans Frömmel, head of the firm of J. Frömmel's sons in Vienna. The originating from the Konopischter (Konopišt) granite factory of Archduke Ferdinand d'Este stone components placed the master stonemason Andrea Francini.
Johannes Benk in the design of the monument oriented himself most of all to the three great historical war eras Turkish wars, the Seven Years' War and Wars of Liberation against Napoleon, but added other elements.
First period - Ottoman Wars
The Battle of Zenta is displayed with the relief "baptism of fire at Zenta (1697 )". This display is located on the frontside of the monument facing the ring road.
Second period - Seven Years War
The second major period of the regiment is represented in relief "Count Soro at Kolin" on the backside of the memorial.
Both reliefs are not manufactured as a flat surface, but as sections of a steep surface of a cone.
In both representations, the respective commanders Damian Hugo von Virmont and Soro portrait-accurately are modeled. Major General Franz Rieger recognized, however, in the relief image of the Count Soro the features of the current regimental commander Colonel Hugo Daler.
Third main epoch - Napoleonic Wars
With the two groups of figures "The Grenadier of Landshut (1809 )" and "The faithful comrade (1814 )", in addition to the third main epoch also the heroism or the brotherhood of arms are symbolized.
Vindobona
Above of the relief "baptism of fire at Zenta" sits the on the coat of arms of Vienna leaning allegorical representation of Vindobona, the standard-bearer handing over a laurel wreath. With this representation the below the flag carrier mounted text "the Wiener their German masters" pictorially is underlined.
Imperial Eagle
German master Monument: The Imperial Eagle Group
Opposite the figure of the Vindobona at the backside of the monument is located a representation of the imperial eagle with taken trophies in its claws.
Below is centrally located the crest of the High- and German masters. To the left is a portrait of the first regiment commander, Duke Franz Ludwig of the Palatinate, and right, a portrait of the at the moment of the establishment of the monument current owner, Archduke Eugen. Among the two images is the inscription "1696 - 1896" attached.
With this arrangement of the first as well as at the time of the erection of the monument current - and throughout history last - regiment commander Johannes Benk one more time spans 200 years regimental history.
Standard-bearer
The main character of the German master monument represents a marching forward standard-bearer in modern uniform, raising the true to the original reproduced regimental flag with his left hand and he is ready to defend it with the sword in his right hand.
Inscriptions
In addition to the reliefs and figures manufactured of bronze, the monument also bears various inscriptions.
On the front: "The Viennese their German masters"
On the back: "With God for Kaiser and Fatherland"
On the two sides the most important battles: "1712 - Quesnoi 1743 - Campo Santo 1758 - Hochkirchen 1789 - Belgrade 1793 - Retschweiler 1794 - Haspres 1799 - Novi" and "1809 Ennsdorf, Aspern, Wagram 1813 - Verona 1814 - Valeggio 1849 - Novara 1859 - Bagolino 1866 - Rozberic"
The two reliefs of the Battle of Zenta and the Battle of Kolin designed Benk deliberately smaller to let them as with respect to the French wars in the history more distant events - symbolized by "The Grenadier of Landshut" and "The faithful comrade" - with their larger dimensioned representation fade into the background. Above it rises the standard-bearer as a figure of the present.
The presentation of the Vindobona again the city of Vienna as a founder of the monument as well as the loving relationship of the city to its home regiment shall symbolize.
Laurel wreath made of bronze
The on the steps to the monument lying wreath on 15th October 1931 was added and is dedicated to the around 5,000 High- and German master soldiers that were killed in the First World War. Denominated it is with Willy Bormann.
Votive tablets
German Master monument: "The best of the best"
At the back of the German Master monument at the originally lying 14 steps deeper - here today is just a grassy ramp - Maria Theresa street were attached two votive tablets inscribed on both sides.
On the plate facing the Danube Canal of the Deutschmeisterplatz the names of the regiment commanders since 1697 were immortalized. The only very poorly legible back of this panel bears the names of the "best of the best".
The second panel bears the inscription: "The infantry regiment High and German Master No. 4 has taken part in 206 battles and skirmishes with a total loss of 407 officers and 20,000 men during its 200-years of existence".
In addition to the battles listed on the monument itself another 45 battles between 1697 and 1866 were named here. On the backside the names of the members of the memorial committee, the artists involved and executing businessmen were immortalized, but they are also hardly to decipher.
German Master Memorial March
Wilhelm Wacek, since 1893 chapel master of the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment No. 4 High and German Master, composed an own march for the German Master monument.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
St Nicholas is a large and fine church, but it has been restored. And then some. Three times in the 19th century and again in 1994. It hangs together well, but were it not for the monuments, it would be hard to see anything older than 200 years.
Saying that, the glass is exceptional, and worth the effort to visit for those alone. The south windows are top notch.
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The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
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SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
St Nicholas is a large and fine church, but it has been restored. And then some. Three times in the 19th century and again in 1994. It hangs together well, but were it not for the monuments, it would be hard to see anything older than 200 years.
Saying that, the glass is exceptional, and worth the effort to visit for those alone. The south windows are top notch.
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The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
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SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
Reculver was once one of the two forts guarding the entrances to the Wantsum Channel, the body of water that separated Thanet from the rest of Kent. The other fort was at Richborough, and the layout of both in Roman times was similar.
The Channel silted up, the Romans left, and the fort was partly turned into a church, a fine Saxon building, which largely survived until the beginning of the 19th century, at which point the incumbent persuaded the congregation to pull it down and build a new church nearer the then village centre.
At that time it was perhaps the best preserved early Saxon church in England, just its footprint now remains. Tat and the towers of the fort, once topped by spires.
I had wanted to revisit for some time, so on Saturday before Christmas I got the chance, and I tried to beat a family up the slope to the ruins to get shots before they arrived.
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The remains of a Saxon and thirteenth century church built on the spot where King Ethelbert of Kent found Christianity soon after the arrival of St Augustine in AD597. Of a particular ground plan, it was, until its demolition in 1810, the best surviving remains of an early Saxon church in England. However the local incumbent felt it was too far away from the centre of population and built a new church further inland, reusing some stones and memorials.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Reculver+1
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RECULVER.
THE next parish to Chistlet north eastward, is Reculver, called by the Romans, Regulbium, and by the Saxons, at first, Raculf, and afterwards Raculf-cester, on account of its castle, and Raculf-minister, on account of the monastery built at it. By the survey of Domesday it appears once to have been a hundred of itself, but it has been long since accounted part of the hundred of Blengate, containing within it the boroughs of Reculver, Brooksgate, Eastermouth, Westermouth, Chelmington, and Shottenton. The borough of Chelmington is in Great Chart, and the borough of Shottenton in Selling. The borsholders of these boroughs have not appeared at the court for many years, but are still called over at it for form sake. The manor extends likewise into the parish of Barham.
RECULVER was a place of considerable note in the time of the Romans, who had here a watch tower and a fort, said to be built by the emperor Severus, anno 205, in which, as the Notitia tells us, lay in garrison the first cohort of the Vetasians, under the command of the count of the Saxon shore, for so in those times were the sea coasts hereabouts stiled. As these buildings were usually set on the highest ground nearest the place which was thought most convenient for them, it may be concluded that this stood on the level space upon the high cliff, where the church is at present, commanding an extensive view on all sides, and open to the German ocean. At the foot of it, towards the north, was the sea, and on the other side the water of Genlade, or the Wantsune, which then being of considerable breadth, flowed round the Isle of Thanet, sepsrating it from the main land of Kent, and emptying itself here, on the eastern boundary of this parish, into the sea at Northmouth, it formed one of the ports of Rutupiœ; at which time, and for a long time afterwards, the usual passage for the shipping was on the above water, between the Isle of Thanet and the main land of Kent, and not on the sea side of it, as at present; so that the land here being thus nearly encompassed on three sides by water, formed a kind of nook or promontory. There are much of the walls of this fort remaining, which contain within them a level space of about eight acres. The form is a square, a little rounded at the corners. The walls on three sides are very visible, but the fourth, towards the north, has been very lately, nearly all of it, destroyed by the falling of the cliff down on the sea shore, where vast fragments of it lie. (fn. 1) The remaining walls inclose a hill of loose sand, which is higher in every part than the ground without. The foundation of them, where they are exposed to view, in many parts corresponds exactly with those at Richborough. The facing of the wall, both within and without, is nearly destroyed, they no where remain more than ten feet high. There are no fragments of them remaining, excepting from that part which falls down into the sea, on the north side, where the detached materials having been separated by the waves and the weather, are spread to a great distance over the surface of the shore. Upon measuring the large fragment which fell lately, it was found to be between eight and nine feet in thickness, so that with its two facings, it must have been originally about eleven feet through, as at Richborough; and by the form, and the method of building here, it cannot be doubted but that this fort and Richborough had the same builders. The antient town was probably built without this wall, declining towards the sea, on that part of the land long since swallowed up by the waves, and from the present shore as far as a place called the Black Rock, seen at lowwater mark, where tradition says, a parish church once stood, there have been found quantities of tiles, bricks, fragments of walls, tesselated pavements, and other marks of a ruinated town, and the household furniture, dress, and equipment of the horses belonging to the inhabitants of it, are continually found among the sands; for after the fall of the cliffs, the earthen parts of them being washed away, these metalline substances remain behind. The soil of the cliff being a loose sand, the sea has yearly gained on it; the force of the waves in winter separating large pieces of it from the rest, which tumbling on the shore below, discover from time to time a number of cisterns, cellars, &c quantities of coins, and other remains of antiquity. Among the Roman coins found here, there have been several which are certain marks of high antiquity, as the consular denarii, and coins of almost all the Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar to Honorius, some brass ones of Tiberius and Nero, as fresh as if just new from the mint; all which are supposed by some to be proofs, that the Romans had very early a settlement here, and continued to use it as long as they dwelt in Britain, But those found in the greatest numbers, are those of a smaller size, and of the lower empire. (fn. 2) Here have been likewise found those British coins of the metal called electrum, one fourth gold and the rest brass; and small silver pieces, of the size of an English two-pence, stamped only with strange characters, and some with rude heads and christian crosses, of a larger size; and Saxon coins, with the names of EDPERD, EADLARD EDELRED, and LUDRED. (fn. 3) Even when Leland wrote, in Henry VIII.'s time, the village was full a quarter of a mile from the sea, whereas now, what is left of it, is so close to it, as to be washed by the waves, and the church itself is only a few rods from it. Leland's words are, "Reculver ii myles and more be water and a mile dim. by land beyownd Heron ys fro Cantorbury v good myles and stondeth withyn a quarter of a myle or lyttle more of the se syde. The towne at this tyme is but village lyke. Sumtyme wher as the paroche chyrch is now was a sayre abbay and Brightwald archbishop of Cantorbury was of that house. The old building of the chirch of the abbay remayneth having ii goodly spiring steeples.
——— "The whole precinct of the monastery appereth by the old walle and the vicarage was made of ruines of the monastery. Ther is a neglect chapel owt of the chyrch-yard wher sum say was a paroch chirch or the abbay was suppressed and given to the bishop of Cantorbury. There hath bene much Romain money fownd abowt Reculver." And again below
" Reculver is now scarse half a mile from the shore But it is to be supposid that yn tymes paste the se cam hard to Goreende a 2 myle from Northmouth and at Goreende is a litle staire caullied Broode staires to go downe the clive, and about this shore is good taking of mullettes. The great Raguseis ly for defence of wind at Gore ende, and thens againe is another sinus on to the foreland." At present it is only a small mean village, of five or six houses, situated a small distance from the church, and inhabited mostly by fishermen and smugglers, and would be unworthy of notice, but for the reputation it derives from former times. The church, which once belonged to the monastery here, already mentioned before, and built on the scite both of the palace of king Ethelred and the more antient Roman fort, stands conspicuous for a great distance on all sides, the two spires of it, in form of pyramids, usually called the Reculvers, and by seamen the Two Sisters, being a constant sea-mark for them, to avoid the sands and shoals on this coast, (fn. 4) but the sea has from time to time so continually washed the hill away on which it stands, that it was much feared in a few years it would have been wholly destroyed, till very lately such quantities of beach have been thrown up by the waves, as to form an unexpected, though very sure, natural bulwark to prevent its ruin. At a small distance from the church, close to the cliff, is an antient gothic building, formerly the chapel of St. James, and belonging to the hermit of Reculver. It is now converted into a cottage, the walls of which are mostly composed of Roman bricks, and in the wall is an arch entirely so. At some distance is a small house, which has a religious gothic appearance, and is supposed to have been formerly the dwelling of the hermit, and king Richard II. in his 3d year, granted a commission to Thomas Hamond, hermyte of the chapel of St. James, &c. being at our lady of Reculver, ordeyned for the sepulture of such persons as by casualtie of stormy or other misadventures were perished to receive the alms of charitable people for the building of the roof of the chapel fallen down. Near the corner of the church stands the vicarage-house. The rest of the parish is in general low marshy land, excepting towards the west, where it is a continuance of high land, where May-Street and the hamlet of Hilsborough stand; and a little from it, near the sea, BISHOPSTONE, once accounted a manor, which for many years was the seat and property of the family of Cobbe, who resided here till the latter end of the last century. (fn. 5) After which it was alienated to Hulke, from which name it came by marriage to Mr. Thomas Elwyn, alderman of Canterbury, who died possessed of it in 1788, and left two sons, who have since sold it to Mr. Stephen Sayer, and he is now entitled to it. The east part of this parish is bounded by marshes within the parish of Chistlet, once overslowed by the Wantsume, now only a narrow stream, of about one rod wide, kept open to few the adjoining lands, with a sluice towards the sea, where the harbour of Northmouth, or Genlade, once was. A fair is held here on the 1st of September yearly.
About half a mile from this village, towards Herne, Dr. Gray, of Canterbury, found in the cliff a strata of shells, in a greenish sand. They seemed firm, and some of them entire, but crumbled to powder on being handled. But what was most remarkable, in the lower part of the strata, where the shells were more thickly dispersed, there lay scattered up and down, parts of trunks, roots, and branches of trees, the wood of which was as black as ebony, and so rotten as to be easily broken with the singers. One of them was standing upright, but broken off about a foot from the ground. There were about twelve feet from the supersices or top of the cliff. (fn. 6)
The fig tree, sicus carica, appears among the bushes along the south wall of the castle, and the dwarf elder, sambucus ebulus, abounds there.
¶ETHELBERT, king of Kent, having embraced the christian faith, and given St. Augustine his palace at Canterbury, is said, about the year 597, to have retired with his court hither, and to have built for himself a palace on the scite of the old Roman ruins at this place. Bede says, the villæ regiæ; of the Saxons were usually placed upon or near where the antient Roman stations had been before. The Notitia Provinciarum (which was not written before the time of Theodosius the younger) is the only book which mentions this place; before which this silence, concerning the name of Reculver, makes it probable, this fort was known by the general name of Rutupiæ. Reculver continued a royal residence till king Egbert, as an atonement for the murder of his two nephews, gave it, in the year 669, to a priest named Bassa, to build a monastery on it, which he accordingly did, for monks of the Benedictine order, dedicating it to St. Mary, and probably became the first abbot of it himself. From which time this place came to be called Raculf-minster. After which this abbey was given, with the whole parish and all of right belonging to it, in 949, by king Edred, in the presence of queen Edgive his mother, and archbishop Odo, to the monastery of Christ-church, in Canterbury. (fn. 7) Notwithstanding which it appears to have continued as a religious society, only with the alteration of the superior's title from that of abbot to dean, till a few years before the Norman conquest. After which there is nothing found further relating to it, but it is supposed to have ceased as a monastery, and to have come into the hands of William the Conqueror, who restored it, with its revenues, to archbishop Lanfranc, as having been given to his church of Canterbury, and soon afterwards, on the separation of the estates of it between the archbishop and the priory of Christchurch there, THIS MANOR OF RECULVER with its demesnes, of which the antient scite of the abbey was esteemed part, and the church appurtenant, was allotted to the former. Accordingly, in the record of Domesday, it is thus described, under the general title of the archbishop's lands:
In Roculf hundred, the archbishop himself holds Roculf. It was taxed at eight sulings. The arable land is thirty carucates. In demesne there are three carucates, and four times twenty and ten villeins, with twenty-five borderers having twenty-seven carucates. There is a church, and one mill of twenty-five pence, and thirty-three acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and five salt-pits of sixty-four pence, and one fishery. In its whole value, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, this manor was worth fourteen pounds, when he received it the like, and now thirty-five pounds; of this the archbishop has seven pounds and seven shillings.
Soon after which, archbishop Lanfranc, on his founding of the hospitals of Harbledowne and St. John, endowed them with seven score pounds, yearly out of his manors of Reculver and Bocton. After which king Edward II. granted to archbishop Walter a market weekly on a Thursday here, and a fair yearly on the feast of St. Giles, abbot, being Sept, I, but the former, if ever held, has been long since obsolete. (fn. 8) Since which it has continued part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury to this time, the manor his grace the archbishop retains in his own hands, but the demesnes of it, called the Lord's lands, are demised by him on benesicial leases to several tenants, the principal of whom is Sir Henry Oxenden, bart.
A court leet and court baron is held for this manor. The constable of the upper half hundred of Blengate is chosen at this court, which is usually held at Herne. The archbishop has a right to the royalty of the fishery and oysters, with the beach and oozy grounds of the sea, to lay and breed the oysters on, between the full sea water mark, and the dead low water mark, from Herne bay rock to the Beltinge ware rand, lying within this manor.
RFCULVER is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, which is exempt from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Mary. It consists of three isles and a chancel, having two similar spires at the west end, in one of which hang four bells. The church seems to be in some measure the same building which was used as the abbey church, though from the frequent alterations and repairs it has undergone, the original appearance of it has been so greatly changed, that it has induced many to suppose the whole of it a much more modern structure. It has at this time a look of decay, the materials having greatly mouldered away, from its being so much exposed to the weather, and the corrosive quality of the sea air. At a distance it is a striking object, especially from the two spires at the west end. The stile of building is various, and of different ages; the middle isle and chancel being the most antient, the side isle of much later date. The west door is a pointed arch, of Caen Stone, with Saxon Ornaments, much decayed. The arch of the north door is circular. The quoins are of squared stones, the rest of the walls irregular stones mixed with Roman bricks. The roof was once, or at least intended to be, much higher and more pointed, as appears by the rise of the pediment at the west end between the two spires. There is a handsome flight of steps to the chancel from the isle, and another at the approach to the altar. The chancel is separated from the church by three small circular arches, supported by two losty round pillars, with plain capitals of a singular form. At the extremity of the east end is a handsome triplet of lancet windows, and four single ones of the same form on the north and south sides. At the west end of the body, over the door, is a triforium. The floor was laid in terras, made of coarse stone and mortar, so smooth as to seem polished, being thinly incrusted with a red composition, a small part of which only remains, facing the north door, and in the chancel the pavement is mixed with small figured tiles, like those in many other churches.
Leland says, in his Itinerary, vol. vii.p. 136, " The old building of the chirch of the abbay remayneth, having ii goodly spiring steples Yn the enteryng of the quyer ys one of the sayrest and the most auncyent crosse that ever I saw a ix footes, as I ges yn highte. It standyth lyke a fayr columne," (which he describes at large, with the figures on it, and lays) "The hiest part of the piller has the figure of a cross. In the chirch ys a very auncient boke of the Evangelyes in majusculis literis RO and yn the bordes therof ys a cristal stone thus inscribed CLAVDIA ATEPICCUS. Yn the north side of the chirch is the figure of a bishop paynted under an arch. In digging abowt the chyrch yarde they find old bokels of girdals and rings."
In this church the body of king Ethelbert is said to have been buried, and Weever says, in his time, that is, in king James I.'s reign, "there was remaining at the upper end of the south isle,a monument of an antique form, mounted with two spires, under which, according to tradition, this monarch lay." But no remains of the cross or monument are left, but a tablet had been put up to perpetuate the memory of it. In the chancel, within the altar-rails, is a handsome monument for Sir Cavalliero Maycote, and dame Marie his wife; above are their arms, Quarterly, ermine, on a canton, argent, a stag seiant, gules; and party per pale, sable and ermine, a chevron engrailed, gules. On the north side of the altar is carved in stone, Gules, semee of cross-croslets, a lion rampant, or . On a flat stone in the chancel, the effigies in brass of a man and his wife, and under them eight sons and seven daughters. He is represented in armour, with his feet on a greyhound. Over him a coat, three boars heads couped. She is in an immense high head dress, and over her three rams heads couped, and underneath an inscription for John Sandewey, esq. and Joane his wife. Near this grave-stone is an antient one, having a cross flory standing on a grice. Near the entrance is a memorial for Robert Godden, gent. late vicar of Reculver, obt. 1672. Against the south wall, on a tablet of black marble, is the figure, about a foot high, of a man habited in his herald's surcoat, cloak, trunkbreehes, boots and spurs, with short hair and beard; and over him, Or, a cross engrailed, party per pale, gules and sable, on a chief of the second, a lion passantguardant of the first; and underneath an inscription, for Ralph Brooke, esq. late Yorke herald, who died in 1625. In the middle isle are several stones with memorials for the families of Cobb and Hills, both of this parish; arms on the former, A chevron, between three cocks. And in a window of the south isle, there is remaining the arms of England, Gules, three lions passant guardant, or.
¶The church of Reculver was always appendant to the manor, parcel of the antient possessions of the see of Canterbury, to which it was, with the chapels of Herne, Hothe, and Reculver annexed, early appropriated; for archbishop Kilwardbye disliking the method of payment made by his predecessor Lanfranc to the hospitals of Harbledowne and Northgate, from this manor towards their support, withdrew it, and in lieu, appropriated to their use this parsonage, with the chapels annexed, saving a competent portion to the vicar, who should have the cure of the church. Which was confirmed by king Edward I. in his 4th year. (fn. 10) This alteration archbishop Peckham revoked, and restored the revenue of the parsonage to its former state. Archbishop Stratford, at the time he obtained licence anno 22 Edward III. to appropriate this parsonage, held in capite, towards the support of his table, added to the income of the hospitals twenty pounds likewise from it; but on the archbishop's death soon afterwards, no use was made of this licence, so far as related to the hospitals, till archbishop Islip, anno 1355, confirmed the same, and further decreed, that the whole of the sums payable yearly from the manor, viz. 140l. and 20l. likewise from this parsonage, should be paid yearly out of the rents and profits of the latter, so long as it should continue appropriated, which it is at this time. This parsonage extends likewise over the parishes of Herne and Hothe, formerly accounted as chapels to the church of Reculver, Richard Milles, esq. of Nackington, being the present lessee of it, under the archbishop, at the yearly rent of forty pounds. From the above time these two hospitals have continued to enjoy this allowance; but the parsonage becoming inadequate in its value to so large a payment, (fn. 11) it has been for some time past paid yearly as the archbishop's alms, out of the temporalities of the see of Canterbury.
The battered woman
the wrath of a man
'the masochistic, i deserve it, self effacing, all my fault, please hit me more syndrome."
"The Battered woman syndrome... describes a pattern of psychological and behavioral symptoms found in women living in battering relationships.
There are four general characteristics of the syndrome:
1. The woman believes that the violence was her fault.
2. The woman has an inability to place the responsibility for the violence elsewhere.
3. The woman fears for her life and/or her children's lives.
4. The woman has an irrational belief that the abuser is omnipresent and omniscient."
Men start wars, continue fighting them, spend trillions on them, reap profits from them,
justify their beginning, their continuance, and meet and shake hands at peace talks.
Men send their sons and daughters to die in WARS.
Men shout battle cries, carry the guns, the swords, aim the missiles, push the buttons.
Men make up the majority of prisoners,
Men do most of the crimes, and usually its men who physically harm other human beings.
Men make up the 10 FBI most wanted,
Men are usually the people in power in the majority of the world.
Men hurt men who hurt men who hurt men who will in essence hurt women.
Men are usually physically stronger than woman though this is being debated.
