THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS-FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1901

XXIX.—ADISHAM.

Adisham is a village having a station on the London, Chatham, and Dover railway, 9 miles from Dover, 2½ from Wingham.

How the land lies.

The centre of Adisham village lies in the bottom of a valley, but the land rises from thence in every direction—to the south and west gently, but to the east a sharp incline leads up to a breezy, open country, from whence the prospect is splendid. The face of the country has not changed much since Hasted wrote of it as follows:-

From hence over the Isle of Thanet northward, to Sandwich, Deal and Dover, or to the seashore eastward, and the extremity of the Barham Downs southward, this part of the county is remarkably beautiful and pleasant, being for the most part an open champaign country, interspersed at places with small enclosures and coppices of wood, with towns, frequent villages and their churches, and many seats with their parks and their plantations throughout it. The face of the whole of it is lovely, having a peculiar grace and gaiety. It is an uneven surface of frequent hill and dale; but the valleys, though noble and wild, are gentle. The prospects are on every side pleasing and delightful over this country, bounded by the surrounding sea, covered with shipping of our own and other nations, and at the farthest ken of the eye, by the white cliffs of France.”

In the above description the Kentish historian goes a little wide of Adisham, but the paragraph is quite apropos, because the pleasant, salubrious, and elevated lands of this parish form the pivot on which to turn towards these lovely prospects in every direction. The parish contains 1853 acres, forming a fairly regular square, being about two miles in extent each way. The population of she parish in 1891 was 441, and it is about the same now. In 1841 the inhabitants numbered 372, and in 1801, just a century ago, 271, so that the place may be regarded as progressive though not of rapid development.

History of Adisham.

Before going into details of the present condition of the village, it will be of interest to pick up the scattered threads of its history and weave them into as complete a whole as possible. Adisham has not, like some parishes, a multiplicity of ancient manors. The Manor of Adisham comprised the whole parish, and since the earliest history to the present clay that Manor has been in Ecclesiastical bands, there having been as recently as last week, at the Moor’s Head at Adisham, a Court Baron held on behalf of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are Lords of the Manor, to which persons owing suit and service were summoned to attend and perform the same. The origin of this Ecclesiastical possession days back to the year A.D. 616, when Eadbald, King of Kent, son of King Ethelbert, gave the Manor of Adisham to the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, and the gift was made free of all secular services and tribute, except three common necessities from which no estate was exempt, called the trivoda necessitas, namely, contributions for repelling invasions, maintaining bridges, and repairing castles. This gift of the Manor of Adisham seems to have been the first of that kind, at any rate, in the Diocese of Canterbury, for, afterwards, in grants of lands to the Church of Canterbury instead of enumerating the privileges and liberties in detail, it was usual to insert the letters L.S.A., an abbreviation of the words Libere sicut Adisham, that is, free in like manner as Adisham was granted. At the Conquest, when the manors held by the monks of Canterbury were divided between the Archbishop and the Priory of Canterbury, Archbishop Lanfrane is said to have allotted Adisham to the Priory. This statement agrees with the facts as they existed in the 14th Century, the Prior of Christ Church being the possessor, but according to the Domesday Survey A.D. 1080, the Archbishop then had possession, the following being the particulars entered in the Domesday Survey in respect of Adisham:— "The Archbishop himself holds Edesham. It was taxed at seventeen sulings. The arable land is...... In demesne there are two carucates and a half, and one hundred villeins, with 14 borderers, having thirty-six carucates. There are thirteen acres of pasture, and three servants. Wood sufficient for fencing. Of this land two Knights hold of the Archbishop three sulings and there they have in demesne four carucates and eighteen villiens with four borderers one carucate. The whole Manor in the time of King Edward the Confessor was worth forty pounds. When he received it the like. It now pays forty-six pounds sixteen shillings and four-pence, and to the Archbishop one hundred shilling by way of fine. What the Knights hold is worth eleven pounds and yet it pays thirteen pounds."

