THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1901.OUR VILLAGES.

XVI.—HOUGHAM.

A PARISH OF MANY INTERESTS.

Hougham is a large parish, with a varied history and many interests. Formerly, it formed a junction with St. Mary’s in the Borough of Dover on St. Martin’s Hill, and included the Priory, but although the name Hougham still includes the whole of the ancient parochial area, for civil and Poor law purposes, the parish is now divided into Hougham Within and Hougham Without, while for ecclesiastical purposes there have been several divisions, one when the district of Christ Church was formed in 1844, while, very recently, there have been further divisions in which parts has been allocated to the new parish of St. Martin at Maxton, and a part between Archcliff and the Citadel to Holy Trinity at the Pier. We have to do, however, with Hougham Without, the area which is still attached to the rural parish Church of St. Lawrence, of which the Rev. E. R. Orger, M.A., since 1880 has been the Vicar.

How the Land Lies.

The village of Hougham is scattered over a wide semi-circular area, presenting an extended front to the west from Dover, its loft couching the Folkestone road at Farthingloe, its centre at Church Hougham, on very elevated ground about three miles from Dover, and its left at West Hongham, which impinges on the parishes of Caple and Alkham. To reach the eastern side of the parish, the Folkestone road is the easiest route. After leaving Maxton it is a short walk to Farthingloe, while a little further on is Hougham Lodge, from both of which points there are roads leading up to Church Hougham. A favourite walk for pedestrians is up Stepping Down Hill from the opening of Elms Vale, and along the ridge direct to Church Hougham. Up the Elms Valley is the easiest and most pleasing road, which leads to the Elms, from whence there is one road that leads up to the Church and another passing the Vicarage skirts the hillside till it debouches on the high level land at West Hougham, passing the well known landmark Tanton’s windmill, and the Wesleyan Chapel. Elms Vale continues right through the parish, so that Church and West Hougham stand on opposite eminences.

Hougham History.

The history of Hougham may be briefly told. The name is said to be of Saxon origin, signifying High Hamlet. In the Domesday Survey it is written Hicham, more recently, as engraved on the Communion plate, Huffam. The high land now occupied by the Church is supposed to have been a Roman Station, forming a connecting link for signalling purposes with Dover Castle and Caesar’s Camp at Folkestone. After the Conquest, the parish of Hougham formed part of the lands given to Fulbert de Dover, and previously, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, the land was of the annual value of 100 shillings. At the beginning of the Norman period the lord of the soil was Baldwin, and he had one suling, that is, 210 acres, in his domain, and there were four villeins and five borderers who had two carucates of land, that is, about two ploughs’ work, under cultivation on their own account, so that at that period it is probable that there were at Hougham in addition to the lords family nine families on the land. That was apart from Farthingloe, which was held as Church land, attached to St. Martin’s in Dover. In the Norman times there were the following Manors in the parish of Hougham:— (1) Great Hougham, or South Court, subsequently called Chilverton and The Elms; (2) Hougham Court Manor, near the Church; (3) Siberton, a Manor on the north-east of the parish, afterwards joined with The Elms; (4) Farthingloe, otherwise called Venson Dane; and (5) Maxton, which is now within the Borough of Dover. A brief history of these Manors will be of interest to many readers. The Manor of Great Hougham, afterwards called The Elms, was held for many years by a family who took the surname of Hougham. One of this family, Robert de Hougham, held it in the reign of Richard I., and he accompanied that monarch as a crusader in the Holy Land. The Manor passed from the Hougham family in the reign of Edward III., and after two or three changes in ownership it came into the hands of William Fineux (son of Sir John Fineux, Lord Chief Justice), who resided and died at Hougham in the year 1534. The Fimeux family continued to own and reside at Great Hougham till the reign of Charles II, when the Manor passed into other hands. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes a rich refugee named Peter Nepueu came over from France and purchased Great Hougham Manor, and built The Elms Mansion, where he died in the year 1658. After the Nepueus came the Bretons, a Leicestershire family. In 1749 the estate came into the hands of Mr. Phineas Stringer, of Dover, and from him it passed by inheritance to the Broadrips, who held it in the year 1800, and at the present time it is owned by Major R. B. Lawes. The Manor of Hougham Court, or East Court, soon after the Conquest was held by Fulbert de Dover, then it passed to the Basing family. In the reign of Henry VII. it was owned by the Clive family from Shropshire, from whom it passed to William Hextal, members of whose family were several times Mayor of Dover. In Henry VIII’s reign it was owned by the Boys, of Fredville, and after passing through the hands of several other owners, was sold to Michael Becker, of Dover, who in 1792 disposed of it to Philip Leman, of Dover Castle, who held it in the early part of the Nineteenth Century; and at the present time it is the property of Mrs. Berens. The owner of this Manor was said to be entitled to the wreck of the sea between Shakespeare Cliff and Archcliff, but that right is now vested in the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Manor of Sibertson was a separate Manor for many centuries, being held at an early date by Richard de Sibertson, who devised it to John Monins, and it continued in that family till the 6th year of the reign of Edward VI., when it was sold by George Monins to Thomas Pepper, Jurat at Dover, a gentleman who, during the next 15 years, was four times Mayor of Dover. The estate was held by the Peppers about 60 years, and in the reign of James I. it passed to other hands, and was merged with the Elms estate. The Manor of Farthingloe was held by the Prior of St. Martin’s since Saxon times, until the reign of Henry VIII., when it went to the See of Canterbury, and is still held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