In half the worlds people men pray with other men, talk only to other men in public, cannot talk to other woman in public, &
think they are superior to the female race,
and in these societies woman dont even have rights to leave their home without a BURKAH or CHADOR covering their entire bodies.
Men can sit and drink tea all day wear western clothes, do whatever they want to do and still rule the roost.
Women cannot.
There are woman in Afghanistan Pakistan Somalia and other places who are stoned to death for being seen without a CHADOR or for simply talking to a man, i.e. for not following Sharia law.
She is taken to a stadium or an unconcealed area and people throw huge rocks at her.
Rocks that weigh 5- 10 pounds.
This happens in 2019!
There are women in BANGLADESH and INDIA who are burned severely if there is suspicion of them cheating on their husbands. Chemicals like lye are thrown on their faces. Men do these things to women.
Men make up the laws.
Men supposedly and most probably created the Bible, the Quaran, the Buddhist teachings.
Men seem to have made themselves the bosses around town.
What they say goes. and if not, watch out.
Men have all the say in too many matters.
Even Sexual pleasures. Women feel they must satisfy the Man.
The reverse is not always the case. The porno movie is not done to completion until the Man ejaculates.
It is rare to see a man end up in an ER from a wife beating.
The reverse is usually the case.
Men were once newborn babies that needed their mothers. They sucked breast milk from their mothers. they were carried by them before they learned to walk.
Male babies are the wanted baby in Asian Cultures.
Many times if a daughter is born she is shunned.
Sometimes abortions are done if it is a female.
The MAN seems to rule the world.
Then why is the world such a mess?
I beileve it will take a woman to fix this world and all its problems.
A woman just like this one.
She will be the solution.
She will figure it out.
She will save the WORLD!
Photography’s new conscience
German postcard by F.J. Rüdel. Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 217. Photo: Paramount. Gail Russell in Captain China (Lewis R. Foster, 1950).
American actress Gail Russell (1924-1961) was an incredible doe-eyed beauty who presented a screen image of great innocence and vulnerability. She is best known for the supernatural horror film The Uninvited (1944). During a promising career at Paramount, she became a victim of alcoholism. It ruined her career, appearance and marriage to Guy Madison. In 1961, she died from liver damage, only 36.
Gail Russell was born born Elizabeth L. Russell in 1924 to George and Gladys (Barnet) Russell in Chicago, Illinois. The family moved to the Los Angeles, California, area when she was a teenager. Her father was initially a musician but later worked for Lockheed Corporation. Russell attended high school in Santa Monica, California, where she was spotted by a Paramount talent scout and signed to a contract immediately upon graduation. Although Russell was possessed with a paralyzing kind of self-consciousness and had no acting experience, Paramount had great expectations for her and employed an acting coach to work with her. At the age of 19 she made her film debut with a small part in the comedy Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour (Hugh Bennett, 1943). She also had a small part in the musical Lady in the Dark (Mitchell Leisen, 1943) with Ginger Rogers. Russell's haunting, melancholy beauty was ideally suited for the ingénue role in the lavish supernatural horror film The Uninvited (Lewis Allen, 1944) with Ray Milland. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The Uninvited remains one of the spookiest "old dark house" films ever made, even after years of inundation by computer-generated special effects." Lewis Allen then directed Russell in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (Lewis Allen, 1944), in which she co-starred with Diana Lynn. It was another success. Russell co-starred opposite Alan Ladd in Salty O'Rourke (Raoul Walsh, 1945), a horse racing drama. She made a third film with Allen, The Unseen (Lewis Allen, 1945), an unofficial follow up to The Uninvited. Gail played Elizabeth Howard, a governess of the house in question. The film turned a profit but was not the hit that Paramount executives hoped for. Then she and Lynn were in Our Hearts Were Growing Up (William D. Russell, 1946), a sequel to Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. The plot centered around two young college girls getting involved with bootleggers. Unfortunately, it was not anywhere the caliber of the first film and it failed at the box-office. She was reunited with Ladd in Calcutta (John Farrow, 1947), shot in 1945 but not released until two years later. Although the film was popular, critics felt that Russell was miscast.
Gail Russell left Paramount and appeared in the romantic comedy The Bachelor's Daughters (Andrew L. Stone, 1948) for United Artists. John Wayne hired her to be his co-star in a film he was producing, Angel and the Badman (James Edward Grant, 1948). It was a hit with the public and Gail shone in the role of Penelope Worth, a feisty Quaker girl who tries to tame gunfighter Wayne. She did Moonrise (Frank Borzage, 1948) for Republic. Bruce Eder at AllMovie: "Moonrise, the most expensive movie ever made by Republic up to that time, but one that was worth every penny. Arguably Borzage's finest directorial effort and the most hauntingly beautiful movie ever issued by the studio, Moonrise is filled with delights at just about every level that it is possible to enjoy in a movie." Russell returned to Paramount for Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948) with Edward G. Robinson, then reteamed with Wayne for Wake of the Red Witch (Edward Ludwig, 1948). She appeared in a Western with John Wayne for Pine-Thomas Productions, El Paso (Lewis R. Foster, 1949). Russell did Song of India (Albert S. Rogell, 1949) with Sabu for Columbia and The Great Dan Patch (1949) for United Artists. She made some more Pine-Thomas films: Captain China (Lewis R. Foster, 1950) with Payne, and the Film Noir The Lawless (Joseph Losey, 1951) with Macdonald Carey. She married film star Guy Madison in 1949, but by 1950 it was well known that she had become a victim of alcoholism, and Paramount did not renew her contract. She had started drinking on the set of The Uninvited to ease her paralyzing stage fright and lack of confidence. She made Air Cadet (Joseph Pevney, 1951) for Universal, but alcohol made a shambles of her career, appearance and personal life. In January 1954, in a court in Santa Monica, California, Russell pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness, receiving a $150 fine. The fine was in lieu of a jail sentence, with the provision that she not use intoxicants or attend night spots for two years. In the same court session, she received a continuance on a charge of driving while drunk.
Gail Russell disappeared from the screen for the next five years while she attempted to get control of her life. In 1954, she divorced Guy Madison. She returned to work in a co-starring role with Randolph Scott in the Western Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956), produced by her friend Wayne, and had a substantial role in the Film Noir The Tattered Dress (Jack Arnold, 1957) with Jeanne Crain and Jeff Chandler. In July 1957, she was photographed by a Los Angeles Times photographer after she drove her convertible into the front of Jan's Coffee Shop at 8424 Beverly Boulevard. After failing a sobriety test, Russell was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. She appeared in the B-film No Place to Land (Albert C. Gannaway, 1958) for Republic. By now the demons of alcohol had her in its grasp. She was again absent from the screen until The Silent Call (John A. Bushelman, 1961), a respectable family film about a big dog by the name of Pete with definite separation anxiety. It was to be her last film. On 26 August 1961, Russell was found dead in her small apartment in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. She was only 36. She died from liver damage attributed to "acute and chronic alcoholism" with stomach contents aspiration as an additional cause. She was also found to have been suffering from malnutrition at the time of her death. She was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
--------------------------------------------
The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
--------------------------------------------
SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
St Nicholas is a large and fine church, but it has been restored. And then some. Three times in the 19th century and again in 1994. It hangs together well, but were it not for the monuments, it would be hard to see anything older than 200 years.
Saying that, the glass is exceptional, and worth the effort to visit for those alone. The south windows are top notch.
--------------------------------------------
The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
--------------------------------------------
SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
--------------------------------------------
The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
--------------------------------------------
SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
--------------------------------------------
The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
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SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
Reculver was once one of the two forts guarding the entrances to the Wantsum Channel, the body of water that separated Thanet from the rest of Kent. The other fort was at Richborough, and the layout of both in Roman times was similar.
The Channel silted up, the Romans left, and the fort was partly turned into a church, a fine Saxon building, which largely survived until the beginning of the 19th century, at which point the incumbent persuaded the congregation to pull it down and build a new church nearer the then village centre.
At that time it was perhaps the best preserved early Saxon church in England, just its footprint now remains. Tat and the towers of the fort, once topped by spires.
I had wanted to revisit for some time, so on Saturday before Christmas I got the chance, and I tried to beat a family up the slope to the ruins to get shots before they arrived.
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The remains of a Saxon and thirteenth century church built on the spot where King Ethelbert of Kent found Christianity soon after the arrival of St Augustine in AD597. Of a particular ground plan, it was, until its demolition in 1810, the best surviving remains of an early Saxon church in England. However the local incumbent felt it was too far away from the centre of population and built a new church further inland, reusing some stones and memorials.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Reculver+1
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RECULVER.
THE next parish to Chistlet north eastward, is Reculver, called by the Romans, Regulbium, and by the Saxons, at first, Raculf, and afterwards Raculf-cester, on account of its castle, and Raculf-minister, on account of the monastery built at it. By the survey of Domesday it appears once to have been a hundred of itself, but it has been long since accounted part of the hundred of Blengate, containing within it the boroughs of Reculver, Brooksgate, Eastermouth, Westermouth, Chelmington, and Shottenton. The borough of Chelmington is in Great Chart, and the borough of Shottenton in Selling. The borsholders of these boroughs have not appeared at the court for many years, but are still called over at it for form sake. The manor extends likewise into the parish of Barham.
RECULVER was a place of considerable note in the time of the Romans, who had here a watch tower and a fort, said to be built by the emperor Severus, anno 205, in which, as the Notitia tells us, lay in garrison the first cohort of the Vetasians, under the command of the count of the Saxon shore, for so in those times were the sea coasts hereabouts stiled. As these buildings were usually set on the highest ground nearest the place which was thought most convenient for them, it may be concluded that this stood on the level space upon the high cliff, where the church is at present, commanding an extensive view on all sides, and open to the German ocean. At the foot of it, towards the north, was the sea, and on the other side the water of Genlade, or the Wantsune, which then being of considerable breadth, flowed round the Isle of Thanet, sepsrating it from the main land of Kent, and emptying itself here, on the eastern boundary of this parish, into the sea at Northmouth, it formed one of the ports of Rutupiœ; at which time, and for a long time afterwards, the usual passage for the shipping was on the above water, between the Isle of Thanet and the main land of Kent, and not on the sea side of it, as at present; so that the land here being thus nearly encompassed on three sides by water, formed a kind of nook or promontory. There are much of the walls of this fort remaining, which contain within them a level space of about eight acres. The form is a square, a little rounded at the corners. The walls on three sides are very visible, but the fourth, towards the north, has been very lately, nearly all of it, destroyed by the falling of the cliff down on the sea shore, where vast fragments of it lie. (fn. 1) The remaining walls inclose a hill of loose sand, which is higher in every part than the ground without. The foundation of them, where they are exposed to view, in many parts corresponds exactly with those at Richborough. The facing of the wall, both within and without, is nearly destroyed, they no where remain more than ten feet high. There are no fragments of them remaining, excepting from that part which falls down into the sea, on the north side, where the detached materials having been separated by the waves and the weather, are spread to a great distance over the surface of the shore. Upon measuring the large fragment which fell lately, it was found to be between eight and nine feet in thickness, so that with its two facings, it must have been originally about eleven feet through, as at Richborough; and by the form, and the method of building here, it cannot be doubted but that this fort and Richborough had the same builders. The antient town was probably built without this wall, declining towards the sea, on that part of the land long since swallowed up by the waves, and from the present shore as far as a place called the Black Rock, seen at lowwater mark, where tradition says, a parish church once stood, there have been found quantities of tiles, bricks, fragments of walls, tesselated pavements, and other marks of a ruinated town, and the household furniture, dress, and equipment of the horses belonging to the inhabitants of it, are continually found among the sands; for after the fall of the cliffs, the earthen parts of them being washed away, these metalline substances remain behind. The soil of the cliff being a loose sand, the sea has yearly gained on it; the force of the waves in winter separating large pieces of it from the rest, which tumbling on the shore below, discover from time to time a number of cisterns, cellars, &c quantities of coins, and other remains of antiquity. Among the Roman coins found here, there have been several which are certain marks of high antiquity, as the consular denarii, and coins of almost all the Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar to Honorius, some brass ones of Tiberius and Nero, as fresh as if just new from the mint; all which are supposed by some to be proofs, that the Romans had very early a settlement here, and continued to use it as long as they dwelt in Britain, But those found in the greatest numbers, are those of a smaller size, and of the lower empire. (fn. 2) Here have been likewise found those British coins of the metal called electrum, one fourth gold and the rest brass; and small silver pieces, of the size of an English two-pence, stamped only with strange characters, and some with rude heads and christian crosses, of a larger size; and Saxon coins, with the names of EDPERD, EADLARD EDELRED, and LUDRED. (fn. 3) Even when Leland wrote, in Henry VIII.'s time, the village was full a quarter of a mile from the sea, whereas now, what is left of it, is so close to it, as to be washed by the waves, and the church itself is only a few rods from it. Leland's words are, "Reculver ii myles and more be water and a mile dim. by land beyownd Heron ys fro Cantorbury v good myles and stondeth withyn a quarter of a myle or lyttle more of the se syde. The towne at this tyme is but village lyke. Sumtyme wher as the paroche chyrch is now was a sayre abbay and Brightwald archbishop of Cantorbury was of that house. The old building of the chirch of the abbay remayneth having ii goodly spiring steeples.
——— "The whole precinct of the monastery appereth by the old walle and the vicarage was made of ruines of the monastery. Ther is a neglect chapel owt of the chyrch-yard wher sum say was a paroch chirch or the abbay was suppressed and given to the bishop of Cantorbury. There hath bene much Romain money fownd abowt Reculver." And again below
" Reculver is now scarse half a mile from the shore But it is to be supposid that yn tymes paste the se cam hard to Goreende a 2 myle from Northmouth and at Goreende is a litle staire caullied Broode staires to go downe the clive, and about this shore is good taking of mullettes. The great Raguseis ly for defence of wind at Gore ende, and thens againe is another sinus on to the foreland." At present it is only a small mean village, of five or six houses, situated a small distance from the church, and inhabited mostly by fishermen and smugglers, and would be unworthy of notice, but for the reputation it derives from former times. The church, which once belonged to the monastery here, already mentioned before, and built on the scite both of the palace of king Ethelred and the more antient Roman fort, stands conspicuous for a great distance on all sides, the two spires of it, in form of pyramids, usually called the Reculvers, and by seamen the Two Sisters, being a constant sea-mark for them, to avoid the sands and shoals on this coast, (fn. 4) but the sea has from time to time so continually washed the hill away on which it stands, that it was much feared in a few years it would have been wholly destroyed, till very lately such quantities of beach have been thrown up by the waves, as to form an unexpected, though very sure, natural bulwark to prevent its ruin. At a small distance from the church, close to the cliff, is an antient gothic building, formerly the chapel of St. James, and belonging to the hermit of Reculver. It is now converted into a cottage, the walls of which are mostly composed of Roman bricks, and in the wall is an arch entirely so. At some distance is a small house, which has a religious gothic appearance, and is supposed to have been formerly the dwelling of the hermit, and king Richard II. in his 3d year, granted a commission to Thomas Hamond, hermyte of the chapel of St. James, &c. being at our lady of Reculver, ordeyned for the sepulture of such persons as by casualtie of stormy or other misadventures were perished to receive the alms of charitable people for the building of the roof of the chapel fallen down. Near the corner of the church stands the vicarage-house. The rest of the parish is in general low marshy land, excepting towards the west, where it is a continuance of high land, where May-Street and the hamlet of Hilsborough stand; and a little from it, near the sea, BISHOPSTONE, once accounted a manor, which for many years was the seat and property of the family of Cobbe, who resided here till the latter end of the last century. (fn. 5) After which it was alienated to Hulke, from which name it came by marriage to Mr. Thomas Elwyn, alderman of Canterbury, who died possessed of it in 1788, and left two sons, who have since sold it to Mr. Stephen Sayer, and he is now entitled to it. The east part of this parish is bounded by marshes within the parish of Chistlet, once overslowed by the Wantsume, now only a narrow stream, of about one rod wide, kept open to few the adjoining lands, with a sluice towards the sea, where the harbour of Northmouth, or Genlade, once was. A fair is held here on the 1st of September yearly.
About half a mile from this village, towards Herne, Dr. Gray, of Canterbury, found in the cliff a strata of shells, in a greenish sand. They seemed firm, and some of them entire, but crumbled to powder on being handled. But what was most remarkable, in the lower part of the strata, where the shells were more thickly dispersed, there lay scattered up and down, parts of trunks, roots, and branches of trees, the wood of which was as black as ebony, and so rotten as to be easily broken with the singers. One of them was standing upright, but broken off about a foot from the ground. There were about twelve feet from the supersices or top of the cliff. (fn. 6)
The fig tree, sicus carica, appears among the bushes along the south wall of the castle, and the dwarf elder, sambucus ebulus, abounds there.
¶ETHELBERT, king of Kent, having embraced the christian faith, and given St. Augustine his palace at Canterbury, is said, about the year 597, to have retired with his court hither, and to have built for himself a palace on the scite of the old Roman ruins at this place. Bede says, the villæ regiæ; of the Saxons were usually placed upon or near where the antient Roman stations had been before. The Notitia Provinciarum (which was not written before the time of Theodosius the younger) is the only book which mentions this place; before which this silence, concerning the name of Reculver, makes it probable, this fort was known by the general name of Rutupiæ. Reculver continued a royal residence till king Egbert, as an atonement for the murder of his two nephews, gave it, in the year 669, to a priest named Bassa, to build a monastery on it, which he accordingly did, for monks of the Benedictine order, dedicating it to St. Mary, and probably became the first abbot of it himself. From which time this place came to be called Raculf-minster. After which this abbey was given, with the whole parish and all of right belonging to it, in 949, by king Edred, in the presence of queen Edgive his mother, and archbishop Odo, to the monastery of Christ-church, in Canterbury. (fn. 7) Notwithstanding which it appears to have continued as a religious society, only with the alteration of the superior's title from that of abbot to dean, till a few years before the Norman conquest. After which there is nothing found further relating to it, but it is supposed to have ceased as a monastery, and to have come into the hands of William the Conqueror, who restored it, with its revenues, to archbishop Lanfranc, as having been given to his church of Canterbury, and soon afterwards, on the separation of the estates of it between the archbishop and the priory of Christchurch there, THIS MANOR OF RECULVER with its demesnes, of which the antient scite of the abbey was esteemed part, and the church appurtenant, was allotted to the former. Accordingly, in the record of Domesday, it is thus described, under the general title of the archbishop's lands:
In Roculf hundred, the archbishop himself holds Roculf. It was taxed at eight sulings. The arable land is thirty carucates. In demesne there are three carucates, and four times twenty and ten villeins, with twenty-five borderers having twenty-seven carucates. There is a church, and one mill of twenty-five pence, and thirty-three acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty bogs, and five salt-pits of sixty-four pence, and one fishery. In its whole value, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, this manor was worth fourteen pounds, when he received it the like, and now thirty-five pounds; of this the archbishop has seven pounds and seven shillings.
Soon after which, archbishop Lanfranc, on his founding of the hospitals of Harbledowne and St. John, endowed them with seven score pounds, yearly out of his manors of Reculver and Bocton. After which king Edward II. granted to archbishop Walter a market weekly on a Thursday here, and a fair yearly on the feast of St. Giles, abbot, being Sept, I, but the former, if ever held, has been long since obsolete. (fn. 8) Since which it has continued part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury to this time, the manor his grace the archbishop retains in his own hands, but the demesnes of it, called the Lord's lands, are demised by him on benesicial leases to several tenants, the principal of whom is Sir Henry Oxenden, bart.
A court leet and court baron is held for this manor. The constable of the upper half hundred of Blengate is chosen at this court, which is usually held at Herne. The archbishop has a right to the royalty of the fishery and oysters, with the beach and oozy grounds of the sea, to lay and breed the oysters on, between the full sea water mark, and the dead low water mark, from Herne bay rock to the Beltinge ware rand, lying within this manor.
RFCULVER is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, which is exempt from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Mary. It consists of three isles and a chancel, having two similar spires at the west end, in one of which hang four bells. The church seems to be in some measure the same building which was used as the abbey church, though from the frequent alterations and repairs it has undergone, the original appearance of it has been so greatly changed, that it has induced many to suppose the whole of it a much more modern structure. It has at this time a look of decay, the materials having greatly mouldered away, from its being so much exposed to the weather, and the corrosive quality of the sea air. At a distance it is a striking object, especially from the two spires at the west end. The stile of building is various, and of different ages; the middle isle and chancel being the most antient, the side isle of much later date. The west door is a pointed arch, of Caen Stone, with Saxon Ornaments, much decayed. The arch of the north door is circular. The quoins are of squared stones, the rest of the walls irregular stones mixed with Roman bricks. The roof was once, or at least intended to be, much higher and more pointed, as appears by the rise of the pediment at the west end between the two spires. There is a handsome flight of steps to the chancel from the isle, and another at the approach to the altar. The chancel is separated from the church by three small circular arches, supported by two losty round pillars, with plain capitals of a singular form. At the extremity of the east end is a handsome triplet of lancet windows, and four single ones of the same form on the north and south sides. At the west end of the body, over the door, is a triforium. The floor was laid in terras, made of coarse stone and mortar, so smooth as to seem polished, being thinly incrusted with a red composition, a small part of which only remains, facing the north door, and in the chancel the pavement is mixed with small figured tiles, like those in many other churches.
Leland says, in his Itinerary, vol. vii.p. 136, " The old building of the chirch of the abbay remayneth, having ii goodly spiring steples Yn the enteryng of the quyer ys one of the sayrest and the most auncyent crosse that ever I saw a ix footes, as I ges yn highte. It standyth lyke a fayr columne," (which he describes at large, with the figures on it, and lays) "The hiest part of the piller has the figure of a cross. In the chirch ys a very auncient boke of the Evangelyes in majusculis literis RO and yn the bordes therof ys a cristal stone thus inscribed CLAVDIA ATEPICCUS. Yn the north side of the chirch is the figure of a bishop paynted under an arch. In digging abowt the chyrch yarde they find old bokels of girdals and rings."
In this church the body of king Ethelbert is said to have been buried, and Weever says, in his time, that is, in king James I.'s reign, "there was remaining at the upper end of the south isle,a monument of an antique form, mounted with two spires, under which, according to tradition, this monarch lay." But no remains of the cross or monument are left, but a tablet had been put up to perpetuate the memory of it. In the chancel, within the altar-rails, is a handsome monument for Sir Cavalliero Maycote, and dame Marie his wife; above are their arms, Quarterly, ermine, on a canton, argent, a stag seiant, gules; and party per pale, sable and ermine, a chevron engrailed, gules. On the north side of the altar is carved in stone, Gules, semee of cross-croslets, a lion rampant, or . On a flat stone in the chancel, the effigies in brass of a man and his wife, and under them eight sons and seven daughters. He is represented in armour, with his feet on a greyhound. Over him a coat, three boars heads couped. She is in an immense high head dress, and over her three rams heads couped, and underneath an inscription for John Sandewey, esq. and Joane his wife. Near this grave-stone is an antient one, having a cross flory standing on a grice. Near the entrance is a memorial for Robert Godden, gent. late vicar of Reculver, obt. 1672. Against the south wall, on a tablet of black marble, is the figure, about a foot high, of a man habited in his herald's surcoat, cloak, trunkbreehes, boots and spurs, with short hair and beard; and over him, Or, a cross engrailed, party per pale, gules and sable, on a chief of the second, a lion passantguardant of the first; and underneath an inscription, for Ralph Brooke, esq. late Yorke herald, who died in 1625. In the middle isle are several stones with memorials for the families of Cobb and Hills, both of this parish; arms on the former, A chevron, between three cocks. And in a window of the south isle, there is remaining the arms of England, Gules, three lions passant guardant, or.
