THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1901.

XIII. SHEPHERDSWELL.

The village of Shepherdswell, which has a Station on the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, six miles from Dover, is now rapidly developing as a place of residence.

Sibertswold or Shepherdswell,

In official documents and in most directories the name of the Village is still given as Sibertswold, but in common parlance it is spoken of as Shepherdswell, and it is so printed in the railway timetables, hence it may be inferred that the historic name will eventually drop out of use. Nevertheless “Shepherdswell” is undoubtedly a corruption of the old name, which has gone through many changes. A hundred years ago, according to Hasted, it was written and pronounced Shebbertswell. The older and more correct name was Sibertswold, while the Saxon name given in Domesday Book was Sibertswalt. Historians say it was so named after a Saxon possessor of it. The suffix “wold” is descriptive of the place, and the name of the proprietor would according to that explanation be Sibert, but history makes no mention of any Saxon of that name. It is recorded that in the days of Edward the Confessor one Sigar held these lands, or part of them, therefore the name originally was probably Sigarswold. However that might have been, the modern name of Shepherdswell has secured a good hold on the public mind, and no doubt will be permanent.

Historic Review.

Haying gone into history in respect of the name, the place history may also be sketched before leaving that part of the subject. We know of no written records of Shepherdswell earlier than the Saxon times, but Julius Caesar, after landing at Deal, when putting his forces into position for the great light in which he vanquished the British on Barham Downs, seems to have had the left wing of his forces in this district. At Three Barrow Down to the west and Near Long Lane Farm to the east, there are still distinct traces of the Roman entrenchments. The Romans, however, simply made these entrenchments for temporary use, probably to prevent their left flank from attack by forces from Dover; and when the main body had driven the British from their strong position at “Old England's Hole,” near Patrixbourne, the Romans evacuated their entrenchments at Shepherdswell, leaving no other traces of their brief occupation. In Saxon times the land at Shepherdswell seem to have been held by Ecclesiastical Authorities. The Manor of Shepherdswell, or Upton Court, as it was afterwards called, being attached to the Monastery of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, and the Manor of West Court being part of the possessions of St. Martin’s, Dover. Soon after the Conquest, the Shepherdswell Manor went from the church and was held as a knight’s fee, first by Hugo, son of Fulbert. After that it seems to have been the private property of Richard, a natural son of King John, next it was owned by Henry de Wyngham, Bishop of London, next by Walter de Wynghis brother, then by Stephen de Pencestre, as heir, through marriage, of Walret de Wyngham. In the reign of Richard III. It came into the possession of the family of Uppeton, who gave it the name of Upton Court. The Philipotts (one of whom was Lord Mayor of London) succeeded the Uppetons, and they remained in possession of the Manor for many generations. Some members of this family were buried in the Church, but their inscriptions have long been obliterated. The Philipotts were all extinct before the reign of Henry VII, and the successive owners of Upton Court have been Guldeford, Boys, Merriweather, Turner, Sparrow, Churchill, Baldock, Slodden, and James Gunman, of Dover, the latter being in possession at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. At an earlier date, however, the property was divided by Richard Merriweather, who, about the year 1720, sold Place House and Butter Street Farm, which formed part of the Manor of Upton Court, to Mr. John Lowndes, of Overton in Cheshire, but at his death in 1734 this part of the Manor merged with the other, but Butter Street Farm was not long after sold to Robert Potter; it was held by his son, Thomas Potter, and next by his son Robert Potter, who resided at Place House until about the middle of the Nineteenth Century. The Manor of West Court was part of the possessions of St. Martin’s Dover, as early as A.D. 600. The last Saxon holder was Sigar, a Prebendary of St. Martin, Dover, and the land continued to be held by the Dover Priory till the 20th year of Henry VIII, when the King granted it the Archbishop of Canterbury, and it is still held on lease from the See of Canterbury.

Shepherdswell of To-day.