The Church and its History.

It is assumed that the spot now occupied by Hougham Church was an encampment of the Romans, and that after their departure the Saxons used it as a burial place, and in due course built a Church there. However that may be, there is no allusion to a Church at the time of the Domesday Survey, yet it might have existed, for the first mention; of Hougham Church is merely incidental, it being recorded in the Ledger Book of St. Martin’s Priory that Hougham Church, presumably pre-existing, was appropriated to that Priory by Archbishop Stratford in the year 1345, and a Vicarage then endowed in it. The style of the architecture is early English, and there are a few touches here and there which identify it with the same builders—the Masonic Monks of St. Martin—who built St. Margaret’s-at-Cliffe and St. Mary’s in Cannon street, Dover, but they do not appear to have bestowed on this Church on the bleak and little frequented hill, much wealth of ornament. Sir S. Glynne in his “Churches of Kent,” in the year 1847 referring to this edifice wrote, “A Church of mean exterior, but in some respects curious.’’ That having been written before the restoration of 1859 was a very just remark, A plain squat building was this old Church prior to its restoration, constructed as though its architect had been anxious, above all things, to keep his work low so as not to expose it to the rude blasts which frequently sweep those heights. The present tower was simply a big square addition to the west end with a tile roof, scarcely so high as that of the nave, but topped with bell cot surmounted by a vane. The view we have seen of that period shows the south side with its little aisle or chapel in which there is an ordinary sash window, inserted by some matter-of-fact person who had not been educated up to a love of a “dim religious light.” The change from 1858 till now has been the work of three restorations,— one which took place in 1859, in which the tower was built up to its present proportions, and the nave, two aisles, and south porch restored at the expense of the parishioners, chiefly through munificence of one of their number, who contributed nearly two-thirds of the entire cost. In 1866 the chancel was restored by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In 1884 the tower and spire were repaired as a memorial of the late Mrs. Finnis, wife of the late Mr. Steriker Finnis, they having formerly lived at the Elms, and the north aisle was repaired at the same time in memory of Mr. E. H. Waters, who subsequently resided at the Elms. The curious features of the Church are mostly internal. There is no chancel arch, but the tower opens to the nave with a semi-circular arch, which though plain is not mean. In front of it is a stone font copied from the ancient font of Selsey Cathedral. In a very interesting pamphlet entitled “Hougham Church, Kent: Its Architectural History as told by its Stones to the Vicar,” written by the late Vicar, the Rev. C. A. Malony, M.A., there is a very interesting account of the discoveries made during the restorations, from which it appears that the north aisle formerly went the whole length of the chancel, and that on the south side there was a chantry or chapel as the pillars and arches built up in that wall clearly indicate, while the little aisle or chapel between the chancel and the porch, where was formerly the sash window, was a modern addition, probably constructed to accommodate the “Maxton Pew,” which cannot now be traced. Mr. Malony’s pamphlet is now scarce, but it is, we believe, the fullest record extant relating to this ancient fabric. The sittings in this Church are said to be 250, but there appear to be 255, and they are apparently all free, subject to annual assignment by the Churchwardens, there being in the porch a notice board as follows: “The Incorporated Society for building, &c., Churches granted £40 A.D. 1859 towards the restoration of this Church upon condition that 255 seats conveniently placed in conformity with the plans approved by the Society be set apart for the free use of poor inhabitants for ever. These seats to be subject to annual assignment of the Churchwardens to such of them as are most regular in their attendance.” The register of this Church now in the parish dates from A.D.1659, but there is an older one at Canterbury going back to 1603. There is a large graveyard attached, in which there are so many interesting monuments that it is a pity that it is not surrounded by a better fence than the decayed woodwork now existing. If some parishioner would give an iron fence it would be a useful benefaction. The Churchyard has not long ago been enlarged, of which there is a record in the porch as follows “This tablet is erected in accordance with a vote of the parishioners of Hougham assembled in the vestry, to record their grateful sense of the liberality of Henry Halse Berens, of Sidcup, Esq., in enlarging the Churchyard of this parish by the gift of upwards of half an acre of land adjoining it on the west. Signed, Edward R. Orger, Vicar, John Tapley and Robert Denne, Churchwardens, May, 1883.” Opposite the Church porch is a sun dial, from which the villagers still take the time.