¶The church of Reculver was always appendant to the manor, parcel of the antient possessions of the see of Canterbury, to which it was, with the chapels of Herne, Hothe, and Reculver annexed, early appropriated; for archbishop Kilwardbye disliking the method of payment made by his predecessor Lanfranc to the hospitals of Harbledowne and Northgate, from this manor towards their support, withdrew it, and in lieu, appropriated to their use this parsonage, with the chapels annexed, saving a competent portion to the vicar, who should have the cure of the church. Which was confirmed by king Edward I. in his 4th year. (fn. 10) This alteration archbishop Peckham revoked, and restored the revenue of the parsonage to its former state. Archbishop Stratford, at the time he obtained licence anno 22 Edward III. to appropriate this parsonage, held in capite, towards the support of his table, added to the income of the hospitals twenty pounds likewise from it; but on the archbishop's death soon afterwards, no use was made of this licence, so far as related to the hospitals, till archbishop Islip, anno 1355, confirmed the same, and further decreed, that the whole of the sums payable yearly from the manor, viz. 140l. and 20l. likewise from this parsonage, should be paid yearly out of the rents and profits of the latter, so long as it should continue appropriated, which it is at this time. This parsonage extends likewise over the parishes of Herne and Hothe, formerly accounted as chapels to the church of Reculver, Richard Milles, esq. of Nackington, being the present lessee of it, under the archbishop, at the yearly rent of forty pounds. From the above time these two hospitals have continued to enjoy this allowance; but the parsonage becoming inadequate in its value to so large a payment, (fn. 11) it has been for some time past paid yearly as the archbishop's alms, out of the temporalities of the see of Canterbury.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
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The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
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SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
I have lived in Kent since 2007, and hadn't visited Sevenoaks before yesterday. It being one of Kent's major towns, this is something of a surprise, I even had to check my photostream on here to make sure: nothing for Sevenoaks.
For me, Sevenoaks is famous for two things: 1. the seven oaks destroyed in the 1987 "hurricane" and I suppose home to the chain of hi-fi shops, Sevenoaks Audio, though I didn't see a branch during my visit.
I don't know why I decided to visit here today, the idea had been to go to Nunhead to a large rambling and overgrown Victorian cemetery (more of that later), and the Southeastern website suggested the way there was via St Pancras and then on Thameslink. I thought there must have been a route across Kent, which is how I came to be in Sevenoaks, change here for Nunhead.
So, why not explore the town before travelling on?
So, I guess that's why I was here.
The spread of the new COVID variant meant I did consider cancelling the trip, but with no new lockdowns announced on Monday, and armed with a mask I set off, Jools dropping me off at Dover Priory at half six, withenough time for a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot) before my train pulled in.
Less than a dozen got in the 12 carriages, and there service trundled through Kent, Ashford, Pluckley, Marden, Staplehurst, Tonbdrige to deposit me here at Sevenoaks.
I and half a dozen people got off, I lingered to take a couple of shots before the long walk up the hill to the town centre.
Thanks to GSV, I had travelled up London Road to the centre of town, so knew it was a hike, but worth it. I mean, no point going somewhere if there was nothing of worth to snap, was there?
At first I walked past large houses, then at the major road junction, a sparkling Ferrari Dealership, not something we have in Dover, and not sure if Canterbury even has one. But Sevenoaks does, as well as on one, not two, but three dry cleaners, all looking busy.
The main shopping area had old pubs and coaching inns, clapboard houses and other with peg tiles decorating the outside, all got photographed, of course.
Att he top of the shopping streets, where the two A roads meet, there is a fine pre-warboys signpost that I snapped good and proper.
Finally, as the hill flattened out, the buildings got older still, before coming to the parish church, which I knew from research was almost impossible to get inside judging by the reviews left.
It wasn't yet nine, my back was complaining, so I took a seat in the chuchyard to wait.
Wait for what, I do not know.
The clocked chimed mournfully for nine, to the south, a couple of workmen repair the top of the substantial wall, and I guess the ownes comes into the churchyard to find bricks that have fallen from it. The wall is at least twenty feet high, separating the church from the grand house, I wonder what the owners thought were being kept out?
I looked at the west windows closer. Are those lights on inside, I asked myself. I'd better go and check.
So, I went round the north side of the chancel and nave, and came to the parish office. The door was open, there was a light on, and there was a lady at a desk, working away. Beyond I could see the west end of the nave, all lit up.
I'd ask if I could go in.
I put a mask on, knocked at he door and asked.
I'm not sure, but I'll go and check.
She checked, and I was told it was OK.
Inside, two ladies were putting even more chairs out into each nave, adding a booklet on each seat.
I'll try not to disturb you, i said. But they were fine about me being there, so I got to work. Now, as I wasn't expecting to do any crawling, I failed to bring the second camera body with wide angle lens fitted, so the compact would have to do. Thankfully the church was well lit.
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The church looks well from the main street, with its east end almost on the road. Built of local stone, the nave, aisles, chapels and tower are typical of fifteenth-century design. The church has been so often restored - in 1812, 1878, 1954 and most recently in 1994 when a crypt was built - that its historical interest is limited. However, the stained glass windows by Kempe and Heaton, Butler and Bayne are of excellent quality, especially those in the south aisle. There are also some interesting monuments, including one to William Lambarde (d. 1601), the first Kentish historian.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sevenoaks+1
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SEVENOKE.
NEXT southward from Seale lies the parish and town of SEVENOKE, called, in the Textus Roffensis, SEOUENACCA, which name was given to it from seven large oaks, standing on the hill where the town is, at the time of its being first built. It is now commonly called SENNOCK.
THE PARISH of Sevenoke is situated partly above and partly below the great ridge of sand hills which runs across this county, and divides the upland from the Weald or southern district of it. It is divided into three districts, the Town Borough, Rotherhith or Rethered, now called Riverhead, and the Weald. The parish is of considerable extent, being five miles in length, from north to south, and about four miles in width. The soil of it varies much; at and about the town, it is a sand, as it is towards the hill southward, below which it is a stiff clay, and towards the low grounds, to Riverhead, a rich sertile soil. It reaches more than a mile below the hill, where there is a hamlet, called Sevenoke Weald, lying within that district, for it should be known, that all that part of this parish, which lies below the great range of sand hills southward, is in the Weald of Kent, the bound of which is the narrow road which runs along the bottom of them, and is called, to distinguish it, Sevenoke Weald; thus when a parish extends below, and the church of it is above the hill, that part below, has the addition of Weald to it, as Sevenoke Weald, Sundridge Weald, and the like.
THE TOWN of Sevenoke lies about thirty-three miles from London, on high ground above the sand hill, the church, which is situated at the south end of it, is a conspicuous object each way to a considerable distance. The high roads from Westram; and from London through Farnborough, meeting at about a mile above it; and that from Dartford through Farningham and Otford, at the entrance of the town; and leading from thence again both to Penshurst and Tunbridge. Between the town and the hill there is much coppice wood, and a common, called Sevenoke common, on which is a seat, called Ash-grove, belonging to Mrs. Smith. The town of Sevenoke is a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood. In the middle of the High-Street is the house of the late Dr. Thomas Fuller, afterwards of Francis Austen, esq. clerk of the peace for this county; near which is the large antient market-place, in which the market, which is plentifully supplied with every kind of provisions, is held weekly on a Saturday; and the two fairs yearly, on July 10, and Oct. 12, and where the business of the assizes, when held at Sevenoke, as they were several times in queen Elizabeth's reign, and in the year before the death of king Charles I. and once since, has been usually transacted. At the south end of it is a seat, the residence of Multon Lambard, esq. at a small distance westward is the magnificent mansion and park of Knole; and eastward, a small valley intervening, the seat of Kippington; at a little distance northward of the town is an open space, called Sevenoke Vine, noted for being the place where the great games of Cricket, the provincial amusement of this county, are in general played; this joins to Gallows common, so called from the execution of criminals on it formerly. In the valley below it is Bradborne, and the famous silk mills, belonging to Peter Nonaille, esq. called Greatness, near which are the ruins of the hospital or chapel, dedicated to St. John, where this parish bounds to Otford.
About a mile north-west from the town, where the two roads from London and Westerham meet, is the large hamlet of Riverhead, bounded by the river Darent and the parish of Chevening; in which, among others, is the seat of Montreal; that of Mrs. Petley; and of the late admiral Amherst and others; most of which the reader will find described hereafter.
In the Account of the Roman Stations in Britain, written by Richard, a monk of Cirencester, published by Dr. Stukely, the station, called Vagniacæ, is supposed to have been at Sevenoke, which is there set down as eighteen miles distant both from Medum, Maidstone; and Noviomagus, Croydon; but in this opinion he has hardly been followed by any one.
THE MANOR OF SEVENOKE was always esteemed as an appendage to that of Otford, and as such was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till it was exchanged with the crown for other premises, by archbishop Cranmer, in the 9th year of Henry VIII. as will be further mentioned below.
THE MANOR OF KNOLE, with that of Bradborne, in this parish, had, according to the earliest accounts, for some time the same owners as the manors of Kemsing, Seale, and Bradborne. Accordingly, in king John's reign, they were in the possession of Baldwin de Betun, earl of Albemarle, from whom they went in marriage into the family of the Mareschalls, earls of Pembroke. Whilst one of these, William Mareschal, earl of Pembroke, sided with the rebellious barons at the latter end of king John's, and beginning of king Henry III's reign, the king seized on his lands, as escheats to the crown; during which time these manors seem to have been granted to Fulk de Brent, a desperate fellow, as Camden calls him. He was a bastard by birth, of mean extraction, who had come out of the low countries, with some foreign auxiliaries and freebooters, to king John's assistance, and became a great favorite, both with that king and his son, Henry III. from both of whom he was invested with much power, and had the lands of many of the barons conferred on him; till giving loose to his natural inclination, he became guilty of many cruelties and oppressions, and at length sided with prince Lewis of France in his design of invading England. But failing in this, he fled into Wales, and the king seized on all his possessions throughout England; after which, returning and pleading for mercy, in consideration of his former services, he was only banished the realm, and died in Italy soon afterwards, as is said, of poison. After which, the earl returning to his obedience, obtained the possession of these manor's again. (fn. 1) Hence they passed again in like manner to Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk, whose heir in the 11th year of king Edward I. conveyed them to Otho de Grandison; on whose death without issue, William de Grandison, his brother, became his heir; his grandson, Sir Thomas Grandison, passed away Knole to Geoffry de Say, and Braborne, Kemsing, and Seale, to others, as may be seen under their respective descriptions.
Geoffry de Say was only son and heir of Geoffry de Say, by Idonea his wife, daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas lord Leyborne, and was a man of no small consequence, having been summoned to parliament in the 1st year of king Edward III. and afterwards constituted admiral of all the king's fleets, from the river Thames westward, being then a banneret. He died in the 33d year of king Edward III. leaving William, his son and heir, and three daughters. William de Say left issue a son, John, who died without issue in his minority, anno 6 king Richard II. and a daughter Elizabeth, who was first married to Sir John de Fallesley, and afterwards to Sir William Heron, but died s. p. in the 6th year of king Edward IV. (fn. 2) so that the three sisters of William de Say became coheirs to the inheritance of this family. (fn. 3)
¶How the manor of Knole passed from the family of Say I do not find; but in the reign of king Henry VI. it was in the possession of Ralf Leghe, who then conveyed it by sale to James Fienes, or Fenys, as the name came now to be called, who was the second son of Sir William Fynes, son of Sir William Fienes, or Fynes, who had married Joane, third sister and coheir of William de Say above-mentioned. He was much employed by king Henry V. and no less in favor with king Henry VI. who, in the 24th year of his reign, on account of Joane, his grandmother, being third sister and coheir to William de Say, by an especial writ that year summoned him to parliament as lord Say and Seale; and, in consideration of his eminent services, in open parliament, advanced him to the dignity of a baron, as lord Say, to him and his heirs male. After which he was made constable of Dover-castle, and warden of the five ports, lord chamberlain, and one of the king's council; and, in the 28th year of that reign, lord treasurer; which great rise so increased the hatred of the commons against him, that having arraigned him before the lord mayor and others, they hurried him to the standard in Cheapside, where they cut off his head, and carried it on a pole before his naked body, which was drawn at a horse's tail into Southwark, and there hanged and quartered.
Of the THREE DISTRICTS, into which this parish is divided, of which those of Town Borough and the Weald have already been described, the remaining one of Riverhead is by no means inconsiderable. It lies about a mile from Sevenoke town, and seems formerly to have been written both Rotherhith and Rothered, comprehending the western part of this parish; it contains the large hamlet of Riverhead, in which are situated lord Amherst's seat of Montreal; that of Cool Harbour, late admiral Amherst's; and Mrs. Petley's; through this hamlet the road branches on the one hand to Westerham, and on the other across the river Darent towards Farnborough and London; hence it extends beyond Bradborne to the bounds of this parish, north-eastward, at Greatness, which is within it.
In this hamlet was the antient mansion, called Brook's Place, Supposed to have been built by one of the family of Colpeper, out of the materials taken from the neighbouring suppressed hospital of St. John. It afterwards came into the possession of a younger branch of the family of Amherst. Jeffrey Amherst, esq. bencher of Gray's-inn, was owner of it, and resided here at the latter end of the last century. He was descended of ancestors, who had been seated at Pembury in the reign of king Richard II. from whom, in a direct line, descended Richard Amherst, esq. who left three sons; the eldest of whom, Richard, was sergeant at law, and of Bayhall, in Pembury, in the description of which a full account will be given of him and his descendants. Jeffry, the second, was ancestor of the Riverhead branch, as will be mentioned hereafter; and William, the third son, left an only daughter, Margaret, married to John Champs of Tunbridge.
Jeffry Amherst was rector of Horsemonden, and resided at Southes, in Sussex, where he died, and was buried in 1662; whose grandson, Jeffry Amherst, esq. was of Riverhead, as has been before mentioned. and a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1713, was buried at Pembury. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Yates, esq. of Sussex, he had several children, of whom, Jeffry, the second son, only arrived at maturity, and was of Riverhead; he was a bencher of Gray's-inn, and dying in 1750, was buried in Sevenoke church, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Kerrill, esq. of Hadlow, by whom he had seven sons and two daughters, viz. Elizabeth, married to John Thomas, clerk, of Welford, in Gloucestershire; and Margaret, who died unmarried.
Of the sons, Sackville, the eldest, died unmarried in 1763, Jeffry the second, will be mentioned hereafter; John, the third, was of Riverhead, and viceadmiral of the blue squadron; he married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lindzee, of Portsmouth, by whom he had no issue; he died in 1778, and his widow re-married Thomas Munday, esq. The seventh son, William, was a lieutenant-general in the army, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Patterson, esq. of London. He died in 1781, leaving one son, William-Pitt, and a daughter, Elizabeth-Frances.
Jeffry Amherst, esq. the second son, became, at length, possessed of the mansion of Brooks, and attaching himself early in life to the prossession of a soldier, he acquired the highest military honours and preferments, after a six years glorious war in North America, of which he was appointed governor and commander in chief in 1760; which, when he resigned, the king, among other marks of his royal approbation of his conduct, appointed him governor of the province of Virginia.
¶The victorious atchievements of the British forces in North America, during Sir Jeffry Amherst's continuance there, cannot be better summed up than by giving two of the inscriptions on an obelisk, in the grounds of his seat at Montreal; viz.
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
© I m a g e D a v e F o r b e s
Engagement 4,000+
Beached at Rosneath ( Clyde ) for Breaking October 2015
______________________________________________
After an extensive Inspection after her grounding the Ship's Structure was deemed a CTL ( Constructive Total Loss )
MARINE INCIDENT
Lysblink Seaways had the misfortune grounding herself near to Ardnamurchan Point on 17/2/15. Luckily through large tides she freed herself and was towed south to Greenock for a dry dock inspection and possible repairs. She is pictured enclosed in the Inchgreen Dry Dock
The ship was deemed as a Structural Total Loss with her double-skinned hull being breached and no option to be Sold for Breaking with no certificate of continuance forthcoming.
VESSEL BUILDER
Constructed in 2000 India
by ABG Surat
Last Operator DFDS Seaways
7,409grt
IMO 9197313
NAMING HISTORY
2000-2012 > LYSBLINK ( 12 Years )
© I m a g e D a v e F o r b e s
Engagement 1,000+
Out of Campbeltown through the Firth of Clyde
A nice summer trip onboard the Calmac ferry Isle of Arran
(IMO 8219554) looking towards her stern and path of her wake sailing through the Firth of Clyde , with the Kintyre Peninsula in the background and still an hour and a half to Ardrossan.
The three year trial 'summer only service' between Ardrossan - Brodick & Campbeltown ceased in Sept 2015 but a quick resolution for it's continuance had been successful and now made permanent
The 2024 sailing season between the two ports has been suspended with the shortage of ferries due to extensive repairs , this continued into 2025 and the 2026 Season
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
The Development of Pärnu Resort
Pärnu was transferred to the Swedes in 1617. The building of fortresses began in the area of Estonia and Latvia as defensive sites against a strengthening Russia, which was attempting to expand to the Baltic Sea.
Therefore, construction began on fortification works in Pärnu in the 1670s, modeled on examples from Western Europe such as those in France and the Netherlands.
The town is located on flat land and was surrounded by a heptagonal belt of bastions and a wide and deep moat. By the end of the 17th century, Pärnu had become the most contemporary baroque fortress in Livonia.
As a result of the Great Northern War (1700–1721), Russia took over the areas of both Estonia and Livonia. The Swedish garrison surrendered Pärnu to the Russian armed forces in 1710. The building of fortifications was continued during the post-war period – according to the sources available – and involved the renovation and updating of the existing facilities and the completion of structures begun by the Swedes.
In 1835, Pärnu was removed from the list of fortifications of the Russian Empire. Once again, the town was free of restrictions (that is, interference coming from the representatives of military authority) and run by the Town Magistrate. Tsar Nicholas I gave the fortification belt and the accompanying buildings to the town while the Town Magistrate of Pärnu leased the majority of the former military buildings to enterprising town citizens.
Pärnu was to be hurled into the era of change and innovation. This era turned the closed fortress town into an open seaside resort, ‘bathing in greenery’ and characterised by numerous parks, shady boulevards and elegant architecture.
The Story of the First Bathing Establishment
1838-1888
In 1837, a petition was filed with the Magistrate of Pärnu for the building of a bathing institution, and, in June 1838, the resort was opened for its first guests.
Heated seawater baths and sea bathing opportunities were offered in summer while the establishment operated a sauna in winter.
The operations of the private Bathing Establishment, having launched its business with such gusto, remained rather modest during the next decades. Nevertheless, the first bathing institution had a considerable effect on, above all, the development of both Pärnu resort and the town as a whole.
In 1860, the dismantling of earthen fortifications and the filling of moats began in Pärnu, resulting in the development of a green belt of parks and alleys around Pärnu downtown by the end of the 19th century.
In 1879, Mr. Oskar Alexander Brackmann (1841-1927) was elected Mayor of Pärnu (1879-1916/18) and a new era began in the development of both the town and resort of Pärnu. The town government became more focused on town planning, organisation and the holiday business.
In 1882, work began on the Beach Park (Rannapark). During the following decades a beautiful, free-shaped natural park was designed around the alley to the Bathing Establishment (Supeluse Street) and Rannasalong and Kuursaal, built in its vicinity.
The number of guests that visited the resort of Pärnu remained rather modest until the end of the 1880s, mostly as a result of economic instability, poor connection roads, a lack of publicity, and insufficient experience with the organisation of bathing. The Bathing Establishment experienced ongoing economic problems and was only able to stay in business due to donations from the trading office of Mr. H. Schmidt.
Nevertheless, the first bathing institution had a considerable effect on, above all, the development of both Pärnu resort and the town as a whole.
Story of the Making of the Resort: 1898-1915
In 1889, the town government decided to introduce some new guidelines for the organisation of the holiday areas and for the development of the resort.
The development trends and principles of Pärnu health resort were thus instituted. The Resort or Bathing Committee was established for the fast and efficient achievement of the objectives, completed by the creation of the position of a paid holiday manager or bathing inspector.
Upon request from the town, the Park Director of Riga devised a park and boulevard development plan for Pärnu.
The Sea Boulevard was designed, Rannapark (Beach Park) was expanded to provide space for sports fields, a velodrome, playing areas for children, arbours and villas.
Pärnu was a small town, but features characteristic of a city were adopted for landscaping purposes and the establishment of parks.
In 1890, Pärnu made its way to the list of Russian imperial resorts. In 1891, an entertainment centre – the Rannasalong or Kuursaal (Beach Salon or Resort Hall), which became the central entertainment venue in Pärnu – was established.
In 1896, a narrow-gauge railway between Pärnu and Valga was officially opened, followed by a Pärnu-Mõisaküla-Viljandi-Tallinn rail connection in 1901. This contributed to a rapid rise in the amount of summer holiday guests and a consequent increase in the utilisation of healing and bathing services.
The most successful pre-war bathing season was in 1908, when Pärnu accommodated approximately 2,500 summer guests. After this time, the number of summer guests began to drop. In 1911, only 1,700 summer guests found their way to Pärnu; by 1914, the number had dropped to 1,100.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 also put an end to the business of Pärnu resort in the summer of 1915. One of the largest and most contemporary healing mud and bathing establishments suffered severe damages during the war and was completely destroyed in a fire that broke out in the autumn of 1915.
The Story of the Formal Representative Resort of the Republic of Estonia 1918-1940
Pärnu had to start the construction of the resort anew during the first period of Estonian independence – but under completely different political and economic conditions. The first years were difficult and inconsistent for the resort; nevertheless, the holiday business soon began to boom.
In 1924, Oskar Kask began his period of office as the Mayor of Pärnu (1924 – 1937). Under his initiative, the resort, once again, became one of the key elements that shaped the development and reputation of the town of Pärnu.
In 1925, the borders of the bathing and holiday area of the town of Pärnu were determined, which, supplemented by the additions of 1935, largely coincide with the boundary of the resort today.
In July 1927, the new mud baths were officially opened. The number of guests that visited Pärnu in the summer rocketed from 700 people in 1920 to 2,500 people in 1927. The majority of the foreign visitors came from Finland.
In 1928, a Pärnu-Eidapere-Lelle rail connection was opened. This was very important for the development of the resort – instead of the former 14 hours, it now only took 4 hours to travel from Tallinn to Pärnu.
In the 1930s, supported by President Konstantin Päts and the town architect, Olev Siinmaa, Pärnu became a modern resort, characterised by buildings in the functionalist style. The treatment and holiday alternatives were more and more widely acknowledged at an international level.
From 1934, Swedes began to dominate the population of foreigners frequenting Pärnu, closely followed by summer guests from Finland, Latvia and Germany. In 1937, a shipping line between Stockholm and Pärnu was launched; in summer 1939, two steamboats travelled this line twice a week.
Rannahotell (Beach Hotel) was opened in 1937, Suursild (Great Bridge) over River Pärnu and hotel-pension Vasa in 1938, and in 1939 – for the anniversary of the resort – an imposing Rannakohvik (Beach Café) were built. In the summer of 1939, more than 8,000 summer guests, 60% from abroad, had made their way to Pärnu.
The town was in the process of devising new development trends for the holiday area, but the outbreak of World War II and the accompanying political turmoil interrupted the development of the resort.
War-Time Resort: 1940-1944
As a result of the turmoil in the summer of 1940, the management of the Pärnu resort was transferred to the ‘executive body of working people’ – the Central Council of the All-Union Trade Unions.
On 7th July, the first guests arrived at the holiday home that was opened at Rannahotell – approximately 100 labour veterans. During the holiday season that lasted until 29th September, approximately 1,144 labour veterans from all over Estonia spent their holidays there. It was intended to use the enterprises, once belonging to the town, to open new holiday homes and medical establishments for the working class.
In the summer of 1941, the assets of Pärnu resorts – their administration and management – were transferred to the Resort Board of the Central Union of Estonian Professional Bodies, established by German occupational authorities.
The activities of the sanatoria and nursing homes, operating since 1940, were terminated and all the resort enterprises were converged into one uniform establishment.
