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OUR VILLAGES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY AND NOW. (1901) GREAT MONGEHAM THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NE\v S—FRIDAY, 23 MAT, 1902. CUR VILLAGESLIU.—GREAT MONGEHAM. The village of Great Mongehcm. in early Plantagenet times, was a market town, ana there is still in the centre of it e. spot called the Market Place. It is, howe\ er. now but a village, and a small one, while the parish in which it is situated has only an area of 886 acres. The Walmer Station of the Dover and Deal railway is in the parish, although more than a mile from the church. Deal is two miles north-east, and the immediate surroundings are Sholden, Little Monge-ham, and Northbourne. MONGEHAM HISTORY. The parish of Great Mongeham as a separate area has no early history, ihere having bten no distinction between Great ana Little Mongeham in the records of the Domesday survey. Both places had the common name of Mundingeham, but the southern part of the ancient ville'of that name having been given by Aldric. son of Widred King of Kent, to St. Augustine's Monastery in the year 760, that part was iormed into a parish, a church being built there by the Abbot; and later, for it is believed that Little Mongeham Church, now disappeared, was built first, and not long after, the Church of St. Martin was built in the other part of the area, forming another parish known at first by the name of Est Mundingeham, Up-Mundingeham, and finally Great Mundingeham. The later name dates from the close of the Norman Period, when Great Mongeham was a flourishing market town. That was in the reign of Henry III. The market was held on Thursdays and there was also St. Lukes fair held on three days—on St. Luke’s Day. and the day before and the day after. Bertram de Criol, who was a Governor of Dover Castle in the thirteenth century, was the Lord of the Manor, and it, was by his influence that the market was established; and the Manor seems to have passed to others, who held it for services connected -with the fortress and port of Dover. In the fifteenth century it passed to the Fogge lamily. Sir John Fogge died possessed of it in the year 1490, and his son Sir Thomas Fogge. who was Sergeant Porter at Calais ¦when it was an English town, was also Lord of the Manor: hence the Manor House t(«k the name of Fogge Court. It was held afterwards by his relative by marriage, "William Scott, Esq. The property, which had been held for knight's service, w“ treated as private property and sold. It passed through several hands, and in the feign of James I. was sold tu Mr. Joseph Pownal of Shepherdswell, from whom it passed to the Fasham family, of whom several found their last resting place at Great Mongeham. The last of the Fashams who was Lord of the Manor disinherited his son Anthony Fasham in the yeai-1729, and by •marriage with a daughter of the family the Manor went to Mr. Samuel Fasham Roby, of Deal. A century ago this estate dwindled to insignificance, the Court Baron^ being held at the Red Lion Inn at Sholden Bank, and the Manor a mere cottage, which then belonged to Mrs. Newmg; the Manor lands had all been sold, and only a few trifling quit rents, scarcely the i‘rou“® collecting, remained. Now the Manor House and all its rights have disappeared. A large house which overshadowed the Manor House in importance stood west of the church, and was ancient. 11 '™sr called 8tone Hall. This mansion, for many generations, was the residence of the Crayford family. The Crayfords were a very old family, and had large estates in this neighbourhood. William Cmyford. of this ilk was in the year 1460, with the Earl of Warwick in the battle of Northampton •fighting on the side of the Yorkists, and w!s mide knight banneret by Edward IV. for his services From this oir wunam Cravford', knight banneret, this estate descended through many generations, the last of the race, William Crayford, of Great Mongeham, dying in possession oi oxoue Hall in the reign of Charles II., the mansion descended to his widov- Ursula. wjo married Mr. Nordash Rand, of Ripple. He pulled down Stone Hall, but tinns of it can still be traced. .There are memorials of the Crayford family in the parish church. GREAT MONGEHAM TO-DAY. A walk through the village of Great Srle^T iff Walmer station. Great Moi.geham stands on a mount, where the chuich is surrounded by a closely ranked bodyguard of trees The middle of the village is about fiftv ' feet above sea level, the church is about a hundred, and on the south-west, the land at the highest pom : has an elevation of 144 feet. Entering the village by the road that branches off at Sho den •church, the southern fringe of Sholden is not a quarter of a mile from the beginning of Great Mongeham, but there is a marked .distinction between the two places. Antiquity is impressed on the first touch of Great Mongeham, and throughout it has an old-world-look and ail individuality of its own that invests it with special interest. The face of the country has f.n aspect of fertility, and the trees with luxiiriimt foliage Sfe^es on MerrboSWr>S amon£std which is^he*'’vMa^'post offlS, kept by Mr. E. H. Garland Justbeyond ^L«o8r‘ch»e^ngmre towL^on the left. This is a pleasan walk, which, after emergirg froma. part embowered by over-hanging branches, leads to the higher .ground, where> th(i right side onlv is occupied with houses, at tne rear Sf which is the church and churchyard^ .UK Vhi TPftnrv on the north-west. The & and^Walmer^roads K^misSS. feuiition‘° a Mnneeham village and Wfilmer station, a Targearea^ ofland having a western aspect and sheltered from the norJ.h-®“j- ™Ughlv r/rS The Walmer station building estate The populaS of this parish has steadily m- SnS sincen8th%Pover SiJkftS w£ made. The population at the lag census was 727 persoiia^16^ mal^ wS’taken onhthe lit'of April last yer-. 