Hougham Memorials.

In the Churchyard at Hougham most of the older memorials are obliterated by the attrition of wind and weather, but within the ancient building there are several tablets and brasses, some of curious interest. Hasted says that before his time there had been memorial brasses, but all had disappeared, so that, as is not usually the case, the brasses at Hougham are more modern than the mural tablets. The most curious is on the north wall of the Chapel, and is to the memory of William Hannyngton, who was Mayor of Dover in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The tablet is surmounted by two principal figures intended to represent Mr. and Mrs. Hannyngton, and behind the male stand two smaller figures intended for sons, and behind the female three figures representing daughters, and two smaller on the same side less distinct intended to represent children who died in infancy as the inscription in quaint words intimates. The inscription is as follows:

“Here in their silent urns (again welded [after] death’s divorce), lie William Hunnyngton, Esq., and his wife, daughter of William Monyns, Esq., sometime Lieutenant of Dover Castle, expecting a blessed resurrection of the just. These happy olives budded fruitfully in the five sons and three daughters, two as soon blasted as blown. His works made his own demonstration under Henry VIII, his successive heirs, ye last of whom by special favour and order seated him twice in the Mayoralty of Dover, which services under these princes on earth were the earnest of his service under the Prince of Heaven.

qui  March 10, 1607.

quae Sept. 21, 1574.”

On the south wall of the nave is a mural tablet bearing the following inscription:

“In memory of Mary, wife of Peter Nepueu, merchant, by whom he had issue six sons and one daughter, and but one son left at her death on the 1st June, 1640, aged 50 years.”

Also on the north wall of the chancel is an elaborate marble monument surmounted by a fine sculptured bust, and on a slab below is the following inscription:

“In memory of Peter Nepueu, a native of France, who came over to England on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and brought with him a very plentiful estate purchased in the County of Kent. He built the Elms in this parish, and merchandized. He died 56 years of age, A.D. 1658."