In May 1942, both Rannakohvik and the Bathing Establishment opened their doors for the summer season. In spite of the war situation, this season was characterised by hordes of visitors. The Bathing Establishment had an outstandingly busy season – in 4 months, 21,100 different healing baths were given, 17,780 to civilians.
In 1943, the Resort Board consisted of 7 enterprises – Rannahotell, the Bathing Establishment, the Ranna café, Grand Hotel, rented apartment houses, an accommodation service for special purposes and a workshop/garden nursery.
At the formal opening of the 105th season of the Pärnu resort, it was admitted that the premier function of the resort for that season was to provide services to front-line soldiers, who came there for vacation and treatment.
Once occupied again by the Soviet Union, Pärnu resort began its post-war activities in November 1944. The resort enterprises, which had operated during the previous occupation, were used to open a nursing home for the treatment and recreation of 150 war veterans; another nursing home for 200 veterans was opened by the end of the same year.
The Story of the Sanatoria-type Healing Resort of the Soviet Period:
1945-1990
In 1945, the planning and building of a new network of sanatoria and nursing homes was started. Pärnu was to become one of the most important treatment and holiday sites for the workers of both Estonia and the other Soviet republics.
First of all, large-scale cleaning and maintenance works were to be performed in the town. Downtown, two thirds of which had been damaged, beach parks, green areas and multiple streets and boulevards were waiting to be restored.
In 1946-48, Pärnu became into an ‘All-Union’ sanatoria resort that operated around the year. Being made subject to the Soviet management procedure, which was launched with a zest, the number of patients being treated increased rapidly.
While in 1948, 6,300 patients were treated in Pärnu, this figure had rocketed to 14,000 by 1962. Construction activities also gathered speed – new large-scale accommodation and treatment facilities for the sanatoria were built into the resort area.
In 1957, the Resort Studies Department of the Experimental and Clinical Medicine Institute was opened in Pärnu.
By the 1960s, Pärnu had become the largest therapeutic resort and the centre of research conducted in the sphere of resorts.
The expansion of the resort continued into the 1970 and 1980s. In 1971, the first stage of the Tervis resort was opened; the premises of the existing resorts were also modernised and expanded.
In the middle of the 1980s, the sanatoria in Pärnu admitted approximately 25,000 patients for treatments each year. Together with holiday-makers, accommodated by departmental boarding, nursing homes and private houses, approximately 300,000 tourists visited Pärnu each year.
In 1988, the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the resort of Pärnu was celebrated. Regardless of the positive achievements highlighted in the speeches and brochures about the anniversary, the Soviet resort system was being exhausted in both an economic and organisational sense.
The Story of the Holiday Town of the Soviet Period: 1944-1990
In the 1950s, Pärnu, once again, become a popular summer holiday resort.
The pre-war resort heritage – numerous parks and green areas, attractive bathing architecture and beach areas and a diversified, high-level choice of cultural events in summer – preserved Pärnu’s resort town atmosphere even under the Soviet political and economic conditions.
“Unorganised” holiday-makers or people arriving to Pärnu for a vacation on their own were mostly accommodated in premises rented by the local population and therefore, there’s no statistical information available regarding the number of visitors who frequented Pärnu during the Soviet period. It is estimated that the number of Pärnu’s ‘inhabitants’ increased two- or three-fold during the summer.
Pärnu used to be the summer home for numerous representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. One of the most outstanding violin players of the 20th century, David Oistrahh, while spending his holidays in Pärnu in 1954-71, said: “I love Pärnu with all my heart. I feel like breathing more freely when staying here.”
In the “Two questions to a Guest” column of the Pärnu Kommunist newspaper (1987), the poet and translator Aleksandr Judahhin, when asked – Why did you insist on having a photograph of you and your son published by the newspaper? answered as follows: “Because in 1882 – as we learnt when browsing the family archive of pictures – his great-grandfather Konstantin Siegel went to Pärnu for holidays. Therefore, my son Ivan is the fifth generation to spend a vacation in Pärnu. This means that his ‘Pärnu roots’ are 105 years old.”
The Story of Estonia’s Summer Capital
1991- Present
As in the 1890s and 1920s, the Town Government had to assure the continuance of the traditions of Pärnu as a resort and holiday town in the 1990s. Inevitably, once again (as in the 1920s), focus had to be given to the ‘new’ nearest foreign markets – Finland, Sweden, Latvia, etc. The key issue was the restitution of the assets of Pärnu resort. The town was only restituted the resorts’ assets in 1994 following long negotiations.
Due to the lack of a centralised management and administrative system, the future of the resort establishment was largely dependent on their management’s initiative and ability to point out the potential problems and to operate under changing conditions.
The first trendsetter under new conditions was the privatised AS Sanatoorium Tervis (1992). In August of 1993, AS Taastusravikeskus Viiking opened its doors to visitors. AS Taastusravikeskus Estonia (1995), AS Taastusravikeskus Sõprus (1995) and AS Pärnu Mudaravila, continuing their business as municipal property, were able to tune in, step by step, with the rapid changes that characterised the transition period.
Pärnu restored its position as the most popular resort in Estonia and in June 1996, Pärnu was, once again, declared the Summer Capital of Estonia. In 1996-98, rehabilitation enterprises operating in Pärnu made up 65-70% of Estonia’s therapeutic resort potential. 60% of patients in rehabilitation institutions stayed in Pärnu while 85% of all the foreign guests were treated in Pärnu.
The survey of Pärnu’s summer guests, organised since 1995, shows a steady increase of foreign guests from an ever-expanding variety of countries. In 1995-2000, the respective numbers went from 44,000 (1995) to 105,000 (in 2000) while in 2007, approximately 200,000 foreign guests visited Pärnu. Visitors and tourists from Finland, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, etc. are dominant among the guests.
Pärnu Summer Capital has become one of the most visited holiday and therapeutic resorts in Estonia.
In continuance of his “Evil Plan” to take over the world and be the one Aggie Ring that rules them all, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring had me drive him from his lair to the local brewery. There, he met with a mysterious zymologist wearing a silly hat who provided Aggie Ring with a glass apothecary jar containing a special white powder.
“Soon…” said Aggie Ring. “It will be soon. They said I was mad but I will soon achieve my Aggie Ring destiny and rule the world.”
I mentioned to Aggie Ring, “That’s an odd looking white powder. It reminds me of the lyrics from a song Eric Clapton sings.”
“Oh yes,” said Aggie Ring with an evil laugh, “She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie… Cocaine.”
#AggieRing
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
This mission was simple. Go in, get the pirate, and get out. I was told he would have some of his henchmen-type pirates with him and that they wouldn’t be too hard to get past. Things started to go down-hill when they decided to assign a Consolate to assist me. Who do they think I am, a foot-soldier? I am a damn Galactic Conquistador, the best of the best, the elite of the grand Spanisa Army. I should not need to be trailed by a damn spook for a mission like this. Whatever, I guessed I could live with him. So long as he didn’t try to take over the mission, I thought I’d be fine. When we began to track the pirate, Darzz Lambint, through several well-known hiding planets for outlaws before settling on an odd planet called Farsss. The jack-ass that named the planet must have thought he was clever, as the smell of the planet was that of an arse. The planet didn’t look much more appetizing than one, either. After talking around for a few hours, we found the rough location of his MBOO (main base of operations); a well hidden rock outcropping that had been transformed into a virtual fortress. Luckily, our armor was fortified from most conventional firearms. Anything more than a .50 caliber bullet may be troublesome, though. The armor was also less helpful when going against melee weapons, which is why we were trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat. We attacked that dawn, as the pirates were lounging. The first one we came upon expected nothing. I snapped his neck. The Consolate took out the next, simply knocking him out. When we go closer, our cover was blown. I lost my PickAx after impaling one of the pirates’ throats with it. I switched to my sidearm as soon as that happened. We moved quickly, taking out a sniper on a turret above us, several machine-gunners, several scouts and a second sniper. When we finished, we retrieved the man the Consolate had knocked out. He was very cooperative after losing one of his knee-caps. We learned that they were only a small number of the pirates left loyal to Darzz. He had left a few days earlier with several of his loyal bodyguards in search of more men and hoping to run into several deserters. He had not contacted the aliens since. The Consolate decapitated him, as his usefulness had run thin. Damn spook. After cursing myself for being so close to the pirate, yet not finding him in time, I noticed the gun near the first sniper the Consolate had killed. I asked him to go check it and after he climbed up and saw the markings, told me whose it was. He told me it was a detached deck gun from a Tangerize troop transport. I had no clue what pirates were doing with Tangerize tech, so I made a mental note to find out what was going on. I decided to leave the bodies out for some scavengers to find; also hoping Darzz would return and see his men dead. We left and I began to go over my contacts in the Tangerize Army, ready to find out the reason for the turret.
Oh hey, a build. So yeah……. Anyone remember this WiP from some time ago? I finally found some time to finish it…….. :b
Now where have I heard Galactic Conquestador before? And what about Darzz Lambant? And now that you mention it, Tangerize Army?
Are you implying that I am connecting multiple story-lines to my one faction and ongoing story?
:3
Credit to Eric S-J for the idea.
The Cluffs-Lancer fleet is set 15 years ago and 2004 has seen the delivery of two brand new coaches to show Quicksilver's commitment to this operator and continuance of both fleetnames. They are a not quite identical pair of Plaxton Profile-bodied Dennis Javelins with cherished registrations, 98 (CL04 UFF) with Cluffs names and 99 (GO04 LAN) with Go Lancer ones.
Continuance from previous photo::::
Dr. Lutzenberger mentioned the displacement of Indians in an interview 25 years ago (has anything really changed since then?!), where he explained the following:
“Regarding the wholesale destruction of Nature in Brazil, there has never in the history of Life been a biological holocaust such as the one being conducted here. Thousands of species disappear every year without anybody's noticing.
Every time a unique ecosystem is wiped out (and we've had thousands ruined in Brazil's Amazon basin) uncounted endemic species go with it. And as you know, the Universe is poorer for every species that goes. Each lifeline in the Symphony of Evolution is a unique, irreversible historical process that can be cut off but can never be resumed thereafter.
Whether increasing ecological consciousness will, in time, provoke a reversal of this country's practices remains to be seen. I can only hope so for our children's sake, for Life's sake!”
The last weekend of the month, and the first after pay day, which means I could order some socks. And at Tesco I could replenish the wine stocks with a box of 3l of te cheapest red.
Being the end of January, it is now getting light when we set off for Tesco, the neon lights of the retail park at Whitfield as daylight grows stronger. Somehow we had used double the fuel as last week, with only an half hour's drive to Stodmarsh last week being the extra driving we did.
Tesco has Valentine's cards, presents and also Easter eggs and other stuff celebrating days in the forthcoming months.
We had a list of stuff to get, not just beer and wine, and lots of vegetables as we are having Jen, Mike and his new girlfriend over for lunch on Sunday.
If I remember to get the chicken out of the freezer, of course.
That all done, and somehow, ten quid cheaper than last week even with wine and Belgian beer, we headed home for first breakfast, coffee, then bacon butties and more brews once we had put the shopping away.
At ten we went out, only for a warning light to come on as the engine turned over. It seems a bulb in the headlight had gone, but the car knew which one it was. On the way to Lyminge, there is a Halfords, now that the one on Dover closed over the pandemic, so we tootled along the A20, over the top of Shakespeare Down and into town.
Jools found the bulb and a nice young lady fitted it for us, getting access from the wheelarch via a small panel. All done in ten minutes for fifteen quid.
And road legal again.
Back onto the motorway for the one junction before taking the turning for the back road to Hythe, though we headed inland through Etchinghill to Lyminge. And I realised it was years since we had driven this road, as we have been coming to the orchid fields through Barham usually, not from Folkestone.
The road climbs and turns round the foot of the downs before levelling out as it approaches Lyminge.
We go through the village, past the rows of the parked cars, and the small library in the building of the village railway station once the line from Folkestone to Canterbury closed at the end of the 50s.
The village of Lyminge stretches along the main road and around the former station, but the church is situated a short way along Church Street (of course), on a low mound, from under which the largest winterbourne, The Nailbourne, rises. It has been a site of worship since Roman times, maybe even before then.
We were here because in 2019, major excavations revealed the remains of the 7th century chapel of Queen Ethelburga. It was uncovered under the path that now leads under the single flying buttress to the porch, and since the dig ended, the path relaid, but with the outline of the chapel clearly showing in different colour tarmac.
I photographed the stained glass, as the ongoing plan to revisit churches already done, but with the big lens as I always seem to find something new to do in them. This time the glass through the big glass of the zoom lens.
Before leaving we walk down to the Well to revisit the source of the Nailbourne, some twenty feet below the road, the clear and cold waters of the bourne come bubbling out of the ground before meandering across the verdant meadow.
We set the sat nav for home, and it leads us down to the bottom of the valley and up the other side through Acris. The bed of the Nailbourne was already dry, despite it being just a mile from the source, because the water table isn't high enough, and the water seeps through the chalk bedrock instead.
We travel down lanes that got ever narrower, with grass growing between the wheeltracks. The road much less travelled for sure.
At Swingfield, we were greeted by the sweep of a hedge made of native dogwood, its new shoots showing starkly red in the sunshine against the clear blue sky. We stop to take shots.
We get home in time for a brew and a chocolate bar before the football was going to start. But I had other plans, as I made tagine for our early dinner. Which, we ate before four as it smelled so darned good bubbling away in the oven.
Some flavoured couscous to go with it, and a glass of red vin out of the box.
Lovely.
Scully and I sit on the sofa until half seven in the evening, either listening to the reports of the three o'clock games, or watching the evening kick off.
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In the churchyard, west of the present building, are the foundations of the seventh-century church founded by St Ethelburga, daughter of King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha (see Canterbury). The present church is also Saxon and stands north of the original building so that the old north wall is now the south wall of today's church. When the church was founded there was no village, which explains why the present village stands a little removed from this restricted plateau site. The first thing the visitor sees is an enormous flying buttress holding up the south-east corner of the church - the pathway actually runs beneath it! The north aisle was added in the fifteenth century and is separated from the nave by a three-bay arcade with most unusual piers. The chancel arch is also out of the ordinary and is probably the result of fifteenth-century rebuilding of the Saxon original. A great deal of nineteenth-century work survives, including a good east window and reredos, but none of this detracts from the antiquity and atmosphere of this interesting building.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Lyminge
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LIMINGE
IS the next parish eastward, both to Stowting and Elmsted. It is written in the book of Domesday, Leminges, and in other records, Lymege. There are three boroughs in it, those of Liminge, Siberton, and Eatchend.
THE PARISH lies on the northern or opposite side of the down hills from Stanford, at no great distance from the summit of them. It is a large parish, being about six miles in length, and about three in breadth, from east to west, and the rents of it about 2000l. per annum. It lies the greatest part of it on high ground, on the east side of the Stone-street way, where it is a dreary and barren country of rough grounds, covered with woods, scrubby coppice, broom, and the like, the soil being and unfertile red earth, with quantities of hard and sharp stint stones among it. In that part adjoining to the Stone-street way, is Westwood, near two miles in length; and not far from it, two long commons or heaths, the one called Rhode, the other Stelling Minnis; of the latter, a small part only being within this parish, there are numbers of houses and cottages built promiscuously on and about them, the inhabitants of which are as wild, and in as rough a state as the country they dwell in. Near the southern boundary of the parish is the estate and manor of Liminge park, which, as well as Westwood, belongs to Mr. Sawbridge, of Ollantigh, who has near 700 acres of woodland in this parish, the whole of his estate here having been formerly appurtenant to the manor of Liminge, and together with it, exchanged by archbishop Cranmer as before-mentioned, with king Henry VIII. in his 31st year. On the east part of these hills, towards the declivity of them, the soil changes to chalk, and not far from the foot of them are the houses of Longage and Siberton, the former of which belonged to the Sawkins's, and then to the Scotts, a younger branch of those of Scotts-hall; afterwards by marriage to William Turner, of the White Friars, in Canterbury, and then again in like manner to David Papillon, esq. whose grandson Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise, now owns it. Below these hills is the great Nailbourn valley, which is very spacious and wide here, on each side of which the hills are high and very frequent, and the lands poor, but in the vale near the stream there is a tract of fertilelands and meadows, and the country becoming far from unpleasant, is as well as the rest of the parish exceedingly healthy. The valley extends quite through the parish from north to south; just above it, on the side of the hill, is the village of Liminge, in which is the parsonage-house, a handsome modern dwelling, and above it, still higher, the church. More southward in the valley is a house, called Broadstreet, the property and residence of the Sloddens for many generations; still further in the valley, near the boundary of the parish, and adjoining to the Hangres, being a part of the down or chalk hills, which continue on to Caldham, near Folkestone, a space of near six miles, is the hamlet of Echinghill, or Eachand, corruptly so called for Ikenild, close under the hill of which name it lies, the principal house in which formerly belonged to the Spicers, of Stanford; hence the road leads to Beechborough, and so on to Hythe.
A fair is held in the village of Liminge yearly, on July 5, for toys, pedlary, &c.
Near Eching street, a little to the southward of it, is a spring or well, called Lint-well, which runs from thence southward below Newington towards the sea; and on the opposite or north side of that street rises another spring, which takes a direct contrary course from the former, one running through the valley northward towards North Liminge, where it is joined by two springs, which rise in Liminge village, at a small distance north-east from the church, gushing out of the rock at a very small space from each other, the lowermost of which called St. Eadburg's well, never fails in its water. These united springs, in summer time in general, flow no further than Ottinge, about one mile from their rise, at which time the space from thence to Barham is dry there; but whenever their waters burst forth and form the stream usually called the Nailbourn, which the country people call the Nailbourne's coming down, then, though in the midst of summer, they become a considerable stream, and with a great gush and rapidity of waters, flow on to a place called Brompton's Pot, which is a large deep pond, a little above Wigmore, having a spring likewise of its own, which hardly ever overflows its bounds, excepting at these times, when, congenial with the others, it bursts forth with a rapidity of water, about three miles and an half northward from Liminge, and having jointly with those springs overfilled its bounds, takes its course on by Barham into the head of the Little Stour, at Bishopsborne, making a little river of its own size. These Nailbourns, or temporary land springs, are not unusaual in the parts of this country eastward of Sittingborne, for I know of but one, at Addington near Maidstone, which is on the other side of it. (fn. 1) Their time of breaking forth or continuance of running, is very uncertain; but whenever they do break forth, it is held by the common people as the forerunner of scarcity and dearness of corn and victuals. Sometimes they break out for one or perhaps two successive years, and at others with two, three, or more years intervention, and their running continues sometimes only for a few months, and at others for three or four years, as their springs afford a supply. (fn. 2)
Dr. Gale, in his Comment on Antorinus's Itinerary, conjectures that at this village of Leming two Roman ways, one from Lenham to Saltwood castle, and the other from Canterbury to Stutfal castle, intersected each other; as indeed they do at no great distance from it, nearer to Limne; and that the word Lemen, now by modern use written Leming, was by our early ancestors used to denote a public way. Hence that military way leading from Isurium to Cataractouium, is called Leming-lane, and the town near it Le- ming. So in the county of Gloucester, on the sosseway, there is a town called Lemington. Hence, he adds, that Durolevum, in this county, changed its name into Lenham, to signify its being situated on the public way or road; and perhaps the name of Ikenhill, very probably so called corruptly for Ickneld, in this parish before-mentioned, has still further strengthened this conjecture; there being said to have been two Roman ways of the name of Icknild-street, in this kingdom, though no one yet has determined precisely where they were.
¶The Manor of Liminge was part of the antient possessions of the monastery of Christ-church, in Canterbury, to which it had been given in the year 964, on the supperssion of the monastery founded in this parish by Ethelburga, called by some Eadburga, daughter of king Ethelbert, who by the favour of her brother king Eadbald, built this monastery to the honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of her own niece St. Mildred. Ethelburga, the founder, was buried in it, as was St. Mildred, whose bodies were afterwards removed by archbishop Lanfrance to St. Gregories church, in Canterbury. This monastery was at first said to consist of nuns, but afterwards came under the government of an abbot, and continued so, till suffering much by the continual ravages of the Danes, it was suppressed and granted to the monastery of Christ-church as before-mentioned. (fn. 3) The possessions of it here were given at different times during the Saxon heptarchy; some of them were given to this church of Liminge, in the time of archbishop Cuthbert, who had been abbot of it. After which this manor remained part of the possessions of the monastery of Christ-church, till archbishop Lanfranc dividing the revenues of his church between himself and his monks, this manor was allotted to the archbishop; in which state it continued at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which it is thus entered:
In Moniberge hundred, the archbishop himself holds Leminges, in demesne. It was taxed at seven sulings. The arable land is sixty carucates. In demesne there are four, and one hundred and one villeins, with sixteen borderers having fifty-five carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and one mill of thirty pence, and one fishery of forty eels, and thirty acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of one hundred hogs.
There belong to it six burgesses in Hede. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth twenty four pounds, and afterwards forty pounds, and now the like, and yet it yields sixty pounds.
Of this manor three tenants of the archbishop hold two sulings and an half, and half a yoke, and they have there five carucates in demesne, and twenty villeins, with sixteen borderers having five carucates and an half, and one servant, and two mills of seven shillings and six-pence, and forty acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of eleven hogs. There are two churches. In the whole it was worth eleven pounds.
Thomas Bedingfield gave by will in 1691, a house and lands in the parish of St. Mary, Romney Marsh, this parish, and Woodchurch, towards the education and maintenance of poor children of the parishes of Smeeth, Liminge, and Dimchurch; and 10s. unto two poor women of each of the said parishes yearly. They are of the annual value of 54l. 10s. and are vested in trustees.
David Spycer, of this parish, by will in 1558, devised to the poor of it 20l. to be paid them yearly at 20s. a year.
There is an unendowed school here, for the teaching of boys and girls reading, writing, and accounts; and an alms-house, consisting of two dwellings, the donor of it to the parish unknown.
The poor constantly maintained are about fifty, casually 30.
Liminge is within the Eccelstical Jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Elham.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Eadburgh, consists of two isles and a chancel, having a square tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, at the west end, in which are five bells. This church is handsome, being built of quarry stone. The arches and pillars on the north side of the south isle are elegant. In the chancel is a monument for William Hollway, esq. chief justice of Gibraltar, obt. 1767, who with his mother and wife, lie buried in a vault underneath, arms, Sable, two swords in saltier, argent. and memorials in it, as well as in the south isle, for the family of Sawkins. In the north isle a memorial for John Lyndon, A. M. vicar, obt. 1756. In the east window are the arms of the see of Canterbury impaling Bourchier; and in one of the south windows a bishop's head and mitre. On the outside of the steeple, are the arms of the see of Canterbury impaling Warham, that on the south side having a cardinal's hat over it. At the south-east corner of the chancel is a very remarkable buttress to it, the abutment being at some feet distance from the chancel, and joined to it by the half of a circular arch, seemingly very antient. In the church-yard are two tombs for the Scotts, of Longage. Henry Brockman, of Liminge, appears by his will in 1527, to have been buried in this church, and devised to the making of the steeple five pounds, as the work went forward; and David Spycer, of this parish, by will in 1558, devised to this church a chalice, of the price of five pounds. (fn. 10) This church, with the chapels of Stanford and Padlesworth annexed, was always accounted an appendage to the manor, and continued so till the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when the archbishop conveyed the manor to the king, but reserved the patronage and advowson of this church out of the grant to himself, by which means it became separated from the manor, and became an advowson in gross; and though the archbishop afterwards, by his deed anno 38 Henry VIII. conveyed it to the king and his heirs, and the king that same year granted it, with the manor and its appurtenances in fee, to Sir Anthony Aucher as before-mentioned, and it was possessed by the same owners as the manor from time to time, yet having been once separated, it could never be appendant to it again. Through which chain of ownership it afterwards came at length to lord Loughborough, and from him again to the Rev. Mr. Ralph Price, the present proprietor and patron of it.