181 houses in the parish, of which 15 were unoccupied. and there were 7 houses in the course of construction. The number of unoccupied house is in proportion to the whole rather large, but most of them were new ones near Walmer. In the year 1841 there were but 58 houses in Great Mongeham. The following is the record of the population at the ten censuses of the last century: 1801. 248; 1811, 263; 1821, 281; 1831, 301; 1841, 286; 1851, 370; 1861, 349; 1871, 437; 1881, 469; 1891, 701; 1901, 727. On the lists of voters revised last autumn there are 134 registered electors. The area of the parish is 886 acres, and the tithe rent charge as commuted is £500. The church accommodation is for 250 persons, and the schools have places for 72 children; and there are 65 on the books. The smallness of the proportion of the scholars to the population is due to the fact that many of the inhabitants, especially in the vicinity of Walmer, send their children to higher schools. It will be seen that although Great Mongeham is an ancient place, it retains its vitalily, its population steadily increasing, and its scenery, especially around the church, has not lost any of its charms. GREAT MONGEHAM CHURCH. The parish church of Great Mongeham, i dedicated to St. Martin, is a handsome structure consisting of a chancel, north and south chantry chapels, a clerestoried nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a remarkably fine western embattled tower, in which there are five bells. The fabric is now in its principal features Early English, but there are Norman remains, and the tower is of a later period. Undoubtedly the most ancient portion of the church is the high chancel, which is remarkably long, and on the southern side of the sanctuary is a very handsome double piscina, and a sedilia. On each side the chancel are chantry chapels, the northern one appearing to be the most ancient, for in the western part of it is one Norman window. There appear to have been images in this church, and lights maintained in front of them. There was one light for St. Anthony and one for St. Osyth. In the north chantry some bases of shrines still remain. About the twelfth century this church appears to have been enlarged. The north arcade between the chancel and the north chapel was of that period. At a later date, supposed to be about the fourteenth century. the north chapel was prolonged eastward. and a high lancet window, which originally opened to the exterior, is now an unglazed opening from the high chancel to the north chancel. In the east of this north chantry there was an altar, and the piscina is still remaining in the south wall. The nave was no doubt ancient, but the clerestory windows were doubtless added in the fourteenth century; and at the same period the original walls of the nave were cut through and arched, forming the north and south arcades, which were then built, and the tower is of about the same date, and has a handsome circular stair turret at the north-west corner. There appear to have been three ancient church building periods at Great Mongeham—the first when the chancel, part of the north chantry, and the nave were built, being probably soon after the Conquest. About the twelfth century further building took place, mainly by wealthy landowners, who built or enlarged the north and south chantries. Then in the time of Great Mongeham's zenith when it had been raised to the dignity of a market town, the great effort of church building was made, and the fabric took its present form and dimensions. After that time generation after generation passed without any renewal of religious zeal, and the principal changes in the old fabric were produced by decay. During that period when political religni's zeal busied itself with forms of government and religion, the south aisle of Great Mongeham church fell, and there being nc disposition to restore it. the arches on that side were filled up with masonry and Rash windows. During the same period tYe south chantry went to rum. and the family having also decayed, the place was left in ruins; and the communication between it and the interior of the church being built up, it was used as a store house for the sexton, but being covered with ivy as a ruin it was not unsightly. The nineteenth century found the church sadly in need of a restorer. In that case the hour came before the man; but the man came at length in the person of the Rev Edward Penny, M.A.. in the year 1849, and he never rested till the old church was fully restored. RECTORS OF GREAT MONGEHAM. It will be interesting at this stage to glance at