From the foregoing it seems quite clear that at the time of the Domesday Survey, Archbishop Lanfranc held the Manor of Adisham, which at that time was a very large estate, consisting of seventeen sulings, which would be equal to 3672 English acres. That, no doubt, would have included Staple, which was anciently attached to this parish, and probably some adjoining lands. The Domesday entry proceeds in a very interesting manner to explain in detail the condition of the land at that time. The compiler intended, it seems, to state what proportion of that land was arable, but at the time of making his entry his information on that point not being complete he left a blank for the extent of the cornlands, which would have been expressed in a certain number of carucates, intending, no doubt, to fill in the number later, which does not seem to have been done, but by adding together the number of carucates in demesne used by the villiens and held by the Knight the total is 43½ carucates, but it is not certain how much land that represented. A carucate is said to be as much as a team could plough in a year, some putting the figure as high as a hundred acres, which would make a total of more than 4300 acres of arable land, but inasmuch as the manor did not contain that much land it must be assumed that the carucate was something considerably less than a hundred acres, probably fifty would be nearer the mark; nevertheless these figures show that a large proportion of the land at this time was arable, as, in fact, it seems to be now, the woodland then being only sufficient for fencing, and the pasture was 13 Norman acres, which would be equal to about 35 modern acres, so that it may be taken that the greater part of the land that the Archbishop held here was arable, 35 acres of pasture and the rest was woodland or waste. Turning from the land to the people, it seems that at that distant period, more than eight centuries ago, there dwelt on the Adisham Manor about 140 families, for each of the 137 villiens and borderers may be taken as being the head of a family, and in addition there was the family of the Lord, and also the families of the two Knights. The three servants would be slaves, but even the slaves of an archbishop would be treated with some Christian consideration, and probably they were the heads of families too, making 143 families, representing, perhaps, a total of 858 inhabitants, probably about as many as there are in the same area now. The next point worthy of note is that there should have been so many as 100 villiens and 14 borderers attached to the domain of the Lord, and that they should have had under cultivation 30 carucates of land, while there were but 2½ carucates actually attached to the manorial mansion. These facts seem to indicate that the villiens were a superior class, like small farmers, and as the amount of land to be cultivated for their Lord was small they instead of paying for their land by service paid to a larger extent in money or in land produce. It will be seen that in addition to the Lord and his villien tenants and borderers, there were on the Manor two Knights and their followers, who would, of course, have their own mansions, and it may be conjectured that one of these was the sub-Manor of Cooting and the other the sub-Manor of Crixall in Staple. Their establishments were comparatively small, having only 3 sulins of land, and 18 villiens with 5 borderers all told. Another thing disclosed by this survey is that the freedom from taxation which the Adisham Manor enjoyed when presented by the King of this section of the Heptarchy, was lost when the rule of one King extended to the whole land. In the days of Edward the Confessor the Manor paid a tax of forty pounds to the King, which would be about two-pence halfpenny per acre, and the Conqueror exacted £46 16s. 4d., which would be three-pence per acre. In the history of the Manor of Adisham there is a long blank after the Conquest. In the meantime an Archbishop’s residence having been established at Wingham, we find that in the tenth year of Edward II the Prior of Christ Church was Lord of the Manor, he having in that year obtained a grant of freewarren, and at that time the valuation had increased to £55. With the Prior of Christ Church it remained until the dissolution of the Priory in the 31st year of Henry VIII, when it came into the King’s hands, but the Sovereign after retaining it two years conferred it on the then newly constituted Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, and on their behalf the manorial rights are held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at the present day, although the Court Lodge and much of the land for many generations was held on a beneficial lease by the Oxenden family of Dean and Broome Court.

Adisham of to-day.

