NORTHBOURNE

THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, 13 JUNE, 1902.
OUR VILLAGES I

LVI.—NORTHBOURNE

Northbourne is a village situate on high ground overlooking the sand dunes and the sea, between Deal and Sandwich, being 3 miles from the former and 4 miles from the latter. The village itself is comparatively small, but the parish is large, extending 1* miles from north to south, and about 5 miles from east to west, including several other hamlets, comprising on the whoie an area of 3625 acres, and at the last census 751 population. The hamlets are Ashley, Fingle-sham, Little Bettshanger, Parley, Min-acre, Napchester, Tickness, West Studdale, and West Street. The name of Northbourne is derived from the North Stream, which rises on its north-western side, fJid proceeds northward to Sandwich, where it empties into the Stour.

EARLY I:.18TOKY.

In the year 618, FndLald, K ng of Ken', cave this part of his kingdom, called N >rtn •borne, consisting of thirty plough lands, lo the Convent of St. Augustine’s, at Canterbury, wherein the ashes of his father lay, and where he had given orders that he himself should be buried. In a later part of the Saxon period the gift was enlarged, and when Domesday Book was made up, in the 15th year of the Conqueror’s reign, the Northbourne lands in possession of the abbot and monks of St. Augustine’s were described as thirty sulins, which would be more than 6,0()0 acres of our present measurement. It is supposed that at that time the land which now forms other adjacent parishes was included in the early Northbourne parochial limits. Before the year 1385 it may have been that a part of those lands had been allotted to new parishes, for at that time the lands owned by the the Abbot of St. Augustine’s in Northbourne were measured up and found to be 2,179 acres and one half rood. Or it might have been that at that time the Norman measurement was still in use, in which case the acre was roughly three times as much as our present acre, which would make the area rather larger then than at the Conquest. However that may be, Northbourne, although still a large parish, is not half as large now as it was in the Norman period. The population then was as large as now, for *the Domjeisda$r Book says there were 79 villiens and 42 borderers, which would represent about 121 male heads of families of the working class, which, together with the inhabitants of the Abbot’s demense, and the families of the sub-hold-ering tenants mentioned, such as Oidelard, Gislebert, Wadard, Odelin, Marcherius, Osbem son of Letard, and Rannulf, would make at least as large a population as there is on the land at the present day. With regard to the tenants above mentioned, the Domesday Book states that Oidelard, in addition to his holding in Northbourne, had a second holding on this Manor at Beuesfield, of 216 acres, which would represent the present deitachecl portion of Northbourne at Ashley, which adjoins Whitfield and Waldershare, and is in the Bews-borough Hundred. In the yeir 1337, Salar mon de Ripple, a monk of St. Augustine’s Monastery, was appointed by the Abbot to be the keeper of this Manor, and he made very great improvements in the domain, and in addition to building churches in the outlying places, he built a very fair chapel at Northbourne at the Abbot’s Court. This was auite independent of the parish church, which was of many ctnturies older date. As recently as 1802 the -e was a part of that old chapel standing, a view of which at that time appeared in the “ Gentleman’s Magazine.” The energy of Salamon the monk was also expended jn building great barns and storehouses, and these, when filled with corn in the year 1371, were burnt down by the negligence of a workman, and the damage was estimated at one thousand pounds, which would be an enormous sum in those days. Northbourne Court, which was usually called Northbourne Abbey, from its having belonged to the Abbey of St. Augustine’s, was the ancient court lodge of this Manor, and it was said to have been the palace of King Eadbald, who originally gave the Manor to the Monastery. Leland, in his Itinerary, writing in the reign of Henry VIII., says: "At Northburn was the palayce or Maner of Edbald;, Ethelbert’s sunne. There, but a few years syns, yn breking a side of the wall yn the hawle were found ii childern’s bones that had been mured up, as yn burielie yn time of Faganits of the Saxons. Amongst one of the childern’s bones was found a styffe pynne of Latin.” It has been assumed from this entry that the two children referred to were the two sisters or daughters of Eadbald, who were murdered, and that there is some relation between this circumstance and the murder of the two princes by Thunner at Eastry. but it ^s difficult to see the connection. The two princesses i«t Northbourne are alleged to have been starved to death, but the allusion to the “stiff pin’ seems to suggest n more Relent death. The glory of Northbourne Conn, which reached its zenith in the days of Salamon de Ripple, was to a great extent eclipsed 44 years after, by the great fire which left the court and the fair chapel which he built, in ruins. At the dissolution of St. Augustine’s Monastery in the year 1539, this large and rich Manor went to the Crown. One year later it was conveyed to the Archbishop of Canterbuiy, so remaining until the year 1561, when it was again made Crown lands by w-ay of exchange. Queen Elizabeth, who had but three years previously ascended the throne, granted the Manor and Court to her foster brother, Edward Sanders, who resided et Northbourne Court, his ancestors having previously had a residence at Chilton in Ash. On his death, the Manor reverted to th« Cr°w"’ and so remained until James I., who, soon after his accession, granted it to Sir Edward Sandvs, on whom he conferred the honour of knighthood, for his firm attachment to him at that time. This Sir Edward Sandvs was the second son >f the Archbishop of York of the same name. It was in the time of this great man, who vas a distinguished politician of the Jacobean period, that Northbourne had its latter-day oWv rival line the davs rf Salamon de Ripple. Sir Edwin Sandys rebuilt the mansion on a magnificent wale, and resided here when he was Sheriff of Kent m