the characteristics of a few of the rcctors of Great Mongeham. The first we shall mention is the Rev. Thomas James, who is noteworthy from the fact that he was the first Librarian of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. There had been a famous Library there before, but it was destroyed by the carelessness with which books were lent and never returned. Sir Thomas Bod-ley, who established the present Library, in 1604, appointed Mr. James at the first Librarian, and under his direction its first collection of books was made and the rules and arrangements with the University and the State, by which that Library has become a famous national institution formed It was his work in this connection that made the Rev. Thomas James an historical personage ; of his doings at Great Mongeham there is nothing left on record, for he only held the rectory two years, from 1614 to 1616. His successor, the Rev. John Boys, D.D.. was in many ways a famous man He belonged to the numerous family, of Boys—the De Bois of the Norman period, who settled at Bonnington in Gopdnestone, and from thence spread over East Kent. The Rev. John Boys was educated at C are Hall, Cambridge, and wrote a book called “ Pastils,” in defence of the Liturgy, which established his reputation for learning, and with the populace he gained applause by his somewhat questionable parody on the Lord’s Prayer, which forced part of a sermon which he preached at St. Pauls Cross on the anniversary of the 5th of Noveiuoer, not many years after the discovery of ilie Gunpowder Plot. The parody is a sample of the party feeling which the King encouraged, and to which the clergy descended It ran thus: “Our Pope which art ir. Borne cursed be thy name; perish may thy kingdom: hindered may thy will he as it is in Heaven, so in earth. Give us this day our cup in the Lord's Supper; .• nd remit our monies which we have given for thy indulgences as we send them back unlc thee; lead us not into heresy, but free us fiom thy misery; for thine is the rnernnl pitch and sulphur for ever and ever, Amen. It is not surprising that a rector who hated Borne and all her works as this one did should not have done anything for the upkeep of the church at Great Mongeham. which had been raised and beautified dur-ine the period of Papal supremacy, nor had he opportunity to do much in the opposite direction, for one year after he was appointed rector of Great Mongeham he was pro-moted to the office of Dean of Canterbury, and probably this parish saw little of him Thp "Rev Robert. Sav, a Professor of Sacred Theology, held the rectory from 1625 till his death in 1828. He was also rector of Har-Medown. but he resided at Great Mongeham and was buried in the chancel of this church. His immediate successor was the Rev. John Sackes. M.A., Master of East-bridge Hospital, Canterbury. He was rector 36 years, and dying in 1664. was buried in the chancel of this church. His immediate successor was the Rev. Henry Ullock, who vacated the post three years later, in 1689. on being made Dean of Rochester. When that vacancy occurred, the Crown filled it up, William of Orange appointing, in the following year, the Rev. Timothy Wilson, an ultra Protestant, who was also one of the Clerks of Christ Church, Canterbury. He died in 1705. and was buried in the chancel of this church. The next rector was Dr .John Potter, who, after holding the office but two years, resigned in 1707, on being made Bishop of Oxford. Another celebrated man followed him, the Rev. Elias Sydal, who became Dean of Canterbury. afterwards Bishop of St. David’s, and lastly Bishop of Gloucester. He was succeeded bv the Rev. Francis Walwvn, D.D., about the year 1720, and in 1730 his successor was the Rev. Julius Deedes, who had previously been curate, and officiated as curate and rector 35 years. The Rev. William Byrch was appointed rector in 1752, he being at that time Minister of St. Mary’s. Dover, and he held both livings till his death in 1756. He was succeeded by the Rev. John Herring, M.A., who was rector until the year 1802, wher* after his 46 years tenure of office, he was. as recorded in the parish register, “buried in the chancel of the church Sep. 30. 1802, by his curate, J. Bmtih.” The Rev. Charles Dimmock. his successor, held the office 47 years, and dying at the age of 78 years, was. in May, 1849. succeeded by the Rev. Edward Penny, M.A., who held the office 20 years, and during that time restored the church, which the two previous rectors, during their long terms, which covered nearly a century, must have sadly neglected. Following Mr. Penny came the Rev. J. Branfill Harrison. M.A., who having been vicar of Walmer, was called to the rectory of Great Mongeham in 1869. He dying in 1893, was succeeded by the present rector, the Rev. F. Babington Blogg. M.A., who had previously been vicar of Walmer ten years. CHURCH RESTORATION. In the list of rectors we merely mentioned the Rev. Edward Penny because his name will be perpetuated by the lasting monument to his memory, the work whicn he did in the restoration of the church. There is a brass tablet on the south wall of the chancel having this inscription: “ In memory of the Rev. Edward Penny, who was born Nov. 8, 1808, and ordained to the