The church of Liminge is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. There is both a rectory and vicarage endorsed belonging to this church, which appears to have been before the 8th of king Richard II.
The rectory is a sinecure, and the vicar performs the whole service of the cure, but they both receive institution and induction, and although some years ago this establishment of it was attempted by the ordinary to be set aside as separate benefices, it was without effect, and the Rev. Mr. Ralph Price, the patron, continues to present to both rectory and vicarage.
The rectory, with the two chapels above-mentioned, is valued in the king's books at 21l. 10s. and the yearly tenths at 2l. 3s. Procurations 1l. 10s. The vicarage at 10l. 18s. 9d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 1s. 10½d.
In 1588 here were communicants two hundred and eighty-three. In 1640 there were two hundred and fifty-five, and the vicarage was valued at eighty pounds.
The tithes and profits of this parish, and the glebeland, about forty acres, are now worth upwards of four hundred pounds per annum, exclusive of the chapels annexed to it. Mr. Sawbridge's estates in this parish, formerly park land, pay by custom only half a crown composition yearly, in lieu of tithes, but Westwood pays full tithes.
It appears by the register of Horton priory, that Liminge was once the head of a rural deanry, Sir Hugh, dean of Liminge, being mentioned as a witness to a dateless deed of Stephen de Heringod, of a gift of land to that priory, of about the reign of king Henry III. (fn. 11)
Continuance from previous photo::::
As the Amazon Caboclo [the product of the racial and cultural mixing of European (Portuguese), African, and native Brazilian populations.] says; "Where cattle move in, hunger comes along and we move out."
Yet the meat production on our "modern" ranches is ridiculously low . . . around 30 pounds per acre per year. Compare that to what's being done in northern Europe, where — despite a much more difficult climate — yields of 600 pounds of meat and 800 gallons of milk per acre per year are achieved.
But the owners, who are mostly powerful Brazilian politicians or the executives of multinational corporations, don't care. Their profit derives from the incredible size of the operations, from government subsidies, and from corruption.
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.
Work I showed for my 30-hour review. I think these prints work better when multiplied into a textile pattern, and it's definitely a good transition to where this work is going next.
The last weekend of the month, and the first after pay day, which means I could order some socks. And at Tesco I could replenish the wine stocks with a box of 3l of te cheapest red.
Being the end of January, it is now getting light when we set off for Tesco, the neon lights of the retail park at Whitfield as daylight grows stronger. Somehow we had used double the fuel as last week, with only an half hour's drive to Stodmarsh last week being the extra driving we did.
Tesco has Valentine's cards, presents and also Easter eggs and other stuff celebrating days in the forthcoming months.
We had a list of stuff to get, not just beer and wine, and lots of vegetables as we are having Jen, Mike and his new girlfriend over for lunch on Sunday.
If I remember to get the chicken out of the freezer, of course.
That all done, and somehow, ten quid cheaper than last week even with wine and Belgian beer, we headed home for first breakfast, coffee, then bacon butties and more brews once we had put the shopping away.
At ten we went out, only for a warning light to come on as the engine turned over. It seems a bulb in the headlight had gone, but the car knew which one it was. On the way to Lyminge, there is a Halfords, now that the one on Dover closed over the pandemic, so we tootled along the A20, over the top of Shakespeare Down and into town.
Jools found the bulb and a nice young lady fitted it for us, getting access from the wheelarch via a small panel. All done in ten minutes for fifteen quid.
And road legal again.
Back onto the motorway for the one junction before taking the turning for the back road to Hythe, though we headed inland through Etchinghill to Lyminge. And I realised it was years since we had driven this road, as we have been coming to the orchid fields through Barham usually, not from Folkestone.
The road climbs and turns round the foot of the downs before levelling out as it approaches Lyminge.
We go through the village, past the rows of the parked cars, and the small library in the building of the village railway station once the line from Folkestone to Canterbury closed at the end of the 50s.
The village of Lyminge stretches along the main road and around the former station, but the church is situated a short way along Church Street (of course), on a low mound, from under which the largest winterbourne, The Nailbourne, rises. It has been a site of worship since Roman times, maybe even before then.
We were here because in 2019, major excavations revealed the remains of the 7th century chapel of Queen Ethelburga. It was uncovered under the path that now leads under the single flying buttress to the porch, and since the dig ended, the path relaid, but with the outline of the chapel clearly showing in different colour tarmac.
I photographed the stained glass, as the ongoing plan to revisit churches already done, but with the big lens as I always seem to find something new to do in them. This time the glass through the big glass of the zoom lens.
Before leaving we walk down to the Well to revisit the source of the Nailbourne, some twenty feet below the road, the clear and cold waters of the bourne come bubbling out of the ground before meandering across the verdant meadow.
We set the sat nav for home, and it leads us down to the bottom of the valley and up the other side through Acris. The bed of the Nailbourne was already dry, despite it being just a mile from the source, because the water table isn't high enough, and the water seeps through the chalk bedrock instead.
We travel down lanes that got ever narrower, with grass growing between the wheeltracks. The road much less travelled for sure.
At Swingfield, we were greeted by the sweep of a hedge made of native dogwood, its new shoots showing starkly red in the sunshine against the clear blue sky. We stop to take shots.
We get home in time for a brew and a chocolate bar before the football was going to start. But I had other plans, as I made tagine for our early dinner. Which, we ate before four as it smelled so darned good bubbling away in the oven.
Some flavoured couscous to go with it, and a glass of red vin out of the box.
Lovely.
Scully and I sit on the sofa until half seven in the evening, either listening to the reports of the three o'clock games, or watching the evening kick off.
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In the churchyard, west of the present building, are the foundations of the seventh-century church founded by St Ethelburga, daughter of King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha (see Canterbury). The present church is also Saxon and stands north of the original building so that the old north wall is now the south wall of today's church. When the church was founded there was no village, which explains why the present village stands a little removed from this restricted plateau site. The first thing the visitor sees is an enormous flying buttress holding up the south-east corner of the church - the pathway actually runs beneath it! The north aisle was added in the fifteenth century and is separated from the nave by a three-bay arcade with most unusual piers. The chancel arch is also out of the ordinary and is probably the result of fifteenth-century rebuilding of the Saxon original. A great deal of nineteenth-century work survives, including a good east window and reredos, but none of this detracts from the antiquity and atmosphere of this interesting building.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Lyminge
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LIMINGE
IS the next parish eastward, both to Stowting and Elmsted. It is written in the book of Domesday, Leminges, and in other records, Lymege. There are three boroughs in it, those of Liminge, Siberton, and Eatchend.
THE PARISH lies on the northern or opposite side of the down hills from Stanford, at no great distance from the summit of them. It is a large parish, being about six miles in length, and about three in breadth, from east to west, and the rents of it about 2000l. per annum. It lies the greatest part of it on high ground, on the east side of the Stone-street way, where it is a dreary and barren country of rough grounds, covered with woods, scrubby coppice, broom, and the like, the soil being and unfertile red earth, with quantities of hard and sharp stint stones among it. In that part adjoining to the Stone-street way, is Westwood, near two miles in length; and not far from it, two long commons or heaths, the one called Rhode, the other Stelling Minnis; of the latter, a small part only being within this parish, there are numbers of houses and cottages built promiscuously on and about them, the inhabitants of which are as wild, and in as rough a state as the country they dwell in. Near the southern boundary of the parish is the estate and manor of Liminge park, which, as well as Westwood, belongs to Mr. Sawbridge, of Ollantigh, who has near 700 acres of woodland in this parish, the whole of his estate here having been formerly appurtenant to the manor of Liminge, and together with it, exchanged by archbishop Cranmer as before-mentioned, with king Henry VIII. in his 31st year. On the east part of these hills, towards the declivity of them, the soil changes to chalk, and not far from the foot of them are the houses of Longage and Siberton, the former of which belonged to the Sawkins's, and then to the Scotts, a younger branch of those of Scotts-hall; afterwards by marriage to William Turner, of the White Friars, in Canterbury, and then again in like manner to David Papillon, esq. whose grandson Thomas Papillon, esq. of Acrise, now owns it. Below these hills is the great Nailbourn valley, which is very spacious and wide here, on each side of which the hills are high and very frequent, and the lands poor, but in the vale near the stream there is a tract of fertilelands and meadows, and the country becoming far from unpleasant, is as well as the rest of the parish exceedingly healthy. The valley extends quite through the parish from north to south; just above it, on the side of the hill, is the village of Liminge, in which is the parsonage-house, a handsome modern dwelling, and above it, still higher, the church. More southward in the valley is a house, called Broadstreet, the property and residence of the Sloddens for many generations; still further in the valley, near the boundary of the parish, and adjoining to the Hangres, being a part of the down or chalk hills, which continue on to Caldham, near Folkestone, a space of near six miles, is the hamlet of Echinghill, or Eachand, corruptly so called for Ikenild, close under the hill of which name it lies, the principal house in which formerly belonged to the Spicers, of Stanford; hence the road leads to Beechborough, and so on to Hythe.
A fair is held in the village of Liminge yearly, on July 5, for toys, pedlary, &c.
Near Eching street, a little to the southward of it, is a spring or well, called Lint-well, which runs from thence southward below Newington towards the sea; and on the opposite or north side of that street rises another spring, which takes a direct contrary course from the former, one running through the valley northward towards North Liminge, where it is joined by two springs, which rise in Liminge village, at a small distance north-east from the church, gushing out of the rock at a very small space from each other, the lowermost of which called St. Eadburg's well, never fails in its water. These united springs, in summer time in general, flow no further than Ottinge, about one mile from their rise, at which time the space from thence to Barham is dry there; but whenever their waters burst forth and form the stream usually called the Nailbourn, which the country people call the Nailbourne's coming down, then, though in the midst of summer, they become a considerable stream, and with a great gush and rapidity of waters, flow on to a place called Brompton's Pot, which is a large deep pond, a little above Wigmore, having a spring likewise of its own, which hardly ever overflows its bounds, excepting at these times, when, congenial with the others, it bursts forth with a rapidity of water, about three miles and an half northward from Liminge, and having jointly with those springs overfilled its bounds, takes its course on by Barham into the head of the Little Stour, at Bishopsborne, making a little river of its own size. These Nailbourns, or temporary land springs, are not unusaual in the parts of this country eastward of Sittingborne, for I know of but one, at Addington near Maidstone, which is on the other side of it. (fn. 1) Their time of breaking forth or continuance of running, is very uncertain; but whenever they do break forth, it is held by the common people as the forerunner of scarcity and dearness of corn and victuals. Sometimes they break out for one or perhaps two successive years, and at others with two, three, or more years intervention, and their running continues sometimes only for a few months, and at others for three or four years, as their springs afford a supply. (fn. 2)
Dr. Gale, in his Comment on Antorinus's Itinerary, conjectures that at this village of Leming two Roman ways, one from Lenham to Saltwood castle, and the other from Canterbury to Stutfal castle, intersected each other; as indeed they do at no great distance from it, nearer to Limne; and that the word Lemen, now by modern use written Leming, was by our early ancestors used to denote a public way. Hence that military way leading from Isurium to Cataractouium, is called Leming-lane, and the town near it Le- ming. So in the county of Gloucester, on the sosseway, there is a town called Lemington. Hence, he adds, that Durolevum, in this county, changed its name into Lenham, to signify its being situated on the public way or road; and perhaps the name of Ikenhill, very probably so called corruptly for Ickneld, in this parish before-mentioned, has still further strengthened this conjecture; there being said to have been two Roman ways of the name of Icknild-street, in this kingdom, though no one yet has determined precisely where they were.
¶The Manor of Liminge was part of the antient possessions of the monastery of Christ-church, in Canterbury, to which it had been given in the year 964, on the supperssion of the monastery founded in this parish by Ethelburga, called by some Eadburga, daughter of king Ethelbert, who by the favour of her brother king Eadbald, built this monastery to the honor of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of her own niece St. Mildred. Ethelburga, the founder, was buried in it, as was St. Mildred, whose bodies were afterwards removed by archbishop Lanfrance to St. Gregories church, in Canterbury. This monastery was at first said to consist of nuns, but afterwards came under the government of an abbot, and continued so, till suffering much by the continual ravages of the Danes, it was suppressed and granted to the monastery of Christ-church as before-mentioned. (fn. 3) The possessions of it here were given at different times during the Saxon heptarchy; some of them were given to this church of Liminge, in the time of archbishop Cuthbert, who had been abbot of it. After which this manor remained part of the possessions of the monastery of Christ-church, till archbishop Lanfranc dividing the revenues of his church between himself and his monks, this manor was allotted to the archbishop; in which state it continued at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which it is thus entered:
In Moniberge hundred, the archbishop himself holds Leminges, in demesne. It was taxed at seven sulings. The arable land is sixty carucates. In demesne there are four, and one hundred and one villeins, with sixteen borderers having fifty-five carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and one mill of thirty pence, and one fishery of forty eels, and thirty acres of pasture. Wood for the pannage of one hundred hogs.
There belong to it six burgesses in Hede. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth twenty four pounds, and afterwards forty pounds, and now the like, and yet it yields sixty pounds.
Of this manor three tenants of the archbishop hold two sulings and an half, and half a yoke, and they have there five carucates in demesne, and twenty villeins, with sixteen borderers having five carucates and an half, and one servant, and two mills of seven shillings and six-pence, and forty acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of eleven hogs. There are two churches. In the whole it was worth eleven pounds.
Thomas Bedingfield gave by will in 1691, a house and lands in the parish of St. Mary, Romney Marsh, this parish, and Woodchurch, towards the education and maintenance of poor children of the parishes of Smeeth, Liminge, and Dimchurch; and 10s. unto two poor women of each of the said parishes yearly. They are of the annual value of 54l. 10s. and are vested in trustees.
David Spycer, of this parish, by will in 1558, devised to the poor of it 20l. to be paid them yearly at 20s. a year.
There is an unendowed school here, for the teaching of boys and girls reading, writing, and accounts; and an alms-house, consisting of two dwellings, the donor of it to the parish unknown.
The poor constantly maintained are about fifty, casually 30.
Liminge is within the Eccelstical Jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Elham.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Eadburgh, consists of two isles and a chancel, having a square tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, at the west end, in which are five bells. This church is handsome, being built of quarry stone. The arches and pillars on the north side of the south isle are elegant. In the chancel is a monument for William Hollway, esq. chief justice of Gibraltar, obt. 1767, who with his mother and wife, lie buried in a vault underneath, arms, Sable, two swords in saltier, argent. and memorials in it, as well as in the south isle, for the family of Sawkins. In the north isle a memorial for John Lyndon, A. M. vicar, obt. 1756. In the east window are the arms of the see of Canterbury impaling Bourchier; and in one of the south windows a bishop's head and mitre. On the outside of the steeple, are the arms of the see of Canterbury impaling Warham, that on the south side having a cardinal's hat over it. At the south-east corner of the chancel is a very remarkable buttress to it, the abutment being at some feet distance from the chancel, and joined to it by the half of a circular arch, seemingly very antient. In the church-yard are two tombs for the Scotts, of Longage. Henry Brockman, of Liminge, appears by his will in 1527, to have been buried in this church, and devised to the making of the steeple five pounds, as the work went forward; and David Spycer, of this parish, by will in 1558, devised to this church a chalice, of the price of five pounds. (fn. 10) This church, with the chapels of Stanford and Padlesworth annexed, was always accounted an appendage to the manor, and continued so till the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when the archbishop conveyed the manor to the king, but reserved the patronage and advowson of this church out of the grant to himself, by which means it became separated from the manor, and became an advowson in gross; and though the archbishop afterwards, by his deed anno 38 Henry VIII. conveyed it to the king and his heirs, and the king that same year granted it, with the manor and its appurtenances in fee, to Sir Anthony Aucher as before-mentioned, and it was possessed by the same owners as the manor from time to time, yet having been once separated, it could never be appendant to it again. Through which chain of ownership it afterwards came at length to lord Loughborough, and from him again to the Rev. Mr. Ralph Price, the present proprietor and patron of it.
The church of Liminge is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. There is both a rectory and vicarage endorsed belonging to this church, which appears to have been before the 8th of king Richard II.
The rectory is a sinecure, and the vicar performs the whole service of the cure, but they both receive institution and induction, and although some years ago this establishment of it was attempted by the ordinary to be set aside as separate benefices, it was without effect, and the Rev. Mr. Ralph Price, the patron, continues to present to both rectory and vicarage.
The rectory, with the two chapels above-mentioned, is valued in the king's books at 21l. 10s. and the yearly tenths at 2l. 3s. Procurations 1l. 10s. The vicarage at 10l. 18s. 9d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 1s. 10½d.
In 1588 here were communicants two hundred and eighty-three. In 1640 there were two hundred and fifty-five, and the vicarage was valued at eighty pounds.
The tithes and profits of this parish, and the glebeland, about forty acres, are now worth upwards of four hundred pounds per annum, exclusive of the chapels annexed to it. Mr. Sawbridge's estates in this parish, formerly park land, pay by custom only half a crown composition yearly, in lieu of tithes, but Westwood pays full tithes.
It appears by the register of Horton priory, that Liminge was once the head of a rural deanry, Sir Hugh, dean of Liminge, being mentioned as a witness to a dateless deed of Stephen de Heringod, of a gift of land to that priory, of about the reign of king Henry III. (fn. 11)
Nearly halfway through the month, and it's the weekend again, and the the good news is that the sore throat I had on Friday went and did not return.
Which is nice.
Jools's cough, however, which seemed like it was getting better, returned slightly on Friday evening, and would again on Saturday. We had tockets to see Public Service Bradcasting again, this time in Margate, but our hearts were not in it, if I'm honest, and in the end we decided not to go in light of her coughing, but also as I said, we saw them a month back, though this would be a different show.
And Norwich were on the tellybox, what could be better than watching that?
Anything, as it turned out.
But that was for later.
We went to Tesco, a little later than usual, as we had slept in rather, then back home for breakfast before the decision on what to do for the day. Jools decided to stay home to bead and read, I would go out.
There are three churches near to home that I feel I needed to revisit, St Margaret's itself I should be able to get the key from the village shop at any time, but St Mary in Dover hasn't been open the last few times I have been in town, and Barfrestone was closed most of the year due to vandalism.
But Saturday morning there is usually a coffee morning in St Mary, so I went down armed with camera and lenses to take more shots of the details, especially of the windows.
There was a small group with the Vicar, talking in one of the chapels, so I made busy getting my shots, just happy that the church was open. I left a fiver with the vicar, and walked back to the car, passing the old guy supping from a tin of cider sitting outside the church hall.
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In the heart of the town with a prominent twelfth-century tower. From the outside it is obvious that much work was carried out in the nineteenth century. The church has major connections with the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports and is much used for ceremonial services. The western bays of the nave with their low semi-circular arches are contemporary with the tower, while the pointed arches to the east are entirely nineteenth century. The scale and choice of stone is entirely wrong, although the carving is very well done. However the east end, with its tall narrow lancet windows, is not so successful. The Royal Arms, of the reign of William and Mary, are of carved and painted wood, with a French motto - Jay Maintendray - instead of the more usual Dieu et Mon Droit. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War, but one of the survivors was the typical Norman font of square Purbeck marble construction. One of the more recent additions to the church is the Herald of Free Enterprise memorial window of 1989 designed by Frederick Cole.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Dover+1
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THE TOWN AND PORT OF DOVER.
DOVER lies at the eastern extremity of Kent, adjoining to the sea, the great high London road towards France ending at it. It lies adjoining to the parish of Charlton last-described, eastward, in the lath of St. Augustine and eastern division of the county. It is within the liberty of the cinque ports, and the juristion of the corporation of the town and port of Dover.
DOVER, written in the Latin Itinerary of Antonine, Dubris. By the Saxons, Dorsa, and Dofris. By later historians, Doveria; and in the book of Domesday, Dovere; took its name most probably from the British words, Dufir, signifying water, or Dusirrha, high and steep, alluding to the cliffs adjoining to it. (fn. 1)
It is situated at the extremity of a wide and spacious valley, inclosed on each side by high and steep hills or cliffs, and making allowance for the sea's withdrawing itself from between them, answers well to the description given of it by Julius Cæfar in his Commentaries.
In the middle space, between this chain of high cliffs, in a break or opening, lies the town of Dover and its harbour, which latter, before the sea was shut out, so late as the Norman conquest, was situated much more within the land than it is at present, as will be further noticed hereafter.
ON THE SUMMIT of one of these cliffs, of sudden and stupendous height, close on the north side of the town and harbour, stands DOVER CASTLE, so famous and renowned in all the histories of former times. It is situated so exceeding high, that it is at most times plainly to be seen from the lowest lands on the coast of France, and as far beyond as the eye can discern. Its size, for it contains within it thirty five acres of ground, six of which are taken up by the antient buildings, gives it the appearance of a small city, having its citadel conspicuous in the midst of it, with extensive fortifications, around its walls. The hill, or rather rock, on which it stands, is ragged and steep towards the town and harbour; but towards the sea, it is a perpendicular precipice of a wonderful height, being more than three hundred and twenty feet high, from its basis on the shore.
Common tradition supposes, that Julius Cæfar was the builder of this castle, as well as others in this part of Britain, but surely without a probability of truth; for our brave countrymen found Cæfar sufficient employment of a far different sort, during his short stay in Britain, to give him any opportunity of erecting even this one fortress. Kilburne says, there was a tower here, called Cæsar's tower, afterwards the king's lodgings; but these, now called the king's keep, were built by king Henry II. as will be further mentioned hereafter; and he further says, there were to be seen here great pipes and casks bound with iron hoops, in which was liquor supposed to be wine, which by long lying had become as thick as treacle, and would cleave like birdlime; salt congealed together as hard as stone; cross and long bows and arrows, to which brass was fastened instead of feathers, and they were of such size, as not to be fit for the use of men of that or any late ages. These, Lambarde says, the inhabitants shewed as having belonged to Cæfar, and the wine and salt as part of the provision he had brought with him hither; and Camden relates, that he was shewn these arrows, which he thinks were such as the Romans used to shoot out of their engines, which were like to large crossbows. These last might, no doubt, though not Cæsar's, belong to the Romans of a later time; and the former might, perhaps, be part of the provisions and stores which king Henry VIII. laid in here, at a time when he passed from hence over sea to France. But for many years past it has not been known what is become of any of these things.
Others, averse to Cæsar's having built this castle, and yet willing to give the building of it to the empire of the Romans of a later time, suppose, and that perhaps with some probability, it was first erected by Arviragus, (or Arivog, as he is called on his coin) king of Britain, in the time of Claudius, the Roman emperor. (fn. 2)
That there was one built here, during the continuance of the Roman empire in Britain, must be supposed from the necessity of it, and the circumstances of those times; and the existence of one plainly appears, from the remains of the tower and other parts of the antient church within it, and the octagon tower at the west end, in which are quantities of Roman brick and tile. These towers are evidently the remains of Roman work, the former of much less antiquity than the latter, which may be well supposed to have been built as early as the emperor Claudius, whose expedition hither was about or immediately subsequent to the year of Christ 44. Of these towers, probably the latter was built for a speculum, or watch-tower, and was used, not only to watch the approach of enemies, but with another on the opposite hill, to point out the safe entrance into this port between them, by night as well as by day.
In this fortress, the Romans seem afterwards to have kept a garrison of veterans, as we learn from Pancirollus, who tells us that a company of soldiers under their chief, called Præpositus Militum Tungricanorum, was stationed within this fortess.
Out of the remains of part of the above-mentioned Roman buildings here, a Christian church was erected, as most historians write, by Lucius, king of Britain, about the year 161; but it is much to be doubted whether there ever was such a king in Britain; if there was, he was only a tributary chief to the Roman emperor, under whose peculiar government Britain was then accounted. This church was built, no doubt, for the use of that part of the garrison in particular, who were at that time believers of the gospel, and afterwards during the different changes of the Christian and Pagan religions in these parts, was made use of accordingly, till St. Augustine, soon after the year 597, at the request of king Ethelbert, reconsecrated it, and dedicated it anew, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary.