It will be refreshing now to leave the must and dust of history to get a whiff of the fresh air, and a sight of Shepherdswell as it now is. The village is off the main road, but may be reached by latteral highways branching off the London road above Lydden, or by the Sandwich road and through Eythorne. We approached it, however, as the majority of the people do, by the railway, through the 2000 yards tunnel in length, which has its western opening close to Shepherdswell Station. It may be remembered that during the excavation of this tunnel there was found embedded deep in the solid chalk a large block of coal, which has been much discussed by geologists, who have never been able to satisfactorily account for its presence in that unusual position, the view generally accepted, however, being that it was deposited there during the glacial period. Leaving Shepherdswell Station from the up platform, a wicket gate leads us along the front of The Terrace, which is a row of ten convenient modern residences which were built by a Dover syndicate consisting of Mr. Fry, Mr. Spice, and others, soon after the opening of the Railway. Until very recently these houses were the most modern, and are still the favourite resort of visitors who spend part of the summer at Shepherdswell. But, although this is called The Terrace, as we pass southward we come to another Terrace of older date. Prospect Terrace, consisting of six houses, adjoining the Bricklayer's Arms. These were built about the year 1845. Beyond Prospect Terrace on the road towards Place House, some pretty modern villas are in the course of erection. Westward on the road leading to Woolwich Green, are several houses, some very old and others modern. There is also a piece of land facing the end of the Terrace laid out as a new street by Mr. Coppen, evidently intended for building purposes, and being in a pleasant situation close to the Railway Station, would afford sites for very convenient residences. The advent of the railway has somewhat shifted the centre of the village, which may now be said to be the Post Office and Telegraph Office, which is at Mr. Coppen’s grocery and drapery establishment near the railway bridge. Over the bridge along the Eythorne road a new part of Shepherdswell has recently sprung up, several villas, singly and in pairs, having been built, and soon the whole of the road to the turning to Nonnington will be lined on each side with handsome residences. Previous to this new departure the only house on the Eythorne road was the Whitehall, which as a house of call is yearly growing in importance. Pleasure parties who visit it find its shaded grounds, which extend back to the railway station, very pleasant. Returning to the Post Office, the road up the hill leads to the old centre of the village. Passing up this road we note that a terrace of six houses facing the south was built in the year 1900. A little further up on the opposite side is the Wesleyan Chapel, a handsome gothic building erected in 1870, while opening off, on the other side of the road, are approaches to some very pleasant residences at West View, which were built about the year 1865. The whole of this land over the tunnel up to the upper roads is occupied with pretty residences amongst the gardens, and near the top is the Leather Bottle Inn, a favourite resort for summer visitors. Just beyond the Leather Bottle a footpath leads to the open fields near the Windmill, from which there is a fine view of an extensive landscape, and of Pegwell Bay and Ramsgate. Turning back to the road by the Wesleyan Chapel, we proceed up to the Village Green, a triangular piece of ground, in the centre of which there is a pond, now quite dry, and from the appearance of a quantity of chalk deposited there it looks as though it were intended to be filled up. On the west side of the area is the Bell Inn, on the north residences of old standing and the National Schools, with accommodation for about 100 children, built in 1854. On the south-east side stands the Church and the Vicarage. Looked at from the road the Church seems quite a new building, although, as a fact it is nearly forty years since it was rebuilt, but the flavour of antiquity is preserved by its surroundings, and more especially by the ancient yew trees, which appear to have stood there many centuries, perhaps as long as the original Church, which dates from before the Conquest.

In the Old Churchyard.

Now for a curious glance around the old Churchyard. In looking over the inscriptions on the headstones we were struck by the remarkable clearness of some of them which have existed considerably more than a hundred years, owing, probably, to the fact that the composition of the atmosphere is not so destructive to stone here as it is in graveyards nearer the sea. Among the monuments erected in the Eighteenth Century we noticed the following: To Thomas Richard Friend, 1777; Richard Holtum, of Cockshill, 1779; Mary Weekes, 1772; George Rigden, Yeoman, 1761; George Rigden Yeoman (late of Littlebourne) 1793, Martha Thompson 1759, John Thompson 1765, John Hogben 1754, Richard Hogben 1799, Edward Thompson, of this parish, who died 1746. The latter is on a fragment of a stone lying against the east end of the Church, but the wording is still very clear. John Matson 1761, Daniel Pilcher 1798. There are but few texts or verses on the headstones in this Churchyard, and the reader of the epitaphs finds little to indicate the faith in which those who sleep below died. Some are mournful laments for being cut off so soon. here are some samples:-

"All you who look upon this stone

Pray think how quickly I am gone.