The traveller who alights at Adisham Station for Wingham may pass on his way without seeing Adisham village, which lies in a hollow, screened by the railway embankment. The station buildings and the Moor’s Head Hotel, in the Station Yard are the modern outgrowth of the railway, and nothing of the village is seen until the road on the left from the Station is followed through the railway arch. From thence the road leads down into the valley bottom, which forms the centre of the valley. Here the dwellings are placed in somewhat irregular order, some lining the roadside, some standing back in gardens, all as varied in style, size, and pretensions as in their positions. On the left, on entering from the railway, is an oast house and farm buildings, and a very neat, substantial residence adjoining. A little further on that side stands the Bull’s Head. On the right is the pond which Hasted referred to a hundred years ago as dangerous. It does not look particularly so, but nothing seems to have been done to it from his day to ours to make it less dangerous to a heedless person on a dark night when the water is high. Just above the pond is a very pretty cottage, and passing several others which stand about a patch of garden ground in open order, a characteristic red brick pair of cottages with a touch of Elizabethan style arrests attention. Here the roadside houses of the central section terminate, and between them a narrow path leads up to the Churchyard, the western side of which is bounded by the garden wall of Adisham Court, a well built red brick mansion, which appears to be of the Elizabethan or Jacobean period. The particular date of this mansion is not important. The present building was probably erected soon after the Manor was transferred by Henry VIII to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, but it was without doubt the successor of a much older mansion which had formed a country residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury before the Conquest. The site of the Court is on an eminence west of the Church, while away to the north is the Rectory. Strictly speaking this is all there is of ancient Adisham; but, not far up the highway, southwards towards the Dover road, is a continuation of the village, known as Dean Street. No doubt the more modern part of Adisham lies this way, and it is possible that the name of Dean Street was given to the locality because building extended in this direction after the Sixteenth Century, when the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury became the Lords of the Manor. Here are the National Schools, well and substantially built in 1864, with accommodation for a hundred children. Those who built these schools in substitution for a smaller school which dated from the early part of the century, left a good margin for future increase of the population, and there is no prospect of any school difficulty arising at Adisham, as far as accommodation is concerned, the average attendance being about sixty. Passing along Dean street the feature of the houses which strikes attention is red brick substantiality, and a business like aspect which indicates that this is the commercial centre of Adisham. Beyond the schools on the left is the extensive and attractive frontage of Mr. F. Best’s Adisham Grocery, Drapery and Provision Stores and Post Office. This forms a supply depot not only for Adisham, but for a considerable surrounding district. Dwelling houses and places of business continue some distance, amongst which is situated the Baptist Chapel which was built, or rather re-built, in the year 1886. The old Chapel, a thatched building, was used years ago by the Wesleyans, but as it did not work conveniently with their circuit, it was taken over by the Baptist Union. In 1886 the old Chapel and some of the adjoining houses were burnt down and the present one, a neat convenient building, soon after arose out of its ashes. This is one of seven or eight Baptists’ Chapels, of which the Chapel at Eythorne is the centre. They are situated at Eythorne, Adisham, Ashley, Barfreston, Barnswell, Eastry, Woolwich Green, Woodnesboro and Wootton. Near Dean Street is the little hamlet of Bloodden, and to the north-east is the hamlet of Bossington, near which is Cooting, anciently called Ovenden. There is nothing extensive in the way of industries at Adisham. Agriculture in general, and hop-growing in particular, take the lead. The railway station has centred here a considerable coal trade. Coals carried from inland collieries and from Whitstable Harbour, owing to the coal dues existing at Dover, are distributed from this centre over a considerable area of East Kent. To meet local wants, there are the usual village trades of smiths’, wheelwrights’, carpenters’, and Mr. C. S. Ratcliff combines with hop-crowing, the business of an auctioneer, and at the Moor’s Head there is a job master’s business carried on, there being a considerable demand at the station for conveyances to reach Wingham and the other neighbouring villages.

Adisham Church History.