¶His son and successor Eadbald, king of Kent, founded a college of secular canons and a provost in this church, whose habitations, undoubtedly near it, there are not the least traces of. These continued here till after the year 691; when Widred, king of Kent, having increated the fortifications, and finding the residence of the religious within them an incumbrance, removed them from hence into the town of Dover, to the antient church of St. Martin; in the description of which hereafter, a further account of them will be given.
DOVER does not seem to have been in much repute as a harbour, till some time after Cæsar's expedition hither; for the unfitness, as well as insecurity of the place, especially for a large fleet of shipping, added to the character which he had given of it, deterred the Romans from making a frequent use of it, so that from Boleyne, or Gessoriacum, their usual port in Gaul, they in general failed with their fleets to Richborough, or Portus Rutupinus, situated at the mouth of the Thames, in Britain, and thence back again; the latter being a most safe and commodious haven, with a large and extensive bay.
Notwithstanding which, Dover certainly was then made use of as a port for smaller vessels, and a nearer intercourse for passengers from the continent; and to render the entrance to it more safe, the Romans built two Specula, or watch-towers, here, on the two hills opposite to each other, to point out the approach to it, and one likewise on the opposite hill at Bologne, for the like purpose there; and it is mentioned as a port by Antoninus, in his Itinerary, in which, ITER III. is A Londinio ad Portum Dubris, i. e. from London to the port of Dover.
After the departure of the Romans from Britain, when the port of Bologne, as well as Richborough, fell into decay and disuse, and instead of the former a nearer port came into use, first at Whitsan, and when that was stopped up, a little higher at Calais, Dover quickly became the more usual and established port of passage between France and Britain, and it has continued so to the present time.
When the antient harbour of Dover was changed from its antient situation is not known; most probably by various occurrences of nature, the sea left it by degrees, till at last the farmer scite of it became entirely swallowed up by the beach. That the harbour was much further within land, even at the time of the conquest than it is at present, seems to be confirmed by Domesday, in which it is said, that at the entrance of it, there was a mill which damaged almost every ship that passed by it, on account of the great swell of the sea there. Where the scite of this mill was, is now totally unknown, though it is probable it was much within the land, and that by the still further accumulation of the beach, and other natural causes, this haven was in process of time so far filled up towards the inland part of it, as to change its situation still more to the south-west, towards the sea.
From the time of the Norman conquest this port continued the usual passage to the continent, and to confine the intercourse to this port only, there was a statute passed anno 4 Edward IV. that none should take shipping for Calais, but at Dover. (fn. 20) But in king Henry VII.'s time, which was almost the next reign, the harbour was become so swerved up, as to render it necessary for the king's immediate attention, to prevent its total ruin, and he expended great sums of money for its preservation. But it was found, that all that was done, would not answer the end proposed, without the building of a pier to seaward, which was determined on about the middle of Henry VIII.'s reign, and one was constructed, which was compiled of two rows of main posts, and great piles, which were let into holes hewn in the rock underneath, and some were shod with iron, and driven down into the main chalk, and fastened together with iron bands and bolts. The bottom being first filled up with great rocks of stone, and the remainder above with great chalk stones, beach, &c. During the whole of this work, the king greatly encouraged the undertaking, and came several times to view it; and in the whole is said to have expended near 63,000l. on it. But his absence afterwards abroad, his ill health, and at last his death, joined to the minority of his successor, king Edward VI. though some feeble efforts were made in his reign, towards the support of this pier, put a stop to, and in the end exposed this noble work to decay and ruin.
Queen Mary, indeed, attempted to carry it on again, but neither officers nor workmen being well paid, it came to nothing, so that in process of time the sea having brought up great quantities of beach again upon it, the harbour was choaked up, and the loss of Calais happening about the same time, threatened the entire destruction of it. Providentially the shelf of beach was of itself became a natural defence against the rage of the sea, insomuch, that if a passage could be made for ships to get safely within it, they might ride there securely.
To effect this, several projects were formed, and queen Elizabeth, to encourage it, gave to the town the free transportation of several thousand quarters of corn and tuns of beer; and in the 23d of her reign, an act passed for giving towards the repair of the harbour, a certain tonnage from every vessel above twenty tons burthen, passing by it, which amounted to 1000l. yearly income; and the lord Cobham, then lordwarden, and others, were appointed commissioners for this purpose; and in the end, after many different trials to effect it, a safe harbour was formed, with a pier, and different walls and sluices, at a great expence; during the time of which a universal diligence and public spirit appeared in every one concerned in this great and useful work. During the whole of the queen's reign, the improvement of this harbour continued without intermission, and several more acts passed for that purpose; but the future preservation of it was owing to the charter of incorporation of the governors of it, in the first year of king James I. by an act passed that year, by the name of the warden and assistants of the harbour of Dover, the warden being always the lord-warden of the cinque ports for the time being, and his assistants, his lieutenant, and the mayor of Dover, for the time being, and eight others, the warden and assistants only making a quorum; six to be present to make a session; at any of which, on a vacancy, the assistants to be elected; and the king granted to them his land or waste ground, or beach, commonly called the Pier, or Harbour ground, as it lay without Southgate, or Snargate, the rents of which are now of the yearly value of about three hundred pounds.
Under the direction of this corporation, the works and improvements of this harbour have been carried on, and acts of parliament have been passed in almost every reign since, to give the greater force to their proceedings.
From what has been said before, the reader will observe, that this harbour has always been a great national object, and that in the course of many ages, prodigious sums of money have been from time to time expended on it, and every endeavour used to keep it open, and render it commodious; but after all these repeated endeavours and expences, it still labours under such circumstances, as in a very great degree renders unsuccessful all that has ever been done for that purpose.
DOVER, as has been already mentioned, was of some estimation in the time of the Roman empire in Britain, on account of its haven, and afterwards for the castle, in which they kept a strong garrison of sol. diers, not only to guard the approach to it, but to keep the natives in subjection; and in proof of their residence here, the Rev. Mr. Lyon some years since discovered the remains of a Roman structure, which he apprehended to have been a bath, at the west end of the parish-church of St. Mary, in this town, which remains have since repeatedly been laid open when interments have taken place there.
This station of the Romans is mentioned by Antonine, in his Itinerary of the Roman roads in Britain, by the name of Dubris, as being situated from the station named Durovernum, or Canterbury, fourteen miles; which distance, compared with the miles as they are now numbered from Canterbury, shews the town, as well as the haven, for they were no doubt contiguous to each other, to have both been nearer within land than either of them are at present, the present distance from Canterbury being near sixteen miles as the road now goes, The sea, indeed, seems antiently to have occupied in great part the space where the present town of Dover, or at least the northwest part of it, now stands; but being shut out by the quantity of beach thrown up, and the harbour changed by that means to its present situation, left that place a dry ground, on which the town of Dover, the inhabitants following the traffic of the harbour, was afterwards built.
This town, called by the Saxons, Dofra, and Dofris; by later historians, Doveria; and in Domesday, Dovere; is agreed by all writers to have been privileged before the conquest; and by the survey of Domesday, appears to have been of ability in the time of king Edward the Confessor, to arm yearly twenty vessels for sea service. In consideration of which, that king granted to the inhabitants, not only to be free from the payment of thol and other privileges throughout the realm, but pardoned them all manner of suit and service to any of his courts whatsoever; and in those days, the town seems to have been under the protection and government of Godwin, earl of Kent, and governor of this castle.
Soon after the conquest, this town was so wasted by fire, that almost all the houses were reduced to ashes, as appears by the survey of Domesday, at the beginning of which is the following entry of it:
DOVERE, in the time of king Edward, paid eighteen pounds, of which money, king E had two parts, and earl Goduin the third. On the other hand, the canons of St. Martin had another moiety. The burgesses gave twenty ships to the king once in the year, for fifteen days; and in each ship were twenty and one men. This they did on the account that he had pardoned them sac and soc. When the messengers of the king came there, they gave for the passage of a horse three pence in winter, and two in summer. But the burgesses found a steerman, and one other assistant, and if there should be more necessary, they were provided at his cost. From the festival of St. Michael to the feast of St. Andrew, the king's peace was in the town. Sigerius had broke it, on which the king's bailiff had received the usual fine. Whoever resided constantly in the town paid custom to the king; he was free from thol throughout England. All these customs were there when king William came into England. On his first arrival in England, the town itself was burnt, and therefore its value could not be computed how much it was worth, when the bishop of Baieux received it. Now it is rated at forty pounds, and yet the bailiff pays from thence fifty-four pounds to the king; of which twenty-four pounds in money, which were twenty in an one, but thirty pounds to the earl by tale.
In Dovere there are twenty-nine plats of ground, of which the king had lost the custom. Of these Robert de Romenel has two. Ralph de Curbespine three. William, son of Tedald, one. William, son of Oger, one. William, son of Tedold, and Robert niger, six. William, son of Goisfrid, three, in which the guildhall of the burgesses was. Hugo de Montfort one house. Durand one. Rannulf de Colubels one. Wadard six. The son of Modbert one. And all these vouch the bishop of Baieux as the protector and giver of these houses. Of that plat of ground, which Rannulf de Colubels holds, which was a certain outlaw, they agree that the half of the land was the king's, and Rannulf himself has both parts. Humphry the lame man holds one plat of ground, of which half the forfeiture is the king's. Roger de Ostrabam made a certain house over the king's water, and held to this time the custom of the king; nor was a house there in the time of king Edward. In the entrance of the port of Dovere, there is one mill, which damages almost every ship, by the great swell of the sea, and does great damage to the king and his tenants; and it was not there in the time of king Edward. Concerning this, the grandson of Herbert says, that the bishop of Baieux granted it to his uncle Herbert, the son of Ivo.
And a little further, in the same record, under the bishop's possessions likewise:
In Estrei hundred, Wibertus holds half a yoke, which lies in the gild of Dover, and now is taxed with the land of Osbert, the son of Letard, and is worth per annum four shillings.
From the Norman conquest, the cities and towns of this realm appear to have been vested either in the crown, or else in the clergy or great men of the laity, and they were each, as such, immediately lords of the same. Thus, when the bishop of Baieux, to whom the king had, as may be seen by the above survey, granted this town, was disgraced. It returned into the king's hands by forfeiture, and king Richard I. afterwards granted it in ferme to Robt. Fitz-bernard. (fn. 21)
After the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, the harbour of Dover still changing its situation more to the south-westward, the town seems to have altered its situation too, and to have been chiefly rebuilt along the sides of the new harbour, and as an encouragement to it, at the instance, and through favour especially to the prior of Dover, king Edward I. in corporated this town, the first that was so of any of the cinque ports, by the name of the mayor and commonalty. The mayor to be chosen out of the latter, from which body he was afterwards to chuse the assistants for his year, who were to be sworn for that purpose. At which time, the king had a mint for the coinage of money here; and by patent, anno 27 of that reign, the table of the exchequer of money was appointed to be held here, and at Yarmouth. (fn. 22) But the good effects of these marks of the royal favour were soon afterwards much lessened, by a dreadful disaster; for the French landed here in the night, in the 23d year of that reign, and burnt the greatest part of the town, and several of the religious houses, in it, and this was esteemed the more treacherousk, as it was done whilst the two cardinals were here, treating for a peace between England and France; which misfortune, however, does not seem to have totally impoverished it, for in the 17th year of the next reign of king Edward II it appears in some measure to have recovered its former state, and to have been rebuilt, as appears by the patent rolls of that year, in which the town of Dover is said to have then had in it twenty-one wards, each of which was charged with one ship for the king's use; in consideration of which, each ward had the privilege of a licensed packetboat, called a passenger, from Dover across the sea to Whitsan, in France, the usual port at that time of embarking from thence.
The state of this place in the reign of Henry VIII. is given by Leland, in his Itinerary, as follows:
"Dovar ys xii myles fro Canterbury and viii fro Sandwich. Ther hath bene a haven yn tyme past and yn taken ther of the ground that lyith up betwyxt the hilles is yet in digging found wosye. Ther hath bene found also peeces of cabelles and anchores and Itinerarium Antonini cawlyth hyt by the name of a haven. The towne on the front toward the se hath bene right strongly walled and embateled and almost al the residew; but now yt is parly fawlen downe and broken downe. The residew of the towne as far as I can perceyve was never waulled. The towne is devided into vi paroches. Wherof iii be under one rose at S. Martines yn the hart of the town. The other iii stand that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked. The other iii stand abrode, of the which one is cawled S. James of Rudby or more likely Rodeby a statione navium. But this word ys not sufficient to prove that Dovar showld be that place, the which the Romaynes cawlled Portus Rutupi or Rutupinum. For I cannot yet se the contrary but Retesboro otherwise cawlled Richeboro by Sandwich, both ways corruptly, must neades be Rutupinum. The mayne strong and famose castel of Dovar stondeth on the loppe of a hille almost a quarter of a myle of fro the towne on the lyst side and withyn the castel ys a chapel, yn the sides wherof appere sum greate Briton brykes. In the town was a great priory of blacke monkes late suppressed. There is also an hospitalle cawlled the Meason dew. On the toppe of the hye clive betwene the towne and the peere remayneth yet abowt a slyte shot up ynto the land fro the very brymme of the se clysse as ruine of a towr, the which has bene as a pharos or a mark to shyppes on the se and therby was a place of templarys. As concerning the river of Dovar it hath no long cowrse from no spring or hedde notable that descendith to that botom. The principal hed, as they say is at a place cawled Ewelle and that is not past a iii or iiii myles fro Dovar. Ther be springes of frech waters also at a place cawled Rivers. Ther is also a great spring at a place cawled …… and that once in a vi or vii yeres brasted owt so abundantly that a great part of the water cummeth into Dovar streme, but als yt renneth yn to the se betwyxt Dovar and Folchestan, but nerer to Folchestan that is to say withyn a ii myles of yt. Surely the hedde standeth so that it might with no no great cost be brought to run alway into Dovar streame." (fn. 23)
Cougate Crosse-gate Bocheruy-gate stoode with toures toward the se. There is beside Beting-gate and Westegate.
Howbeyt MTuine tol me a late that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked.
This was the state of Dover just before the time of the dissolution of religious houses, in Henry VIII.'s reign, when the abolition of private masses, obits, and such like services in churches, occasioned by the reformation, annillilated the greatest part of the income of the priests belonging to them, in this as well as in other towns, in consequence of which most of them were deserted, and falling to ruin, the parishes belonging to them were united to one or two of the principal ones of them. Thus, in this town, of the several churches in it, two only remained in use for divine service, viz. St. Mary's and St. James's, to which the parishes of the others were united.
After this, the haven continuting to decay more than ever, notwithstanding the national assistance afforded to it, the town itself seemed hastening to impoverishment. What the state of it was in the 8th year of queen Elizabeth, may be seen, by the certificate returned by the queen's order of the maritime places, in her 8th year, by which it appears that there were then in Dover, houses inhabited three hundred and fifty-eight; void, or lack of inhabiters, nineteen; a mayor, customer, comptroller of authorities, not joint but several; ships and crayers twenty, from four tons to one hundred and twenty.
¶This probable ruin of the town, however, most likely induced the queen, in her 20th year, to grant it a new charter of incorporation, in which the manner of chusing mayor, jurats, and commoners, and of making freemen, was new-modelled, and several surther liberties and privileges granted, and those of the charter of king Edward I. confirmed likewise by inspeximus. After which, king Charles II. in his 36th year, anno 1684, granted to it a new charter, which, however, was never inrolled in chancery, and in consequence of a writ of quo warranto was that same year surrendered, and another again granted next year; but this last, as well as another charter granted by king James II. and forced on the corporation, being made wholly subservient to the king's own purposes, were annulled by proclamation, made anno 1688, being the fourth and last year of his reign: but none of the above charters being at this time extant, (the charters of this corporation, as well as those of the other cinque ports, being in 1685, by the king's command, surrendered up to Col. Strode, then governor of Dover castle, and never returned again, nor is it known what became of them,) Dover is now held to be a corporation by prescription, by the stile of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the town and port of Dover. It consists at present of a mayor, twelve jurats, and thirty-six commoners, or freemen, together with a chamberlain, recorder, and town-clerk. The mayor, who is coroner by virtue of his office, is chosen on Sept. 8, yearly, in St. Mary's church, and together with the jurats, who are justices within this liberty, exclusive of all others, hold a court of general sessions of the peace and gaol delivery, together with a court of record, and it has other privileges, mostly the same as the other corporations, within the liberties of the cinque ports. It has the privilege of a mace. The election of mayor was antiently in the church of St. Peter, whence in 1581 it was removed to that of St. Mary, where it has been, as well as the elections of barons to serve in parliament, held ever since. These elections here, as well as elsewhere in churches, set apart for the worship of God, are certainly a scandal to decency and religion, and are the more inexcusable here, as there is a spacious court-hall, much more fit for the purposes. After this, there was another byelaw made, in June, 1706, for removing these elections into the court-hall; but why it was not put in execution does not appear, unless custom prevented it—for if a decree was of force to move them from one church to another, another decree was of equal force to remove them from the church to the courthall. Within these few years indeed, a motion was made in the house of commons, by the late alderman Sawbridge, a gentlemand not much addicted to speak in favour of the established church, to remove all such elections, through decency, from churches to other places not consecrated to divine worship; but though allowed to be highly proper, yet party resentment against the mover of it prevailed, and the motion was negatived by a great majority.
The mayor is chosen by the resident freemen. The jurats are nominated from the common-councilmen by the jurats, and appointed by the mayor, jurats, and common-councilmen, by ballot.
THE CHURCH OF ST. Mary stands at some distance from the entrance into this town from Canterbury, near the market-place. It is said to have been built by the prior and convent of St. Martin, (fn. 47) in the year 1216; but from what authority, I know not.—Certain it is, that it was in king John's reign, in the gift of the king, and was afterwards given by him to John de Burgh; but in the 8th year of Richard II.'s reign, anno 1384, it was become appropriated to the abbot of Pontiniac. After which, by what means, I cannot discover, this appropriation, as well as the advowson of the church, came into the possession of the master and brethren of the hospital of the Maison Dieu, who took care that the church should be daily served by a priest, who should officiate in it for the benefit of the parish. In which state it continued till the suppression of the hospital, in the 36th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it came into the hands of the crown, at which time the parsonage was returned by John Thompson, master of the hospital, to be worth six pounds per annum.
Two years after which, the king being at Dover, at the humble entreaty of the inhabitants of this parish, gave to them, as it is said, this church, with the cemetery adjoining to it, to be used by them as a parochial church; at the same time he gave the pews of St. Martin's church for the use of it; and on the king's departure, in token of possession, they sealed up the church doors; since which, the patronage of it, which is now esteemed as a perpetual curacy, the minister of it being licensed by the archbishop, has been vested in the inhabitants of this parish. Every parishioner, paying scot and lot, having a vote in the chusing of the minister, whose maintenance had been from time to time, at their voluntary option, more or less. It is now fixed at eighty pounds per annum. Besides which he has the possession of a good house, where he resides, which was purchased by the inhabitants in 1754, for the perpetual use of the minister of it. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. (fn. 48)
There is a piece of ground belonging, as it is said, to the glebe of this church, rented annually at ten pounds, which is done by vestry, without the minister being at all concerned in it. In 1588 here were eight hundred and twenty-one communicants. This parish contains more than five parts out of six of the whole town, and a greater proportion of the inhabitants.
The church of St. Mary is a large handsome building of three isles, having a high and south chancel, all covered with lead, and built of flints, with ashler windows and door cases, which are arched and ornamented. At the west end is the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, in which are eight bells, a clock, and chimes. The pillars in the church are large and clumsy; the arches low and semicircular in the body, but eliptical in the chancel; but there is no separation between the body and chancel, and the pews are continued on to the east end of the church. In the high chancel, at the eastern extremity of it, beyond the altar, are the seats for the mayor and jurats; and here the mayor is now chosen, and the barons in parliament for this town and port constantly elected.
In 1683, there was a faculty granted to the churchwardens, to remove the magistrates seats from the east end of the church to the north side, or any other more convenient part of it, and for the more decent and commodious placing the communion table: in consequence of which, these seats were removed, and so placed, but they continued there no longer than 1689, when, by several orders of vestry, they were removed back again to where they remain at present.
The mayor was antiently chosen in St. Peter's church; but by a bye-law of the corporation, it was removed to this church in 1583, where it has ever since been held. In 1706, another bye law was made, to remove, for the sake of decency, all elections from this church to the court-hall, but it never took place. More of which has been mentioned before.
From the largeness, as well as the populousness of this parish, the church is far from being sufficient to contain the inhabitants who resort to it for public worship, notwithstanding there are four galleries in it, and it is otherwise well pewed. This church was paved in 1642, but it was not ceiled till 1706. In 1742, there was an organ erected in it. The two branches in it were given, one by subscription in 1738, and the other by the pilots in 1742.
Thomas Toke, of Dover, buried in the chapel of St. Katharine, in this church, by his will in 1484, gave seven acres of land at Dugate, under Windlass-down, to the wardens of this church, towards the repairs of it for ever.
¶The monuments and memorials in this church and church yard, are by far too numerous to mention here. Among them are the following: A small monument in the church for the celebrated Charles Churchill, who was buried in the old church-yard of St. Martin in this town, as has been noticed before; and a small stone, with a memorial for Samuel Foote, esq. the celebrated comedian, who died at the Ship inn, and had a grave dug for him in this church, but was afterwards carried to London, and buried there. A monument and several memorials for the family of Eaton; arms, Or, a sret, azure. A small tablet for John Ker, laird of Frogden, in Twit dale, in Scotland, who died suddenly at Dover, in his way to France, in 1730. Two monuments for Farbrace, arms, Azure, a bend, or, between two roses, argent, seeded, or, bearded vert. A monument in the middle isle, to the memory of the Minet family. In the north isle are several memorials for the Gunmans, of Dover; arms,. … a spread eagle, argent, gorged with a ducal coronet, or. There are others, to the memory of Broadley, Rouse, and others, of good account in this town.
Colleges and universities are vital institutions for addressing political, social, and economic concerns, be they at a local, national, or global level. While embedded in their communities, they contribute substantially to a nation's competitiveness and operate within an increasingly international environment that links people and institutions together across borders. Colleges and universities are arguably the most resilient and the most sustainable institutions not only for advancing modernization and prosperity but also for ensuring the foundation and continuance of civil society. As such, they are gateways to a future that is in our own hands.
Globalization poses new educational challenges. Higher education institutions are obliged by their missions to prepare people for life in the 21st century - people who are consciously prepared to live and work in the complex interdependent society and contribute to improving the common global welfare of our planet and its inhabitants.
This session will convene professors, administrators, and staff from higher education institutions seeking to place global education at the core of student learning. They will explore factors that support or restrain comprehensive approaches to global education at colleges and universities.
The work is 78x55x40 in. brushed bronze sculpture with black natural patina from the series "Double Mobius Strip", 2002 - ongoing. Mobius Strip series consist of pieces fabricated using different materials such as corten steel, stainless steel, combination of copper and bronze and leaded stained glass. All of them are large scale, up to 20 ft. tall.
Work statement:
Infinity (Mobius Strip) refers to several distinct concepts, linked to the idea of "without end" which arise in philosophy, mathematics, and theology. The sculpture is based on the Mobius strip, which is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. In this work I combine two Mobius strips together with common edges. The result is one double rich and fascinating 3D form, representing the idea of continuance, endless repetition of life...
I had been to Marden many times, but never been to, or seen, the church.
Marden is a fine village, at least in the centre, although the locals seem vexed regarding a plan to build two thousand new homes in and around Marden.
As it is, Marden has some narrow streets and lots of parked cars. Getting in or out of the village is an "interesting" experience.
We parked near to the memorial to the remains of PLUTO, then walked along the main street to the church.
Oh, there it is.