curacy of Selinge, Kent, June 17, 1832. rector of St. Andrew’s, Canterbury, 1841, Perpetual curate of Ash-by-Sandwich 1842. one of the six preachers of Canterbury Cathedral 1843, rector of Great Mongeham 1849, hon. canon of Canterbury 1866, rural dean of Sandwich in the same year, and he departed this life Nov. 24, 1869.” Almost entirely at his own expense Mr. Penny thoroughly restored the church and the rectory. He began the work in 1850, the next year after he came to the parish, with the valuable aid of Mr. Butterfield, architect. He did the work piece by piece, commencing with the Chancel, which he very thoroughly restored. The east window is very handsome, both in colour and design. The subject is the Transfiguration in three compartments, the central figure being Christ, with hands extended, surrounded by the aureole, within a pointed oval, a favourite design of the Middle Ages, given to each of the persons of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin, to which design Albert Durer gave the name of "Vesica Piscis.” On either side of Christ stand Moses and EH as. Below these figures are the Apostles Peter, John, and James, with the inscription. “It is good for ub to be here.” Handsome white stone screens were placed across the entrance to the chancel and the side entrances to the chantry chapels. These are particularly beautiful and chaste in design. The carved wood screen which formerly stood at the entrance to the chancel has been placed at the entrance to the space under the tower, which is now the baptistery. The work of restoring the chancel, including re-roofing it was completed in 1852. The nave was re-roofed, and the south aisle and porch re-built in 1853. The south aisle had been down and the south chapel in ruins for nearly a hundred years. The south chapel was also lestored, and at the top of the south aisle the architect put in a piscina, which was found amongst rubbish in the churchyard, and was supposed to.hava been previously in that position or in the ad-jcining chapel. The north chapel was restored in 1860, at the expense of the Com-tesse di Morelia, a native of Great Mongeham, whose maiden name was Richards, she being the heir to the estate the owners of which are supposed to have originally built this chantry. The east and west windows, together with the north and sou h windows of the chancel, were filled with stained glass in 1881, when the restoration may be regarded as complete, the work having occupied rather more than ten years The fine chestnut trees which surround the churchyard were planted about the time that Mr. Penny commenced his restoration. The pulpit and the font are the gifts of the Noakes family, who also left the £701). which produces £19 10s. a year that is directed to be distributed to the par ishioners in beef. The Rev. Edward Penny also built, in 1853, the schools which still serve the parish. For liberality and1 ener- hls work 'Snthe“chu«h°resToarerUis his'W ine monument. The latest important addition to the church is the organ in the south chapel, built by Messrs Bevington and Co., and opened on August 29. 1875. great mongeham memorials. We have already mentioned the Rev Edward Penny’s memorial, ana tnere are some older ones that should be noticed There is a monument on the north wall of the north chapel dated 1615, to Edward Cray- Xng‘ainniarandya woman SZ&T1K to face at a small altar, with the effigies of five sons behind the father and it appears as though there have been daughters behind the mother There is in the same chapel a low altar tomb to Edward St. Ledger, of Deal, surgeon, with a long laudatory inscription of which the following is the principal part: “Here lieth interred Mr Ed-ward St. Leger, descended from a family of great honor and antiquity, the founder being Sr Bobert De Santo Leodegario. who came in with William the Conqueror and s-ttled at Ulcombe in the County of Kent. His descendants were eminent in war as m peace for we read of several Judges. Gene-rals. Knights of the Garter, Lord Deputies of Ireland, and Knights Baronets. They also married into high families. Thom- as St. Leger married Mary Anne, Duchess o' Exeter, sister to Edward the Fourth. The above Edward St. Leger seems to have lost fortune and place for he is recorded as having for 40 vears taken care of the sick and wounded in Deal, and. as his emtaph savs “very honestly fulfilled his duties.” He married the daughter of Charles Bsr-gravtTof Eastry obit. A.n. MDCCXXIX, aged 63. There is one mural tablet to the memory of Joseph Noakes. Gent., formerly of (his parish, latterly of Upncr Deal, obit 1820. aged 64- also tn his wife and other members of the family. Another to the Rev Charles Dimmnok. M.A.. Rectorof this parish for the last 47 years of his life, obit 1849. aged 78. Theie is also on the tower a memorial to Elizabeth Dimmock. obit July, 1807, wife of the Rector, who died at the^age of 29 years, on which were these “Thou taught’st me how to live, and ah! too high A price for knowledge taught’st me how to die.” In the west end of the Churchyard, near the Rectory, are the handsome marble tombs of the two last Rectors, the Rev. Edward Penny and the Rev. J. B. Harrison. |
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