Death doth not always warning give,

Therefore be careful how you live."

Another runs thus:-

“Called in the bloom of life away,

In memory of the fatal day.”

Here is one more:-

"So brittle is the state of man,

So soon it doth decay.

So all the glory of this world

Must fade and pass away.”

Here, however, is an epitaph of pronounced Christian sentiment:-

“Here liath, in hope of a joyful resurrection, ye morta part of Martha Thompson, of this parish. She departed this life January ye 8th. 1759, in the 61st year of her age."

But the verse which follows, copied from the same stone, excludes the doctrine of “Eternal Hope” which some modern Divines preach:—

“My dust which lies enclosed here

Before my Saviour shall appear;

How great, how awful, and how strange,

When ye last trump shall sound a change;

They all must from their graves ascend,

To live with Christ, and there remain.

Or else lie doomed to endless pain.”

A special feature of this graveyard is that there are many groups of graves, and many of the same family in each group, more especially of those interred from 150 to 50 years ago, and in many cases the number and Christian names of surviving children are engraved on the stones. Although, as we have remarked, some of the old inscriptions are peculiarly clear, there are some that are not, owing to the mason having adopted fine script instead of bold Roman letters. In stooping to decipher one indistinct epitaph, we found ourselves on the top of a wasps’ nest. The stone had fallen backwards, leaving an opening, apparently, into the tomb below, in and out of which there was a busy coming and going of the yellow workers, suggesting the transposition of an old text, “In the midst of death we are in life.” There is in this churchyard a well-preserved sun dial, which in the absence of a village clock is no doubt still very useful in indicating the correct time of day.

The Church and Its History.

There is very little history of this church on record, but that is not singular, for it would be difficult to gather up well authenticated facts respecting any of our parish churches prior to the dates when their registers began, and in many cases the registers afford very little information. It is mentioned in Domesday Book that there was a church at Sibertswalt in the time of Edward the Confessor, but the present building is in the Early English style, and in all probability was erected in the Thirteenth Century, although perhaps on the same site as its Saxon predecessor. This church was anciently appendent to the manor of Upton Court, and remained so until the year 1257, when Henry de Wyngham, Lord of the Manor, gave it to the Abbot and Convent of St. Radigund, and it is probable that on the occasion of that transfer the Early English edifice was raised in place of its plainer Saxon original. The ministers appear to have been the Canons of that Abbey, and that there was no independent Vicarage until after the dissolution of the Abbey by Henry Yin. Walter de Wyngham, the successor of Henry, in the year 1263 gave a house as residence for the Canon, on the same site, it is believed, as the present Vicarage. The Vicar ages of Shepherdswell and Coldred were united by Archbishop Whilegift in the year 1584, but even then the living was a very poor one, and it was further augmented with the yearly sum of £20 a year by Bishop Juxon in the year 1672. Thirty-two years prior to that, in the close of the reign of Charles I., the communicants numbered eighty. From the year 1683 down to the present time, the list of Vicars is as follows:—

John Maxim Delangle ......... 1683 resigned 1686

Edward Petitt ...................... 1686 died 1709

David Campredon................ 1709 died 1731

George Smith ..................... 1731 died 1752

Thomas Rymer ................... 1752 died 1759

John Benson ...................... 1759 resigned 1762

John Holingbery ................. 1762 resigned 1771

Roger Pettiward .................. 1771 died 1774

Durand Rhudde .................. 1771 died 1782

Allen Fielding ..................... 1782 resigned 1787

John Rose ......................... 1787 resigned 1790

John Henry Clapham ......... 1790 resigned 1792

Richard Blackett de Chair... 1792 died 1814

R. Blackett de Chair ........... 1814 died 1851

W. Garland, F. T. Scott,  C. J. Wimberley, C. B. Shirres 1851 to 1893

Thomas Falkuer ................ 1893 and now.