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A picturesque church, especially when viewed from the south, with a little weatherboarded top to its short tower. There was a fire here in 1554, which did great damage to the thirteenth-century building. The south arcade has some finely carved capitals of fourteenth-century date, and there is a contemporary tomb recess in the south chapel. The pretty font cover of the seventeenth century has some of the best Jacobean carving in this part of Kent. The rood loft stairway may be seen in the south-eastern pier. The east window, which depicts the Vision of St John, was designed in 1962 by Patrick Reyntiens. It is one of the finest modern windows in Kent and may be compared to the roughly contemporary glass at Tudeley by Chagall. In spite of its unashamedly modern approach the work here is far more conventional and appropriate for its setting.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Marden
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MARDEN.
THE next parish north-eastward from Horsemonden is Marden, called in antient records, Merdenne, which lies wholly within the district of the Weald.
That part of this parish, which is within the manor of Hunton, is in the borough of Hunton, and hundred of Twyford; a small part of it belonging to the estate called Tilden, is in the hundred of Maidstone, and another small part of it is within the hundred of Eyhorne.
The manor of East Farleigh and East Peckham claims over the den of Chillenden in this parish, as does the manor of Gillingham over that of Haydhurst, alias Haytherst, in it.
THE PARISH OF MARDEN is about five miles long, and not more than one broad. There are about three hundred houses, and fifteen hundred inhabitants in it, the rents amounting to about 3,500l. per annum. The river Teis, being one of the principal heads of the Medway, flows along the western boundaries of it, as another head of it, which rises at Great Chart, does the northern boundary, and having passed Stylebridge, joins the former one, and then take their course together to the main river, which they join at Yalding. The turnpike road, which leads over Cocksheath to Style-bridge, separates there at the 44th mile-stone from London, the left branch passing to Cranbrook, and the right through this parish towards Goudhurst, the only parts of it which may be said to be above ground, the rest of it being so deep and miry as to be nearly impassable in wet weather. The town of Marden, as it is usually called, is situated on it, nearly in the middle of the parish. It is not paved, and consists of three streets, the houses of which are but meanly built, the church stands at the west end of the town, with the patronage opposite to it, and the vicarage on the entrance to it from Maidstone. The country here is much the same as the lower parts of the adjoining parishes of Hunton and Yalding already described in a former volume of this history. (fn. 1) Near the road from Style-bridge to Goudhurst it is very pleasant, but towards Hunton, and towards Staplehurst much the contrary, being of a very dreary and sorlorn aspect. It lies very low and flat, the soil in general a stiff clay, a very heavy tillage land; in winter the lands are exceeding wet, and much subject to inundations, and was it not for the manure of their native marle, and the help of chalk and lime brought from the northern hills would be still more unferstile than they were at present, notwithstanding which there are partially dispersed some very rich lands among them, and there were some years ago three hundred acres of hop-ground here, which have of late been lessened near one hundred acres. The farms are in general small, the houses of them antient well-timbered buildings, standing dispersed at wide distances, many of them on the different greens or forstals throughout the parish.
A fair is held here yearly on October 10, for toys and pedlary. The profits of which the portreve of the hundred of Milton receives of antient custom, which officer executed within this hundred the office of clerk of the market in all points, whilst the market was held, but it has been disused time out of mind.
THE MANOR AND HUNDRED OF MARDEN has been from the earliest time esteemed as an appendage to the king's manor and hundred of Milton.
King Edward I. settled it in jointure on his queen Eleanor, who in the 11th year of that reign procured a market and fair to be held at Mereden, parcel of the manor of Middleton. Queen Eleanor died in 1291, anno 20 Edward I. and the king again took possession of this manor, and the next year it was found, upon an inquisition taken for that purpose, that this hundred then belonged to the king, and, together with the hundred of Middleton, was worth 22l. 13s. 8d. per annum. (fn. 2)
The inhabitants of this hundred from time to time petitioned the crown, to have this manor separated from the jurisdiction of that of Milton, and to be esteemed as an entire and independent manor of itself; but this appears never to have been attended to; so that it continues in the same dependant state at this time.
Although there was from time to time several grants made by the crown, of the manor of Middleton, with this of Marden appendant to it, yet the fee of it remained parcel of the royal revenue, as may be more particularly seen under the description of that manor, till the 10th year of king Charles I. who then granted it to Sir Edward it Browne and Christopher Favell, in fee, from whence it passed through the several intermediate owners there mentioned, down to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, the present possessors of the manor of Middleton, with this of Marden appendant to it.
THE MANOR OF CHEVENEY, and CHEVENEYHOUSE, are both situated in this parish, and are now distinguished by the names of Great and Little Chevnney. They were antiently the property of a family of that surname: Henry del Chyvene held the manor of Chyvene at his death in the 2d year of Edward II. anno 1308, of the king in capite. His descendant John Chivene died possessed of them in the reign of Edward III. as did his widow Joane in the 32d year of it. After which there is no farther traces of this family, but in the 2d year of the next reign of king Richard II. it appears by the antient court-rolls of this manor, that William At-Weld was properietor of them, in whose descendants they contined till the beginning of the reign of king Henry VI. and then they passed by sale to Couper, and in the 13th year of it, William Couper discharged several persons from the amerciaments and fines imposed on them, for not persforming suit and service to his manor of Cheveney.
In this family they continued till the beginning of queen Mary's reign, when they came into the possession of two brothers, as coheirs in gavelkind, who made a partition of their inheritance; one of them, who had the allotment of the manor, passed it away to Lone, one of whose descendants, a little while before the restoration of king Charles II. alienated it to Thomas Twisden, esq. sergeant-at-law, afterwards knighted, and made one of the judges of the king's bench, and created a baronet. He seated himself at Bradbourne, and in his descendants this manor, since known by the name of Great Cheveney, was continued down to his great-grandsion Sir Roger Twisden, bart. of Bradborne, who died possessed of it, without male issue, in 1779, upon which it came to his widow, lady Rebecca Twisden, who is the present possessor of it. (fn. 3) A court baron is held for it.
But CHEVENE-HOUSE, since called LITTLE CHEVENEY, fell to the lot of the other brother, and was alienated by him to Maplesden, which branch of that family had been seated in this parish for some generations before. Many of them lie buried in this church, where several of the inscriptions on their gravestones are become obliterated, through the dampness of it. Several of their wills are in the Prerogative-office, Canterbury. They bore for their arms, Argent, a cross fermee, fitchee, sable. In which name it continued down to George Maplesden, esq. who resided here, where he died in 1688, leaving two sons, George, who, though married, died s. p. in 1735, and was succeeded in this estate by his brother Edward; and two daughters, Anne, who was married to Booth, and Catherine to Courthope, of Horsemonden. Edward Maplesden, esq. above mentioned, was of the Middle Temple, and died, unmarried and interstate, in 1755; upon which this, among the rest of his estates, descended to Alexander Courthope, esq. of Horsemonden, the son of his sister Cantherine, and to Charles Booth, esq. the grandson of his sister Anne, beforementioned, as his coheirs in gavelkind, and upon a partition of his whole estate, this house became the sole property of the former, who likewise died unmarried in 1779; upon which Chevene-house, with the rest of his estates, came to his nephew and heir-at-law John Cole, esq. (son of his sister Barbara) who now resides at Sprivers, in Horsemonden, and is the present possessor of it.
WIDEHURST is a manor in this parish, which was formerly written in old records Wogherst, and was, as early as the reigns of king John and king Henry III. the patrimony of the family of Corbie, of no small account in this county, in which it continued till it passed by a female heir by marriage into that of Wotton, ennobled by the title of lords Wotton, of Marley, and thence again by a daughter and coheir Catherine, in marriage to Henry, lord Stanhope, son and heir of Philip, earl of Chesterfield, who died in his father's life-time, and she again carried it in marriage to her second husband John Poliander Kirkhoven, lord of Hemfleet, in Holland, (fn. 4) and they, in 1652, joined in the sale of it to John Boughton, esq. who in 1656 alienated it to Mr. John Godden, and his heirs, in 1683, conveyed it to John Brewer, esq. of West Farleigh, whose descendant of the same name died possessed of it in 1724, leaving an only daughter and heir Jane, who was twice married, first to John Carney, esq. and secondly to John Shrimpton, esq. both of whom the survived, and died in 1726 S. P. She devised this manor, with the rest of her estates, to her kinsman John Davis, D. D. who died in 1766, and his only son and heir John Davis, esq. alienated it, to John Cole, esq. of Horsemonden, who is now proprietor of it.
SHIPHURST is another manor in the western part of this parish, which was possessed by owners of that name till the latter end of king Edward III, and then it became the property of William Atweld, owner likewise of Cheveney before-mentioned, in whose descendants they continued till the beginning of king Henry VI. and then they were both passed by sale to Couper, from which name this manor was soon afterwards alienated to Field, and his descendant Edward Field held it in the 4th year of queen Elizabeth, and afterwards gave it to his kinsman Thomas Gilbert, whose successor of the same name settled it on his widow Sibil Gilbert, whose second husband Richard Knight, possessed it, in her right, in the year 1656. (fn. 5) After some intermediate owners, it passed into the name of Mitchell, and Charles Mitchell, of London, possessed it in 1734, after whose death it came to his brother-in-law Mr. George Whyvall, of London, from whence it passed to Mr. Peirse, of London, who about the year 1760 alienated it to Mr. Thomas Twort, of Horsemonden, whose two sons Thomas and David Twort afterwards possessed it; the latter of whom devised his moiety of it to his nephew John Coleman, whose son John Coleman, together with the last-mentioned Mr. Thomas Twort, now possess this manor in undivided moieties. A court baron is held for it.
MONKTON is a manor in that part of this parish next to Staplehurst, in which part of the lands belonging to it lie. It formerly belonged to the priory of Leeds, (fn. 6) and after the suppression of it in the reign of Henry VIII. was granted to Thomas Colepeper, esq. of Bedgebury, who soon afterwards sold it to Thomas Wilsford, esq. and he in the 7th year of queen Elizabeth, alienated it to Edward Herbert, from which name it passed by sale, at the latter end of that reign, to Thomas Stanley, in whose family it remained till the reign of king James I. when it passed by sale to Board, of Sussex, in whose descendants it continued till about 1756, when it was, soon after the death of Mr. William Board, alienated by his heirs to John Henniker, esq of West Ham, in Essex, since Sir John Henniker, bart. who is the present owner of it.
The family of Henniker, Heneker, or as it was originally called, De Henekin, has been of long continuance in this county. One of them, Peter de Henekin, was lieutenant-governor of Dover castle in the reign of king Edward II. They afterwards, in the reign of Edward IV. wrote themselves Heneker, and resided in different parishes of this county, where their estates lay, as may be seen in the different volumes of this history. John Henniker, who died at Lenham in 1616, was ancestor to those of Chatham and Rochester, from whom descended Sir John Henniker, bart. now of West Ham, the present possessor of this estate, who in 1758 served the office of sheriff for Essex. He married Anne, the eldest of the two only daughters and coheirs of Sir John Major, bart. of Worlingworthhall, in Suffolk, (the other daughter Elizabeth marrying Henry, duke of Chandois) by whom he had three sons, John Henniker Major, esq. M. P. for Steyning, who married Miss Emely Jones; Major, a merchant in London, who married Miss Mary Phœnix, and died in 1789; and John, colonel in the army; and one daughter Elizabeth, married to Edward Stratford, earl of Aldborough. Lady Henniker lies buried in the south isle of Rochester cathedral, under a most beautiful monument. Sir John Major was created a baronet in 1765, and the title was limited, in default of his issue male, to his son-in-law John Henniker, esq. before-mentioned, and his heirs male, at which time a patent also passed for the latter to quarter the arms of Major, viz. Azure, three pillars of the Corinthian order, on the top of each a ball, or, with those of Henniker; Gules, a chevron charged with three estoils, argent, two crescents in chief, and an escallop shell in base, azure. Sir John Major died in 1781, upon which the title of baronet descended to his son-inlaw, now Sir John Henniker, bart. the present possessor of this manor, and late member in two successive parliaments for the town and port of Dover.
READ is a manor in this parish, the mansion of which, called Read-court, is situated on the northern side of it. It was once the inheritance of the noted family of Fremingham, one of whom, John, son of Sir Ralph de Fremingham, of Lose, died in the 12th year of Henry IV. possessed of this manor, and leaving no issue, he by his will devised it to feoffees, who by deed, next year, assigned it over accordingly to John, son of Reginald de Pimpe, and his heirs male, with remainder to Roger Isley, as being nearest of blood to him. (fn. 7)
It seems afterwards to have come into the possession of the Isleys, for William Isley, esq. was possessed of it at the time of his attainder, in the 1st year of queen Mary, by which his lands became forfeited to the crown; whence this manor was granted that year to Sir John Baker, attorney-general, to hold in capite, whose son Sir Richard Baker afterwards possessed it, but in the 10th year of queen Elizabeth's reign it was come into the possession of Edward Morrys, who held it of the queen, in manner as before-mentioned. In later times it was become the property of Master, one of which name, Giles Master, held it in 1652, as appears by the survey of Marden manor then taken. In his descendants it continued some time, but at length. after some intermediate owners, it came into the possession of Nicholas Bonfoy, esq. sergeant-at-arms of the house of commons, who at his death in 1775 devised it by his will to Mr. S. H. Babb, one of the officers of that house, and he is the present owner of it.
TILDENS, TUBBINS, and BROOKE, are three small manors in this parish, which had formerly three separate owners of those names; the first were persons of some note in this county, and were possessed of estates both at Kennington, Brenchley, and Tilmanstone likewise, so early as the reign of king Edward III. These three families continued in the possession of these manors till the latter end of Henry IV.'s reign, and then one of the family of Tubbins passed away that manor to Tilden, in which name both Tildens and Tubbins remained till the beginning of king Henry VI.'s reign, and then they were demised by sale to Thomas Stidulfe, esq. who, as appears by his will in 1453, had likewise purchased Brooke manor of Richard Brooke.
His grandson Thomas Stidulfe, esq. of Badsell, left an only daughter and heir Agnes, who carried these three manors in marriage to Richard Fane, esq. of Tudeley, from whom they descended, in like manner as Mereworth, to John Fane, earl of Westmoreland, and from him again, together with the barony of Le Despencer, down to the right hon. T. Stapleton, lord le Despencer, who is the present possessor of them. (fn. 8)
THE LIBERTY of the corporation of Maidstone claims over the manor of Tildens, which is situated near Style-bridge, where there is likewise an estate called Little Tildens, which in 1675 belonged to Thomas Wall, gent. of London. It lately was the property of Nicholas Haddock, esq. who sold it to John Cole, esq. the present possessor of it.
There was a family of the name of Symons, which resided at Marden for some generations; one of whom Edward Symons, gent. in 1652, held lands here, late Sir John Packington's. In 1662 he had a grant of this coat of arms, Party per fess, sable, and, or, a pale and three cinquefoils, counterchanged. (fn. 9) He resided here in 1663, and was possessed of much land in this parish.
Charities.
EDWARD MAPLESDEN, gent. by will gave to the poor of this parish 5l. per annum for ever, payable out of a house and lands situated near Horsemonden-heath, let at 10l. per annum, subject to 20s. per annum, to be paid to a learned minister, for the preaching of two charity sermons yearly on Ash Wednesday and Whit Sunday.
CERTAIN LANDS near Apledore-heath, let at 11l. 15s. per annum, were formerly the property of Mrs. Mary Allen, who by will gave to the poor of this parish 100l. payable out of them. After which her son, Mr. John Allen, gave another 100l. and charged the said land with it, subject to a decree in chancery, under which the churchwardens and overseers, with the approbation of the parishioners, legally purchased all the whole of those lands for 320l. as appears more at large by the said decree and other writings.
AN OLD COTTAGE, now in three small dwellings, built on the waste has belonged to the parish time out of mind.
There is a work-house here for the poor, those maintained in it are yearly about fifty, out of it about forty-five.
MARDEN is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sutton.
The church consists of three isles and three chancels, with a low square tower at the west end of it, in which there are six bells. It is situated very low and damp, at the west end of the town. In it was a chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. In 1763 this church was beautified by subscription, at the expence of 96l. 3s. 9d.
Richard de Lucy, chief justice of England, on the foundation and endowment of the abbey at Lesnes, gave the church of Merden to it, in pure and perpetual alms; which gift was confirmed by several kings afterwards; and in the 16th year of the latter reign, there was a vicarage endowed here by archbishop Stratford. (fn. 10)
The appropriation of this church, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of that abbey till the final dissolution of it in the reign of Henry VIII. when being one of those smaller monasteries, which cardinal Wolsey had obtained of the king in the 17th year of his reign, for the endowment of his colleagues, it was surrendered, with all its possessions, into the cardinal's hands, and afterwards granted by him, by the like letters patent, for the better endowment of his college, called Cardinal's college, in Oxford. But this church staid with that college only four years; when the cardinal being cast in a prœmunire, in 1529, all the estates of it were forfeited to the king, and became part of the revenues of the crown, whence it was soon afterwards granted to the Carthusian monastery of Shene, in Surry, and on the dissolution of that house within a few years afterwards, it came again to the crown, where it seems to have remained till queen Elizabeth having, in her 3d year, taken into her hands several manors, lands, &c. parcel of the revenue of the see of Canterbury, by her letters patent that year, granted to archbishop Parker and his successors, several rectories and parsonages in lieu of them, among which latter was this church of Marden appropriate, then valued at fifteen pounds, (being the reserved rent by the lessee of it) with the advowson of the vicarage appurtenant to it. Since which it has remained parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and does so at this time.
In the 8th year of king Richard II. this church was valued at 26l. 13s. 4d. annual value. In 1643 Sir William Acton, knight and baronet, was lessee of this rectory, at the yearly rent of fifteen pounds. John Cole, of Horsemonden, is the present lessee of it.
The vicarage is valued in the king's books at 7l. 18s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 15s. 10d. In 1557 here were three hundred families, communicants five hundred. In 1569 four hundred and twenty families. Since which this parish has greatly increased in number of inhabitants. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at seventy-five pounds per annum. It is now of much greater value. There is no glebe belonging to it.
Archbishop Juxon, in conformity to the king's letters mandatory, anno 15 Charles II. augmented this vicarage, by increasing the old pension from the lessee of the parsonage, from three pounds to twenty pounds per annum.
¶An estate in this parish, of about fifteen pounds per annum value, formerly belonging to Mottenden priory, now to John Sawbridge, esq. claims an exemption of tithes.
There are three churches near to home that I feel I needed to revisit, St Margaret's itself I should be able to get the key from the village shop at any time, but St Mary in Dover hasn't been open the last few times I have been in town, and Barfrestone was closed most of the year due to vandalism.
But Saturday morning there is usually a coffee morning in St Mary, so I went down armed with camera and lenses to take more shots of the details, especially of the windows.
This is one dedicated to the search and rescue pilots and the MTBs that rescued ditched pilots during the Battle of Britain. Very colourful.
Many more shots to come, I took some 150 shots here.
But that was nothing compared to how many I took at Barfrestone.....
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In the heart of the town with a prominent twelfth-century tower. From the outside it is obvious that much work was carried out in the nineteenth century. The church has major connections with the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports and is much used for ceremonial services. The western bays of the nave with their low semi-circular arches are contemporary with the tower, while the pointed arches to the east are entirely nineteenth century. The scale and choice of stone is entirely wrong, although the carving is very well done. However the east end, with its tall narrow lancet windows, is not so successful. The Royal Arms, of the reign of William and Mary, are of carved and painted wood, with a French motto - Jay Maintendray - instead of the more usual Dieu et Mon Droit. The church was badly damaged in the Second World War, but one of the survivors was the typical Norman font of square Purbeck marble construction. One of the more recent additions to the church is the Herald of Free Enterprise memorial window of 1989 designed by Frederick Cole.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Dover+1
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THE TOWN AND PORT OF DOVER.
DOVER lies at the eastern extremity of Kent, adjoining to the sea, the great high London road towards France ending at it. It lies adjoining to the parish of Charlton last-described, eastward, in the lath of St. Augustine and eastern division of the county. It is within the liberty of the cinque ports, and the juristion of the corporation of the town and port of Dover.
DOVER, written in the Latin Itinerary of Antonine, Dubris. By the Saxons, Dorsa, and Dofris. By later historians, Doveria; and in the book of Domesday, Dovere; took its name most probably from the British words, Dufir, signifying water, or Dusirrha, high and steep, alluding to the cliffs adjoining to it. (fn. 1)
It is situated at the extremity of a wide and spacious valley, inclosed on each side by high and steep hills or cliffs, and making allowance for the sea's withdrawing itself from between them, answers well to the description given of it by Julius Cæfar in his Commentaries.
In the middle space, between this chain of high cliffs, in a break or opening, lies the town of Dover and its harbour, which latter, before the sea was shut out, so late as the Norman conquest, was situated much more within the land than it is at present, as will be further noticed hereafter.
ON THE SUMMIT of one of these cliffs, of sudden and stupendous height, close on the north side of the town and harbour, stands DOVER CASTLE, so famous and renowned in all the histories of former times. It is situated so exceeding high, that it is at most times plainly to be seen from the lowest lands on the coast of France, and as far beyond as the eye can discern. Its size, for it contains within it thirty five acres of ground, six of which are taken up by the antient buildings, gives it the appearance of a small city, having its citadel conspicuous in the midst of it, with extensive fortifications, around its walls. The hill, or rather rock, on which it stands, is ragged and steep towards the town and harbour; but towards the sea, it is a perpendicular precipice of a wonderful height, being more than three hundred and twenty feet high, from its basis on the shore.
Common tradition supposes, that Julius Cæfar was the builder of this castle, as well as others in this part of Britain, but surely without a probability of truth; for our brave countrymen found Cæfar sufficient employment of a far different sort, during his short stay in Britain, to give him any opportunity of erecting even this one fortress. Kilburne says, there was a tower here, called Cæsar's tower, afterwards the king's lodgings; but these, now called the king's keep, were built by king Henry II. as will be further mentioned hereafter; and he further says, there were to be seen here great pipes and casks bound with iron hoops, in which was liquor supposed to be wine, which by long lying had become as thick as treacle, and would cleave like birdlime; salt congealed together as hard as stone; cross and long bows and arrows, to which brass was fastened instead of feathers, and they were of such size, as not to be fit for the use of men of that or any late ages. These, Lambarde says, the inhabitants shewed as having belonged to Cæfar, and the wine and salt as part of the provision he had brought with him hither; and Camden relates, that he was shewn these arrows, which he thinks were such as the Romans used to shoot out of their engines, which were like to large crossbows. These last might, no doubt, though not Cæsar's, belong to the Romans of a later time; and the former might, perhaps, be part of the provisions and stores which king Henry VIII. laid in here, at a time when he passed from hence over sea to France. But for many years past it has not been known what is become of any of these things.
Others, averse to Cæsar's having built this castle, and yet willing to give the building of it to the empire of the Romans of a later time, suppose, and that perhaps with some probability, it was first erected by Arviragus, (or Arivog, as he is called on his coin) king of Britain, in the time of Claudius, the Roman emperor. (fn. 2)
That there was one built here, during the continuance of the Roman empire in Britain, must be supposed from the necessity of it, and the circumstances of those times; and the existence of one plainly appears, from the remains of the tower and other parts of the antient church within it, and the octagon tower at the west end, in which are quantities of Roman brick and tile. These towers are evidently the remains of Roman work, the former of much less antiquity than the latter, which may be well supposed to have been built as early as the emperor Claudius, whose expedition hither was about or immediately subsequent to the year of Christ 44. Of these towers, probably the latter was built for a speculum, or watch-tower, and was used, not only to watch the approach of enemies, but with another on the opposite hill, to point out the safe entrance into this port between them, by night as well as by day.
In this fortress, the Romans seem afterwards to have kept a garrison of veterans, as we learn from Pancirollus, who tells us that a company of soldiers under their chief, called Præpositus Militum Tungricanorum, was stationed within this fortess.