and yCpieasure g^ounSr^conteining about thirtv acres were encompassed witn one

SSfoPm ‘arched

eastern aspect, rose gradually in divers terraces, which were laid out with great art and expense for the cultivation of fruit, flowers, and vegetables, and were watered bv artificial fountains and a natural rivulet w'hid' ran down the lower part of the grounds. This, which was a stately mansion, was pulled down in 1750 (probably because on the division of the revenues of the estate of that time there was no one left who could afford to keep it up), and the materials were sold. The outer wall and the remains of the chapel, forming an in-
teresting ruin, remained, but the chapel has now disappeared. Several ancient coins have been found from time to time on. the site. Reverting to Sir Edwin Sandys, the re-builder of this now demolished mansion, he died twelve years after his shrievalty, in 1629, and was buried in Northbourne Church. He had four wives, but had male issue only by the last, namely Henry Sandys, who succeeded to the estate; but he dying unmarried, his brother Colonel Edwin Sandys, succeeded him, and he taking the side of Parliament in the Civil War, was wounded in the battle of Worcester, and dying of his wounds at Northbourne in the year 1642, was also buried in the church. Of the same family Sir Richard Sandys, of Northbourne Court, was created a baronet in 1684, and died in 1726. He left a large family, and the revenue of the estate was divided amongst them, but the property remained intact until 1795, when all parties interested therein agreed to its sale. At that time the whole estate consisted of 1100 acres, all tithe free, except forty acres, and the sale realized about £30,000. At that sale, the purchasers of the various sections of the estate were as follows: James Tillard, of Street End Place, near Canterbury, purchased the Northbourne Court Lodge, farm, and lands; Mr. Robert Thomas Pvott bought Stoneheap Farm; Mr. William Wyborn bought the site of the late Manor House, gardens, and Long-lane Farm; Mr. Joseph Parker bought Cold Harbour Farm ; and several other persons bought small detached parts of the estate. In later years the property was still further divided, and Mr. Richard Turner, J.P., of Dover, purchased the house which, after the demolition of the mansion, was erected adjoining Northbourne street as the Manor House, and has for many years past been known as Northbourne Abbey. In recent years, Lord Northboume has united by purchase various parts of this property, including the Abbey and the Court Lodge, which are now occupied by caretakers for his Lordship.