In the floor of the chancel are large slabs with inscriptions in memory of other members of the Nepueu family, and also of Robert Breton, of The Elms, who died 1707. At the top of the north aisle is a tablet inscribed as follows:

“This aisle was restored in 1884 to the Glory of God and in loving memory of Edwin Hughes Waters, of Chilverton Elms in this parish.”

This Mr. Waters, who resided for several years at The Elms, was another member of a Shropshire family who resided in this parish. At the top of the nave on the south side is a brass bearing the following memorial:

“To the memory of Emma Selina, beloved wife of Robert Bartholomew Lawes, daughter of the Rev. Edward Murray and grand-daughter of the Right Rev. Lord George Murray. Born at Stinsford, Dorset, Sept. 30, 1829; died June 2,1896, at Old Park in this county. Her mortal remains were interred at Ham, Surrey.”

Near the font is a tablet in memory of the infant son of Major-General James Forbes, who died at Maxton, 10th March, 1805. In the base of the tower is a brass inscribed as follows:—

“This tower and spire were repaired A.D. 1884, to the Glory of God and in memory of Prances Hickmoth Finnis, wife of Steriker Finnis, formerly of the EIms in this parish, who died June 1st, 1882; also of Steriker Finnis, their second son, who died at Bagdad, in Turkish Arabia, Aprils, 1884."

There is also added a further inscription:

“In affectionate remembrance of Steriker Finnis, formerly of the Elms in this parish, who died 9 March, 1889, aged 72 years.”

Cliffs and Tunnels.

One of the special features of this parish is that it contains a long range of cliffs, including the celebrated Shakespeare’s Cliff, which rises with a sheer face 350 feet above the sea. This cliff is pierced by a pair of tunnels for the South Eastern Railway—the engineers considering it safer to have a tunnel for each pair of rails, rather than have it wide enough for a double line in one tunnel, and in that respect the railroad through Shakespeare’s Cliff differs from other railway tunnels. Its length is three-quarters of a mile, and at its western end it opens to the face of the Round Down Cliff, where the great blast took place in the construction of the railway, when a mass of chalk, one million tons in weight, was blown from the face of this cliff into the sea, forming an artificial undercliff of eighteen acres in extent. Passing westwards, still in Hougham parish, we come to Abbot’s Cliff, considerably higher than Shakespeare’s, through which there is a railway tunnel 1,857 yards in length. The boundary of the parish runs as far as Jury Gap, and en route there is Lydden Spout, a cascade of sparkling water from the same spring that supplies Folkestone Waterworks and which periodically bursts up at Drellingore. At this point there are, or were, two large chambers cut in the cliff, called the “Coining House,” used formerly by smugglers, but for many years past, owing to the Coastguard Station in the vicinity, those apartments have been to let.

The Channel Tunnel.

Hougham parish, too, has the distinction of including the spot fixed upon for excavating the Channel Tunnel, which at one time both French and English Legislatures sanctioned as a projected means of communication between England and France. A shaft was sunk west of Shakespeare’s Cliff, from which a tunnel was driven under the sea about a mile, the boring being done very rapidly by a machine worked by compressed air; but for considerations of national defence, the Government of this country in the year 1885 prohibited the continuation of the works, but the shaft and tunnel still remain as a memento of statesmanlike precaution or pusillanimity,—which?

Coal and Iron.

Close to the spot under the Round Down Cliff where the Channel Tunnel Works were, the celebrated boring which discovered Kent coal and Kent iron was commenced in 1886, and carried to a depth of 2,222 feet, in the course of which seams aggregating 23 feet of coal and one seam of 18 feet of iron ore were pierced, and on the same site shafts are now being sunk, one of which has passed through the iron, and is now very near the first seam of coal. This new discovery has added an important industry to Hougham parish, and in the future will largely add to the value of the land and the number of the population. At the present time the works involve an expenditure of a thousand pounds per week, but most of the men employed dwell in the Hougham section of the borough of Dover.