Out of the remains of part of the above-mentioned Roman buildings here, a Christian church was erected, as most historians write, by Lucius, king of Britain, about the year 161; but it is much to be doubted whether there ever was such a king in Britain; if there was, he was only a tributary chief to the Roman emperor, under whose peculiar government Britain was then accounted. This church was built, no doubt, for the use of that part of the garrison in particular, who were at that time believers of the gospel, and afterwards during the different changes of the Christian and Pagan religions in these parts, was made use of accordingly, till St. Augustine, soon after the year 597, at the request of king Ethelbert, reconsecrated it, and dedicated it anew, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary.
¶His son and successor Eadbald, king of Kent, founded a college of secular canons and a provost in this church, whose habitations, undoubtedly near it, there are not the least traces of. These continued here till after the year 691; when Widred, king of Kent, having increated the fortifications, and finding the residence of the religious within them an incumbrance, removed them from hence into the town of Dover, to the antient church of St. Martin; in the description of which hereafter, a further account of them will be given.
DOVER does not seem to have been in much repute as a harbour, till some time after Cæsar's expedition hither; for the unfitness, as well as insecurity of the place, especially for a large fleet of shipping, added to the character which he had given of it, deterred the Romans from making a frequent use of it, so that from Boleyne, or Gessoriacum, their usual port in Gaul, they in general failed with their fleets to Richborough, or Portus Rutupinus, situated at the mouth of the Thames, in Britain, and thence back again; the latter being a most safe and commodious haven, with a large and extensive bay.
Notwithstanding which, Dover certainly was then made use of as a port for smaller vessels, and a nearer intercourse for passengers from the continent; and to render the entrance to it more safe, the Romans built two Specula, or watch-towers, here, on the two hills opposite to each other, to point out the approach to it, and one likewise on the opposite hill at Bologne, for the like purpose there; and it is mentioned as a port by Antoninus, in his Itinerary, in which, ITER III. is A Londinio ad Portum Dubris, i. e. from London to the port of Dover.
After the departure of the Romans from Britain, when the port of Bologne, as well as Richborough, fell into decay and disuse, and instead of the former a nearer port came into use, first at Whitsan, and when that was stopped up, a little higher at Calais, Dover quickly became the more usual and established port of passage between France and Britain, and it has continued so to the present time.
When the antient harbour of Dover was changed from its antient situation is not known; most probably by various occurrences of nature, the sea left it by degrees, till at last the farmer scite of it became entirely swallowed up by the beach. That the harbour was much further within land, even at the time of the conquest than it is at present, seems to be confirmed by Domesday, in which it is said, that at the entrance of it, there was a mill which damaged almost every ship that passed by it, on account of the great swell of the sea there. Where the scite of this mill was, is now totally unknown, though it is probable it was much within the land, and that by the still further accumulation of the beach, and other natural causes, this haven was in process of time so far filled up towards the inland part of it, as to change its situation still more to the south-west, towards the sea.
From the time of the Norman conquest this port continued the usual passage to the continent, and to confine the intercourse to this port only, there was a statute passed anno 4 Edward IV. that none should take shipping for Calais, but at Dover. (fn. 20) But in king Henry VII.'s time, which was almost the next reign, the harbour was become so swerved up, as to render it necessary for the king's immediate attention, to prevent its total ruin, and he expended great sums of money for its preservation. But it was found, that all that was done, would not answer the end proposed, without the building of a pier to seaward, which was determined on about the middle of Henry VIII.'s reign, and one was constructed, which was compiled of two rows of main posts, and great piles, which were let into holes hewn in the rock underneath, and some were shod with iron, and driven down into the main chalk, and fastened together with iron bands and bolts. The bottom being first filled up with great rocks of stone, and the remainder above with great chalk stones, beach, &c. During the whole of this work, the king greatly encouraged the undertaking, and came several times to view it; and in the whole is said to have expended near 63,000l. on it. But his absence afterwards abroad, his ill health, and at last his death, joined to the minority of his successor, king Edward VI. though some feeble efforts were made in his reign, towards the support of this pier, put a stop to, and in the end exposed this noble work to decay and ruin.
Queen Mary, indeed, attempted to carry it on again, but neither officers nor workmen being well paid, it came to nothing, so that in process of time the sea having brought up great quantities of beach again upon it, the harbour was choaked up, and the loss of Calais happening about the same time, threatened the entire destruction of it. Providentially the shelf of beach was of itself became a natural defence against the rage of the sea, insomuch, that if a passage could be made for ships to get safely within it, they might ride there securely.
To effect this, several projects were formed, and queen Elizabeth, to encourage it, gave to the town the free transportation of several thousand quarters of corn and tuns of beer; and in the 23d of her reign, an act passed for giving towards the repair of the harbour, a certain tonnage from every vessel above twenty tons burthen, passing by it, which amounted to 1000l. yearly income; and the lord Cobham, then lordwarden, and others, were appointed commissioners for this purpose; and in the end, after many different trials to effect it, a safe harbour was formed, with a pier, and different walls and sluices, at a great expence; during the time of which a universal diligence and public spirit appeared in every one concerned in this great and useful work. During the whole of the queen's reign, the improvement of this harbour continued without intermission, and several more acts passed for that purpose; but the future preservation of it was owing to the charter of incorporation of the governors of it, in the first year of king James I. by an act passed that year, by the name of the warden and assistants of the harbour of Dover, the warden being always the lord-warden of the cinque ports for the time being, and his assistants, his lieutenant, and the mayor of Dover, for the time being, and eight others, the warden and assistants only making a quorum; six to be present to make a session; at any of which, on a vacancy, the assistants to be elected; and the king granted to them his land or waste ground, or beach, commonly called the Pier, or Harbour ground, as it lay without Southgate, or Snargate, the rents of which are now of the yearly value of about three hundred pounds.
Under the direction of this corporation, the works and improvements of this harbour have been carried on, and acts of parliament have been passed in almost every reign since, to give the greater force to their proceedings.
From what has been said before, the reader will observe, that this harbour has always been a great national object, and that in the course of many ages, prodigious sums of money have been from time to time expended on it, and every endeavour used to keep it open, and render it commodious; but after all these repeated endeavours and expences, it still labours under such circumstances, as in a very great degree renders unsuccessful all that has ever been done for that purpose.
DOVER, as has been already mentioned, was of some estimation in the time of the Roman empire in Britain, on account of its haven, and afterwards for the castle, in which they kept a strong garrison of sol. diers, not only to guard the approach to it, but to keep the natives in subjection; and in proof of their residence here, the Rev. Mr. Lyon some years since discovered the remains of a Roman structure, which he apprehended to have been a bath, at the west end of the parish-church of St. Mary, in this town, which remains have since repeatedly been laid open when interments have taken place there.
This station of the Romans is mentioned by Antonine, in his Itinerary of the Roman roads in Britain, by the name of Dubris, as being situated from the station named Durovernum, or Canterbury, fourteen miles; which distance, compared with the miles as they are now numbered from Canterbury, shews the town, as well as the haven, for they were no doubt contiguous to each other, to have both been nearer within land than either of them are at present, the present distance from Canterbury being near sixteen miles as the road now goes, The sea, indeed, seems antiently to have occupied in great part the space where the present town of Dover, or at least the northwest part of it, now stands; but being shut out by the quantity of beach thrown up, and the harbour changed by that means to its present situation, left that place a dry ground, on which the town of Dover, the inhabitants following the traffic of the harbour, was afterwards built.
This town, called by the Saxons, Dofra, and Dofris; by later historians, Doveria; and in Domesday, Dovere; is agreed by all writers to have been privileged before the conquest; and by the survey of Domesday, appears to have been of ability in the time of king Edward the Confessor, to arm yearly twenty vessels for sea service. In consideration of which, that king granted to the inhabitants, not only to be free from the payment of thol and other privileges throughout the realm, but pardoned them all manner of suit and service to any of his courts whatsoever; and in those days, the town seems to have been under the protection and government of Godwin, earl of Kent, and governor of this castle.
Soon after the conquest, this town was so wasted by fire, that almost all the houses were reduced to ashes, as appears by the survey of Domesday, at the beginning of which is the following entry of it:
DOVERE, in the time of king Edward, paid eighteen pounds, of which money, king E had two parts, and earl Goduin the third. On the other hand, the canons of St. Martin had another moiety. The burgesses gave twenty ships to the king once in the year, for fifteen days; and in each ship were twenty and one men. This they did on the account that he had pardoned them sac and soc. When the messengers of the king came there, they gave for the passage of a horse three pence in winter, and two in summer. But the burgesses found a steerman, and one other assistant, and if there should be more necessary, they were provided at his cost. From the festival of St. Michael to the feast of St. Andrew, the king's peace was in the town. Sigerius had broke it, on which the king's bailiff had received the usual fine. Whoever resided constantly in the town paid custom to the king; he was free from thol throughout England. All these customs were there when king William came into England. On his first arrival in England, the town itself was burnt, and therefore its value could not be computed how much it was worth, when the bishop of Baieux received it. Now it is rated at forty pounds, and yet the bailiff pays from thence fifty-four pounds to the king; of which twenty-four pounds in money, which were twenty in an one, but thirty pounds to the earl by tale.
In Dovere there are twenty-nine plats of ground, of which the king had lost the custom. Of these Robert de Romenel has two. Ralph de Curbespine three. William, son of Tedald, one. William, son of Oger, one. William, son of Tedold, and Robert niger, six. William, son of Goisfrid, three, in which the guildhall of the burgesses was. Hugo de Montfort one house. Durand one. Rannulf de Colubels one. Wadard six. The son of Modbert one. And all these vouch the bishop of Baieux as the protector and giver of these houses. Of that plat of ground, which Rannulf de Colubels holds, which was a certain outlaw, they agree that the half of the land was the king's, and Rannulf himself has both parts. Humphry the lame man holds one plat of ground, of which half the forfeiture is the king's. Roger de Ostrabam made a certain house over the king's water, and held to this time the custom of the king; nor was a house there in the time of king Edward. In the entrance of the port of Dovere, there is one mill, which damages almost every ship, by the great swell of the sea, and does great damage to the king and his tenants; and it was not there in the time of king Edward. Concerning this, the grandson of Herbert says, that the bishop of Baieux granted it to his uncle Herbert, the son of Ivo.
And a little further, in the same record, under the bishop's possessions likewise:
In Estrei hundred, Wibertus holds half a yoke, which lies in the gild of Dover, and now is taxed with the land of Osbert, the son of Letard, and is worth per annum four shillings.
From the Norman conquest, the cities and towns of this realm appear to have been vested either in the crown, or else in the clergy or great men of the laity, and they were each, as such, immediately lords of the same. Thus, when the bishop of Baieux, to whom the king had, as may be seen by the above survey, granted this town, was disgraced. It returned into the king's hands by forfeiture, and king Richard I. afterwards granted it in ferme to Robt. Fitz-bernard. (fn. 21)
After the time of the taking of the survey of Domesday, the harbour of Dover still changing its situation more to the south-westward, the town seems to have altered its situation too, and to have been chiefly rebuilt along the sides of the new harbour, and as an encouragement to it, at the instance, and through favour especially to the prior of Dover, king Edward I. in corporated this town, the first that was so of any of the cinque ports, by the name of the mayor and commonalty. The mayor to be chosen out of the latter, from which body he was afterwards to chuse the assistants for his year, who were to be sworn for that purpose. At which time, the king had a mint for the coinage of money here; and by patent, anno 27 of that reign, the table of the exchequer of money was appointed to be held here, and at Yarmouth. (fn. 22) But the good effects of these marks of the royal favour were soon afterwards much lessened, by a dreadful disaster; for the French landed here in the night, in the 23d year of that reign, and burnt the greatest part of the town, and several of the religious houses, in it, and this was esteemed the more treacherousk, as it was done whilst the two cardinals were here, treating for a peace between England and France; which misfortune, however, does not seem to have totally impoverished it, for in the 17th year of the next reign of king Edward II it appears in some measure to have recovered its former state, and to have been rebuilt, as appears by the patent rolls of that year, in which the town of Dover is said to have then had in it twenty-one wards, each of which was charged with one ship for the king's use; in consideration of which, each ward had the privilege of a licensed packetboat, called a passenger, from Dover across the sea to Whitsan, in France, the usual port at that time of embarking from thence.
The state of this place in the reign of Henry VIII. is given by Leland, in his Itinerary, as follows:
"Dovar ys xii myles fro Canterbury and viii fro Sandwich. Ther hath bene a haven yn tyme past and yn taken ther of the ground that lyith up betwyxt the hilles is yet in digging found wosye. Ther hath bene found also peeces of cabelles and anchores and Itinerarium Antonini cawlyth hyt by the name of a haven. The towne on the front toward the se hath bene right strongly walled and embateled and almost al the residew; but now yt is parly fawlen downe and broken downe. The residew of the towne as far as I can perceyve was never waulled. The towne is devided into vi paroches. Wherof iii be under one rose at S. Martines yn the hart of the town. The other iii stand that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked. The other iii stand abrode, of the which one is cawled S. James of Rudby or more likely Rodeby a statione navium. But this word ys not sufficient to prove that Dovar showld be that place, the which the Romaynes cawlled Portus Rutupi or Rutupinum. For I cannot yet se the contrary but Retesboro otherwise cawlled Richeboro by Sandwich, both ways corruptly, must neades be Rutupinum. The mayne strong and famose castel of Dovar stondeth on the loppe of a hille almost a quarter of a myle of fro the towne on the lyst side and withyn the castel ys a chapel, yn the sides wherof appere sum greate Briton brykes. In the town was a great priory of blacke monkes late suppressed. There is also an hospitalle cawlled the Meason dew. On the toppe of the hye clive betwene the towne and the peere remayneth yet abowt a slyte shot up ynto the land fro the very brymme of the se clysse as ruine of a towr, the which has bene as a pharos or a mark to shyppes on the se and therby was a place of templarys. As concerning the river of Dovar it hath no long cowrse from no spring or hedde notable that descendith to that botom. The principal hed, as they say is at a place cawled Ewelle and that is not past a iii or iiii myles fro Dovar. Ther be springes of frech waters also at a place cawled Rivers. Ther is also a great spring at a place cawled …… and that once in a vi or vii yeres brasted owt so abundantly that a great part of the water cummeth into Dovar streme, but als yt renneth yn to the se betwyxt Dovar and Folchestan, but nerer to Folchestan that is to say withyn a ii myles of yt. Surely the hedde standeth so that it might with no no great cost be brought to run alway into Dovar streame." (fn. 23)
Cougate Crosse-gate Bocheruy-gate stoode with toures toward the se. There is beside Beting-gate and Westegate.
Howbeyt MTuine tol me a late that yt hath be walled abowt but not dyked.
This was the state of Dover just before the time of the dissolution of religious houses, in Henry VIII.'s reign, when the abolition of private masses, obits, and such like services in churches, occasioned by the reformation, annillilated the greatest part of the income of the priests belonging to them, in this as well as in other towns, in consequence of which most of them were deserted, and falling to ruin, the parishes belonging to them were united to one or two of the principal ones of them. Thus, in this town, of the several churches in it, two only remained in use for divine service, viz. St. Mary's and St. James's, to which the parishes of the others were united.
After this, the haven continuting to decay more than ever, notwithstanding the national assistance afforded to it, the town itself seemed hastening to impoverishment. What the state of it was in the 8th year of queen Elizabeth, may be seen, by the certificate returned by the queen's order of the maritime places, in her 8th year, by which it appears that there were then in Dover, houses inhabited three hundred and fifty-eight; void, or lack of inhabiters, nineteen; a mayor, customer, comptroller of authorities, not joint but several; ships and crayers twenty, from four tons to one hundred and twenty.
¶This probable ruin of the town, however, most likely induced the queen, in her 20th year, to grant it a new charter of incorporation, in which the manner of chusing mayor, jurats, and commoners, and of making freemen, was new-modelled, and several surther liberties and privileges granted, and those of the charter of king Edward I. confirmed likewise by inspeximus. After which, king Charles II. in his 36th year, anno 1684, granted to it a new charter, which, however, was never inrolled in chancery, and in consequence of a writ of quo warranto was that same year surrendered, and another again granted next year; but this last, as well as another charter granted by king James II. and forced on the corporation, being made wholly subservient to the king's own purposes, were annulled by proclamation, made anno 1688, being the fourth and last year of his reign: but none of the above charters being at this time extant, (the charters of this corporation, as well as those of the other cinque ports, being in 1685, by the king's command, surrendered up to Col. Strode, then governor of Dover castle, and never returned again, nor is it known what became of them,) Dover is now held to be a corporation by prescription, by the stile of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the town and port of Dover. It consists at present of a mayor, twelve jurats, and thirty-six commoners, or freemen, together with a chamberlain, recorder, and town-clerk. The mayor, who is coroner by virtue of his office, is chosen on Sept. 8, yearly, in St. Mary's church, and together with the jurats, who are justices within this liberty, exclusive of all others, hold a court of general sessions of the peace and gaol delivery, together with a court of record, and it has other privileges, mostly the same as the other corporations, within the liberties of the cinque ports. It has the privilege of a mace. The election of mayor was antiently in the church of St. Peter, whence in 1581 it was removed to that of St. Mary, where it has been, as well as the elections of barons to serve in parliament, held ever since. These elections here, as well as elsewhere in churches, set apart for the worship of God, are certainly a scandal to decency and religion, and are the more inexcusable here, as there is a spacious court-hall, much more fit for the purposes. After this, there was another byelaw made, in June, 1706, for removing these elections into the court-hall; but why it was not put in execution does not appear, unless custom prevented it—for if a decree was of force to move them from one church to another, another decree was of equal force to remove them from the church to the courthall. Within these few years indeed, a motion was made in the house of commons, by the late alderman Sawbridge, a gentlemand not much addicted to speak in favour of the established church, to remove all such elections, through decency, from churches to other places not consecrated to divine worship; but though allowed to be highly proper, yet party resentment against the mover of it prevailed, and the motion was negatived by a great majority.
The mayor is chosen by the resident freemen. The jurats are nominated from the common-councilmen by the jurats, and appointed by the mayor, jurats, and common-councilmen, by ballot.
THE CHURCH OF ST. Mary stands at some distance from the entrance into this town from Canterbury, near the market-place. It is said to have been built by the prior and convent of St. Martin, (fn. 47) in the year 1216; but from what authority, I know not.—Certain it is, that it was in king John's reign, in the gift of the king, and was afterwards given by him to John de Burgh; but in the 8th year of Richard II.'s reign, anno 1384, it was become appropriated to the abbot of Pontiniac. After which, by what means, I cannot discover, this appropriation, as well as the advowson of the church, came into the possession of the master and brethren of the hospital of the Maison Dieu, who took care that the church should be daily served by a priest, who should officiate in it for the benefit of the parish. In which state it continued till the suppression of the hospital, in the 36th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it came into the hands of the crown, at which time the parsonage was returned by John Thompson, master of the hospital, to be worth six pounds per annum.
Two years after which, the king being at Dover, at the humble entreaty of the inhabitants of this parish, gave to them, as it is said, this church, with the cemetery adjoining to it, to be used by them as a parochial church; at the same time he gave the pews of St. Martin's church for the use of it; and on the king's departure, in token of possession, they sealed up the church doors; since which, the patronage of it, which is now esteemed as a perpetual curacy, the minister of it being licensed by the archbishop, has been vested in the inhabitants of this parish. Every parishioner, paying scot and lot, having a vote in the chusing of the minister, whose maintenance had been from time to time, at their voluntary option, more or less. It is now fixed at eighty pounds per annum. Besides which he has the possession of a good house, where he resides, which was purchased by the inhabitants in 1754, for the perpetual use of the minister of it. It is exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon. (fn. 48)
There is a piece of ground belonging, as it is said, to the glebe of this church, rented annually at ten pounds, which is done by vestry, without the minister being at all concerned in it. In 1588 here were eight hundred and twenty-one communicants. This parish contains more than five parts out of six of the whole town, and a greater proportion of the inhabitants.
The church of St. Mary is a large handsome building of three isles, having a high and south chancel, all covered with lead, and built of flints, with ashler windows and door cases, which are arched and ornamented. At the west end is the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, in which are eight bells, a clock, and chimes. The pillars in the church are large and clumsy; the arches low and semicircular in the body, but eliptical in the chancel; but there is no separation between the body and chancel, and the pews are continued on to the east end of the church. In the high chancel, at the eastern extremity of it, beyond the altar, are the seats for the mayor and jurats; and here the mayor is now chosen, and the barons in parliament for this town and port constantly elected.
In 1683, there was a faculty granted to the churchwardens, to remove the magistrates seats from the east end of the church to the north side, or any other more convenient part of it, and for the more decent and commodious placing the communion table: in consequence of which, these seats were removed, and so placed, but they continued there no longer than 1689, when, by several orders of vestry, they were removed back again to where they remain at present.
The mayor was antiently chosen in St. Peter's church; but by a bye-law of the corporation, it was removed to this church in 1583, where it has ever since been held. In 1706, another bye law was made, to remove, for the sake of decency, all elections from this church to the court-hall, but it never took place. More of which has been mentioned before.
From the largeness, as well as the populousness of this parish, the church is far from being sufficient to contain the inhabitants who resort to it for public worship, notwithstanding there are four galleries in it, and it is otherwise well pewed. This church was paved in 1642, but it was not ceiled till 1706. In 1742, there was an organ erected in it. The two branches in it were given, one by subscription in 1738, and the other by the pilots in 1742.
Thomas Toke, of Dover, buried in the chapel of St. Katharine, in this church, by his will in 1484, gave seven acres of land at Dugate, under Windlass-down, to the wardens of this church, towards the repairs of it for ever.
¶The monuments and memorials in this church and church yard, are by far too numerous to mention here. Among them are the following: A small monument in the church for the celebrated Charles Churchill, who was buried in the old church-yard of St. Martin in this town, as has been noticed before; and a small stone, with a memorial for Samuel Foote, esq. the celebrated comedian, who died at the Ship inn, and had a grave dug for him in this church, but was afterwards carried to London, and buried there. A monument and several memorials for the family of Eaton; arms, Or, a sret, azure. A small tablet for John Ker, laird of Frogden, in Twit dale, in Scotland, who died suddenly at Dover, in his way to France, in 1730. Two monuments for Farbrace, arms, Azure, a bend, or, between two roses, argent, seeded, or, bearded vert. A monument in the middle isle, to the memory of the Minet family. In the north isle are several memorials for the Gunmans, of Dover; arms,. … a spread eagle, argent, gorged with a ducal coronet, or. There are others, to the memory of Broadley, Rouse, and others, of good account in this town.
In the far reaches of northern Scotland, within a village where time meanders at its own tranquil pace, a series of images unfolds, painting a tableau of life's relentless march amidst the shadows of climate's dismay and the distant rumbles of war that threaten to engulf Europe. It is a Wednesday evening, draped in the quietude of rainfall, a scene reminiscent of an Edward Hopper collection—imbued with solitude, emptiness, yet a profound continuance.
A Poem:
In this hamlet 'neath Scottish skies so wide,
Where the rains whisper and the winds confide,
Looms the spectre of a world in disarray,
Yet within these bounds, life finds its way.
Upon the cusp of night, shadows merge and dance,
In the pub's warm glow, eyes steal a glance.
The hearth's soft crackle, a comforting song,
In this northern retreat, where hearts belong.
The world outside may churn and roar,
With climates wracked and the drums of war.
Yet here we stand, in this time-suspended place,
Where tomorrow's worries are but a trace.
The local pub, our living room, our sphere,
A sanctuary from doubt, from dread, from fear.
We'll return come dusk, as sure as the tide,
In the rhythm of the ordinary, we take pride.
For what are we, but passengers in time,
Through days mundane, through nights sublime?
The question lingers, in the air, it floats,
Is this all there is? In whispers, it denotes.
Yet, as we stand 'neath the gentle pour,
We find beauty in the repeat, in the encore.
For in these moments, life's essence we distill,
In the quiet of the village, in the peace, so still.
A Haiku:
Rain veils the night's face,
Quiet pub bids farewell—
Life's quiet march on.