Several of the above Vicars have held other benefices concurrently with Shepherdswell. The first on the list was Rector of Chartham and Prebendary of Canterbury, David Compredon was Rector of Charlton, Dover, George Smith was Rector of Barfreston and Charlton, Dover.

Inside the Church.

The interior of St. Andrew’s Church, Shepherdswell, is beautiful, although marked by simplicity in its arrangements. The apsidal chancel with its fine stained glass windows lends a richness of colouring which makes the view from the bottom of the Church striking and agreeable. The building consists of a nave, apsidal chancel, organ chamber on the sooth side near the chancel, and a porch on the same side near the west end. Opposite the organ chamber there is on the north side a small vestry. At the west end there is a small bell-cot with one bell. In the south side of the nave, between the porch and the organ chamber, there has recently been put in a stained glass window to the memory of Mrs. Falkner, wife of the present Vicar, who died in January, 1900. Our attention was particularly drawn to this memorial by the fact that a domestic from the Vicarage was just then strewing the cill of the window with choice flowers. “It’s in memory of Spoor Mrs. Falkner,” was the explanatory remark of the bringer of the flowers, and the tone clearly indicated that Mrs. Falkner’s memory is held dear, the strewing of the window cill with flowers being done regularly every Saturday afternoon. The light was hardly good enough to read the inscriptions on the mural tables within the church, which are rather numerous. There is a brass in the chancel for Philemon Pownall, obt. 1660. There is also a memorial of the last of the Matson family who owned land in the parish and in Coldred. Henry Matson, it will be remembered, in the year 1720 bequeathed Singledge Farm to the Commissioners of Dover Harbour. The mural tablet here is to Richard Matson, who died 1720, aged 27 years. There is also a tablet to John Lowndes, of Overton, Cheshire, of Place House, who died 1734. In the nave is a memorial to James Herbert, of Shepherdswell, obt. 1760; and one for Thomas Rymer, Vicar, obt. 1750; also for Martha Maria, eldest daughter of Thomas Thompson, wine merchant, of Dover, obt. 1788; and last, though not least, should be mentioned a tablet to the memory of R. Blackett de Chair, Vicar from 1814 till 1851, when he died at the age of 90 years.

Land, People, and Government.

The land of Shepherdswell Parish comprises 3,269 acres in 207 holdings, of which 134 are houses and 73 lands or buildings used for other than residences. The rateable value is £3,362, which is an increase during the last ten years, notwithstanding the depreciation of the value of purely agricultural holdings. The principal landowners are the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who own nearly 900 acres, Sir Edward Rice, who owns about 250 acres, the Earl of Guilford, who owns about 240, chiefly Upton Court; and others holding over 50 acres each are Mr. T. W. Watson, the Governors of Bridewell Hospital, and Mr. William Dixon. Mr. F. Harlow and Mrs. Reader have been chiefly interested in the new houses recently built, the former on Eythorne road and the latter on Hillside. Shepherdswell has its Parish Council, which, however, does not exercise much power, the principal local government authority directly controlling the village being the Rural District Council, which has recently promulgated building bye-laws which, while they are salutary to a certain extent, rather tend to check building enterprise, as the requirements as to width of streets and air space are even more onerous than those in operation in the surrounding municipal boroughs. There are, however, certain powers of modification in the hands of the District Council, and the bye-laws, so far, have been reasonably administered. The water supply until recently was the parish well, supplemented by private wells and cisterns; but now the water from the East Kent Waterworks is laid on in the village, and all the new property and much of the old is being supplied in that way. The village is represented on the Board of Guardians and the Rural District Council by Mr. T. Jacob, and Mr. H. W. Thorpe, J.P., represents the district in the County Council. The population of the village is mainly of a good residential class and agricultural labourers. There are several lodging-houses which provide for summer visitors, three public houses, three shops, a forge, a market garden, and the railway station. The new buildings before referred to form a new industrial element, and there has also been a brickfield opened here. In the past fifty years Shepherdswell has been steadily growing, and with the dawn of the new century it seems to have made a more vigorous new start on the road to prosperity.