The Land and the People.

The land in the rural part of Hougham, exclusive of the foreshore, is about 2,000 acres, and the rateable value, including the Govern- property (Coastguard Station) and the South Eastern Railway, is £4,400. There are 64 separate ratings of land and trade premises, and there are 102 houses rated, including 72 cottages and 30 houses and mansions. The Lord of the Manor is Major R. B. Lawes, who is the owner of the Elms and other property to the extent of about 375 acres. The other principal landowners are Mr. John Morris, Pepper’s Exors., Diggle’s Exors., Mrs. Berens, Prior, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The principal agricultural and pastoral industries are carried on by Mr. E. Broadley, Great Farthingloe, Mr. J. Tapley, Little Fartliingloe, Mr. Hambrook, Elms Valley, Mr. Henry Adams, dairy farmer. Elms Vale, Messrs. Vickers, Hougham Court, Mr. Kingsmill, Messrs. Tanton, Mr. J. Constable, and Messrs. Broadley. The surface of the arable land at Hougham is remarkably productive of flints, and if they were perseveringly picked off and sold for road making, for which there is always a large demand, it might be estimated that in the course of centuries the height of these hills would be reduced. The population of the rural part of Hougham has, according to the return of the last census decreased, the total being 488, as compared with 523 in 1891, but this falling off arises entirely from the extension of the borough of Dover since the last census was taken, decreasing the rural area, there being no evidence of an actual decrease of population in the parish.

Education.

It has been already mentioned that the village is scattered, and so are its centres of interest. For instance, the Church and the day school are at Church Hougham. This school has been in existence many years. With reference to it there is the following tablet in the south aisle of the Church: “The late John Minet Fector, Esq., of Dover, gave, by his will, dated September, 1821, to the parish of Hougham £100 in bonds on the road leading from Dover to Sandwich, to be applied in aid of any subscription, fund, or otherwise, for the education of the poor, or for the benefit of the poor in any other manner, at the discretion of the officiating minister. The interest of this bequest was applied annually in aid of the Schools until 1871, when the bond was paid and the capital, £100, was devoted to the subscription then made for the erection of a parish school under the Education Act, with the consent of the parishioners and of the Education Department.— Charles Arthur Molony, M.A., Vicar; Daniel Tapley and Thomas Seath, Churchwardens, Nov. 12,1872.” These Schools provide accommodation for 90 children, but the average attendance is considerably less. There is also at West Hougham an infant school provided by the generosity of Mr. John Morris, of Abbotscliff, for the convenience of children of West Hougham and Caple who are too young to walk to the National schools at Hougham and Alkham. At present there are 40 children on the register.

Village Notes.

At West Hougham is the Wesleyan Chapel, built in the year 1840. The Wesleyans had a meeting place in the village long before, and in erecting this chapel the builders, we believe, made use of the internal fittings from the old Wesleyan Chapel at Buckland that was used prior to the erection of the present Buckland Chapel, which dates from 1839. Hougham chapel was renovated and repaired in the year 1881, and has accommodation for about 150 worshippers. It is in the Dover Circuit, and is supplied jointly by local preachers and the regular Circuit ministers who reside at Dover. At West Hougham there is a Post Office, and a wall pillar box at Church Hougham. The village contains three public houses, the Plough on the Folkestone road, which has a garden frequented by pedestrians out for a stroll, the Three Horse Shoes is near the church, and the Chequers at West Hougham. Hougham, taken as a whole, can boast of an industrious hard-working community. Its mill, its smithy, its carpenters’ and builders’ workshops, its bakery, its dairy farms, and its corn lands, yield a living return for honest labour, and although it is scarcely a village in which large fortunes are made, probably that will come later, when the mineral wealth that underlies it has been fully developed.