Other ancient houses in various parts of this extended parish require passing notice. Little Betteshanger in the western part was owned by Ralph de Betshanger in the reign of Edward III., and later by his son Thomas. Afterwards Roger de Cliderow (of Saxon origin) was its owner, but he dying without male issue, the estate went to his daughters, one of whom married the second son of Sir John Stoughton, Lord Mayor of London. The last of the Stoughtons died in 1591, after which the property was repeatedly sold, and was about a century ago owned by Mr. John Boys, a gentleman whose scientific knowledge in husbandry led to many improvements in the County of Kent, several of his writings having been published by the Agricultural Society. The Manor of Tickness, an isolated part of the parish, westward, was owned by the Bishop of Bayeux at the Conquest. It was afterwards the property of the Stoddards, fhe Nottinghams, the Peytons, and by inheritance it came to the D’Aeths of Knowlton. The tithes of this had been given by the Bishop of Bayeux to St. Augustine’s Monastery, and after the Reformation they went to the principal Manor. The estate at West Street, on the north-west boundary, near Ham Church, was the property of Roger Litchfield in 1513. Sir Cloudesley 8hovel owned it at the time when he lost his life by shipwreck, and it went to the 8hovel-Blackwoods by marriage; but in 1790 it was sold to Mr. William Nether-sole. It was from this estate that the pack well known as the West Street Harriers took their name. Finglesham is another separate estate which, at the time of the Domesday Survey, was owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but at a later date, by exchange, it seems to have become the property of St. Augustine's Monastery. It subsequently became private property. West Studdal is an estate southwards, which for centuries was the property of the Harveys, who were originally of Tilmanstone. There are also the separate estates of Ashley and Minacre. The former was the property of the Monastery until the Reformation, and afterwards it went to Isaac Bargrave, of Eastry. Minacre was at one time the property of Sir Robert Furnesse. of Waldershare, and now belongs to the Earl Guilford, as does also Napchester, which originally belonged to the same estate.

NORTHBOURNE TO-DAY.

Northbourne is, at the present day, a

fretty village in picturesque surroundings, ts greatest ornament is its ancient church, and grouped around it are the houses, composed of the Manor Hoitse, the Court, villas, farms, and cottages. The approach from the direction of Deal, after leaving the village of Great Mongeham, is by a high and rather bleak road which commands a view of the Downs, the Goodwins, and Pegwell Bay; while in the foreground, landward, across a ravine, lies Northboume, with its conspicuous square church tower, flanked on the south by the two windmills. From this point of view, to reach the village the road dips precipitously into a gorge, at the commencement of which a prominently-placed notice board warns cyclists that the hill is dangerous. At the bottom of this gorge the village street begins, a few pretty houses of the cottage class nestling on the south side of it. A few yards further on, on the north side, where the rise up into the central part of the village begins is the house known as the Abbey, and there commences the old red brick wall which enclosed the pleasure grounds and mansion which Sir Edwin Sandys built. The wall rises to an unclimbable height, and near the upper end of it is a large gateway, with a high brick arch, underneath which is an arch of stone, from which the massive ornamental gates have been removed. From the point where this high wall finishes, the road turns at an angle up the principal part of the village street, which is bordered bv trees and gradens, giving it a charming appearance. Through an opening on the west side is the approach to the church, on the south side of which is an old-time house which was the Vicarage, but the Rector has now a more modern residence westward. On the north-east side of the churchvard is a very thick ancient flint wall, indicating that there has been some other important building there. At Ashley there is a Baptist chapel, and a Wesleyan chapel at Finglesham.