The history of Adisham Church merges into the hazy borderland of tradition, for it is not quite possible to determine when the original Church in this parish was erected. There is no record in Domesday Book of any Church at Adisham, but that does not go for much, for out of 360 Kentish Manors mentioned in that Survey, only 183 are said to have had Churches, and it seems to have been the rule only to mention a Church when it was a source of revenue. Considering that there was, prior to the Conquest, nearly as large a population at Adisham as there is to-day, and also bearing in mind the fact that the whole manor was then the possession of the Church at Canterbury, it is not to be supposed that the village was left without the means of public worship. It has been stated that the first church at Adisham dates from A.D 616, and that is probably correct, as it was in that year that the King presented the manor to the Monks of Canterbury. What kind of church it was that was reared in those early times is unknown. It might have been of wood, as Saxon churches often were; nor is it possible to tell why the edifice was dedicated to the Holy Innocents, but judging from the thickness of the piers at the four central angles of the transept, the building might have been during the Danish incursions a place of refuge from the bloody invaders, and possibly some bloody work in which these invaders out-Heroded Herod may have suggested the dedication to the Holy Innocents when the central stronghold was extended in four directions and formed into the cruciform church like the one now existing. Without further speculation as to the date of building, it may be taken that in the 12th Century there was here a church consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, and central tower. About the middle of the 13th Century the church seems to have been almost entirely rebuilt, it being inferred by competent authorities, who have made careful examination on the spot, that with the exception of some of the central work under the central arches, scarcely any of the pre-13th Century church remains. Nor has the church built in the 13th Century been left intact. The chancel, tower and north sept are supposed to be work of the 13th Century, but the present nave, the south sept, and the little chapel opening off the nave, now used as a vestry, are supposed to have been built, or re-built, in the early part of the 14th Century. Since that time, the days of the Black Prince, the church walls of Adisham have stood, so that this venerable edifice, even as it stands to-day, has weathered the storms of six centuries, and some portions of it many centuries more. From time to time it has been repaired. For instance, Sir George Oxenden, who in the year 1650 died in the East Indies and was buried at Surat, left by his will £300 to repair this church. There is no record of what was done with that money, but, coming at a time when the church had been neglected and subjected to rough usage, it was no doubt badly needed. The last restoration took place in the year 1869, the architect being Mr. W. White, of Wimpole-street, and the builder Mr Denne, of Deal.

The Church as it is.