The industries of Northbourne are of the ordinary kind. The two windmills are doing business—the old mill, Mr. G. W. Franks (wind), and the new mill, Mr. T. M. Fuller (wind and steam) There is Mr. Dixon’s forge, Mr. G. A. Wanstall is not onlv a builder on the large scale but also does the more delicate work of an apiarian. There is Mr. W Weston’s bakery, and Mr. Henrv Amos’ Hare and Hounds. During the last few years there have been several changes in the register of householders in Northhonme village and in the wider area of Northbourne parish. During the last twentv vears the population has been on the decline, owing, no doubt, to the depression in agriculture, on which all the villages and hamlets in the parish depend. It is a somewhat singular circumstance that at the time of the taking of the last census there was not a single house in the course of construction ,and there were 26 houses, one-eighth of the whole of the houses in the
parish, unoccupied. The population of Northbourne parish was 583 in the year 1801, and in 1821 it was 757; it continued to steadily increase, reaching its highest point, 947, in 1881. In 1891, the number was 892, and in 1901 it had fallen to 751; so that the parish to-day has a smaller population than it had in the year 1821. Northbourne must be written down as a village on the downward grade, and there seems no prospect of improvement, for the gentry once resident are absent, and there are no new industries. The only hope for places like this is in higher cultivation of the land that will employ more labour, more up-to-date machinery in land culture, and find more work for local smiths and carpenters, and more trade for the village shopkeepers. This is not an impossibility. The land about Northbourne is capable of a very much larger yield if there were more work put into it; and the problem on which the future prosperity of the place depends is, can the capital that would produce this larger output find a sufficient return to pay reasonable interest? There is plenty of money, and if its use could be profitably directed on English land, instead of being invested in gold mines in distant lands which too often bring disappointment instead of gold to the investors, agriculture in England might raise its head again. In places like Northbourne parish the old regime is played out, and new men with new methods are needed to bring back prosperity.

NORTHBOURNE CHURCH.

The church at Northbourne is dedicated to St. Augustine, after the Monastery to which it originally belonged. It stands in a moderate sized graveyard, the approach to which is arched by two tall elms standing one on each side the path. A little nearer the church is an ancient yew tree, but its day is nearly past. The church is a cruciform fabric in the Norman and Early English styles, consisting of a chancel, nave, transept, north and south chapels, south porch, and central tower, surmounted with a dome, and is supposed to have been higher when first built. It now contains five bells. The fabric is mainly of flints, with quoins, door, and window frames of ashler squared stones. The windows are varied—some semi-circular, some pointed, and some embellished with zig-zag ornaments. The arch of the transept leading to the nave is pointed, and has triple dan-cette ornaments; the arches to the chancel and the septs are semi-circular and plain.

It is remarkable that there is no earlier mention made of this church than in the year 1128 : but without doubt it had

then existed many centuries. The religious sentiment which prompted the Saxon King to give his lands and palace here to 8t. Augustine’s Monastery in the year 618, must have suggested also the necessity of making some provision for the religious necessities of those within his gates at Northbourne: or if the King made made no such provision, being content to hand the responsibility over to the Monastery, that Religious House would provide some kind of a church in which the people on the estate might congregate for worship. At the time of the Conquest there was quite a large population here, and the Normans, who built great churches where there was hardly any necessity for them, would not have neglected a populous place on their own estates. These considerations point to the existence of a church at Northbourne in Saxon times. That might have been of wood. The central part of the present fabric was probably built soon after the Conquest, and if there were any means of ascertaining what that church was like, it is probable that'it would be found to have been a small cross, of which the three east, south, and north arches in the transept formed part, the eastern arch probaMy leading into an apisidal chancel, the side arches into chapels as now, but since re-built, and probably a lower arch, now replaced by the pointed one leading into a low small nave for the use of the villeins and borderers of the period. Some such church did duty during the Norman period, and till nearly the end of the Plantaganet time. Such was the state of things in 1337, when Salamon de Ripple, a monk of St. Augus-tinl’8. was sent to be the keeper of this Manor. The great improvements which he made have been alreadv mentioned, and he was also notable for his church building zeal; therefore it is reasonable to suppose that at that time, when the estates of the Monastery of St. Augustine were at the zenith of their prosperity. 8alamon, in addition to building a special fair chapel for the Court and others in the neighbouring villages, seized the opportunity of making a noble structure of the little Norman church of Northbourne. Whether this surmise be literally correct or not, it seems obvious from the evidence of the stones now in situ and the style of architecture that the western arch and the nave were built at that period. At the same time, without disturbing the more ancient semicircular arches leading into the other directions. the chancel was carried out in its present form, the side chapels of the transept re-built, and the tower, more ornamental at the top than now, finished as a conspicuous feature. Since that date there must of necessity have been other restorations. but it is very probable that Northbourne Church of to-dav is in form and substance very much what it was in the fourteenth century. The present chancel bears the impress of Earlv English work. The East window is a simple lancet, having a coloured glass cartoon of the Crucifixion, with a very small lancet in the gable above^ The window is in a shallow recess, which is surmounted bv a larger pointed arch, which snans nearly the whole of the east end. and has a hood terminating with sculptured heads, the arch resting on two dark polished marble shafts. Below the window is a very handsome reredos of red erained marble, with emblematical figures inserted in diamond shaped spaces on the sides, and in the centre, under a canopy, is a dark panel, in which is a white cross. On the south side of the sanctuary is a piscina, and a little further west a sidelia with carved wood stalls, under the arch of i which is a brass inscribed thus:— To the | honour of God and in affectionate remem-I brance of a dearlv loved husband. Charles Hannam. whose remains lie in the familv vault, the east end of tbis Cbnrch vras decorated bv Sarah, his widow. 1865 ” The Hannams for many vears had resided at ! -V'ortbbourne Court, but in recent ve«vrg Mrs.