As Adisham Church stands to-day, it is one of the most interesting sacred edifices in East Kent. In its stones may be read much that will supplement the foregoing brief history. Entering from the north door, which is sheltered by a venerable porch, two steps lead down into the nave, while from the west door the descent is five steps. The first feature of interest in the nave is the font, a relic of the Norman Church, which stands near the north door. The basin, round its outer circumference, has some ancient work, much worn, but still remarkable. The next thing that attracts is the grand woodwork of the roof, a relic of the 14th Century. The seats, or parts of them, appear to be of very old wood, although modernised in form. The windows of the nave are partly modern, and probably some of them as old as that portion of the edifice, while in the most western window on the north side there are the remains of some very old stained glass. The most eastern window on the south side of the nave is filled with stained glass in memory of Victoria, daughter of the first Earl Russell, and wife of the Rev. N. Montague Villiers, M.A., who was rector at the time of the last restoration. Just underneath this window is an ancient arched recess in the south wall that must have been used as a sidella, and beside it a piscena indicating that in that spot an altar once stood. Opposite to this is an arch from the nave leading to a little north chapel, and through the wall on the west side of the arch is a lancet opening, the object of which is not obvious, unless it was used as a place of observation to watch the light on the opposite east nave altar. Coming next to the centre of the transept, there are four arches, one leading from the nave, another opposite leading to the chancel, and the other two to the north and south septs. Three of these arches are lofty, lancet shaped and plain, with the exception of some ancient ornamentation on the imposts; but the arch leading to the north sept is triple moulded, and much lower than the others, although in the wall above there is a mark indicating that reduction of height and the triple moulding of the arch was an innovation, and that originally all the arches were uniform. In the centre of these four arches is an ornamental wood canopy, forming the floor of the belfry in the tower above. Turning to the south sept, there there is to be seen in a recess a very curiously carved screen, an interesting example of a retable of the 13th Century, which, before the restoration of 1869, stood over the Communion Table. In this south sept recess formerly stood an altar, and close by in the south wall is a piscena. In the floor of this sept is a floriated stone cross, and against the wall are fragments of another. In the north sept there is also a piscena indicating that there was an altar there also, and near where it stood in the floor are stones engraved in memory of the Austen family, who formerly resided at the Court Lodge, and one stone is inlaid with a brass to the memory of Valentine Austen, who died 18th December, 1616, aged 66 years. Close to this stone is now a carved oak cupboard, in which is a splendid altar cloth, designed by Mrs. Jenner, of Preston Vicarage, and worked by her and Lady Victoria Viiliers for use at the 1869 re-opening. This silk altar covering presents a green frontal, in which are worked four white lilies with gold stems, and furnished with stoles of red, charged with the sacred monogram in gold. In the wall of this transept is a lancet shaped coloured cartoon of St. Peter. The north chapel, which serves as a vestry, is now screened off from the sept with carved woodwork. In this chapel is a board on which is a notice painted to the effect that the Rev. John Palmer, Rector, by his will in 1817 left £400 invested in Margate Pier, the interest of which was to be distributed annually to the poor of Adisham and Staple. From the north sept there is a staircase leading up to the tower belfry, from the landing of which the ancient woodwork of the roof can be examined. Before proceeding to the chancel, it should be mentioned that the massive masonry of the piers supporting the transept arches is probably the most ancient part of the building. Three of the piers have the old masonry exposed, but the fifth is plastered. Turning towards the chancel, the rood screen first attracts attention. It has had to be restored, but portions of it are the ancient 13th century work. The chancel, which is one step down from the transept, is lighted with five lancet windows on the east side, filled with fine stained glass, the subjects on the north side being selected from the Pentateuch and the five on the south side from the life of Christ. Over the Communion table, where the old carved screen, which originally came from Canterbury, stood before the restoration of 1869, there is now an open wood triptych, on the three leaves of which are depicted three scenes from the infancy of Christ, having a particular connection with the dedication of the church. The large centre panel has “The offering of the Magi,” on the south is “The flight into Egypt,” and on the north “The Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents." The artist has introduced into his work some pathetic and sympathetic touches, which renders it well worthy of its position. As traces of the old times, there is a double piscena on the south of the altar, an aumbry and a credence table on the north, and there is another piscena in the north wall of the chancel, indicating a side altar below the sanctuary. The walls of the church are decorated with multicolour distemper, and so is the roof between the rafters, while the lower parts of the walls are inlaid with ornamental tiles. The floor and the steps in the chancel are inlaid with squares and diamonds, mostly composed of ancient tiles found in the building during the last restoration. A more beautiful church is seldom seen, and the whole of the interior is so interesting, that we are not surprised that the Rector deems it advisable to leave the edifice open for inspection daily.

The Bells of Adisham.

A concluding word should be given about the bells of Adisham. There are four in the belfry, and the following are the particulars concerning them:— No. 1, a 29in. bell, has this inscription “Peter Dumoulin, D.D., Rector of Adisham. Palmar made mee, 1670.” No. 2, 30½ inches, and No. 3, 34 inches, bear the same inscription. No. 4 is the most curious. It is a 36 inch bell, and has this inscription:- “Nomen Magdalene Campana Gerit Melodie.” (He wears a name Magdala Campana Melodie) At the beginning of the inscription is a cross, and at the end a shield, and from the special character of these two marks authorities in campanology deduct that this bell was cast by John Waldergrave between the years 1418 and 1440.