I Snmh Hannnm had a residence at Walmer I vhere she died Inst October at the aee of , 89. On the north side of the chancel has recentlv been placed a brass inscribed In memorv of Sarah, wife of Charles HjijTjam l of Northbound, nnd daughter of William Harrison, of Felderland. Worth, died Oct, 25. 1901. a fired 89 years.” The side lights of the chancel are three simrle lancet windows on e^ch side, snlaved. with trefoil 1 heads. The north sept is now occupied i bv a fine organ, and in the Tear of it are I two stained elas« windows. One is in ' m-morv of the Rev Thomas Hutcheson, M A., for 17 vears Rector of this nnrish. i who died in 1789. atred 63 years, erected hv ! his daughters Elizabeth and J*ne. The , o*ber is in memory of John Hutcheson,

I their brother, who died in 1863 The south sept is wainscotted on the east side by carved wood of the Jacobean 1 period, and was. no doubt, pu* there • when the Sandvs family resided at Northbourne. Under the south transept is a large tomb, in which were in*err«d t*>e members of the 8andvs familv. Sir Edwin Sandys, to whom James I. gave the Court
and Manor, being the first to occupy it. In reference to this place of sepulture of the Sandys, Hasted writes:—"Over it is a most costly and sumptuous monument, having at the back a plain blank tablet; on the tomb the recumbent effigies of a Knight in armour and a lady in a loose mantle. Above the pediment and in other places, several shields of arms, with the coat of Sandys, with quarterings and impalements. The tomb is for Sir Edwin Sandys, second son of Edwin, Archbishop of York. He had a grant of Nortihbourne Court from King James I., and died in 1639. This monument was erected by him in his lifetime, but he who erected this sumptuous monument, and added the provisional blank tablet and escutcheons on it, with the thought of securing to himself and his posterity a kind of immortality, left no one behind him, of all his numerous children, who had the least veneration for him, or respect for his memory ; both the tablet and escutcheons remaining a blank at this lime.” We suppose that Hasted when he wrote positively thus, had Been this monument, and was able to vouch for what he wrote as to the blank tablet. It certainly was a very remarkable thing, in view of the fact that the Sandys family resided at Northbourne Court for a hundred years after the death of Sir Edwin, and owned the property for seventy years after that, that some memorial should not have been inscribed on that slab. The slab is not a blank now, for it bears a very laudatory inscription in Latin, fully appreciative of all the virtues and public services of the Jacobean statesman. When the belated inscription was put there, and by whom,

record^'eft*; tat'if Huted'and 'ireland' are correct in their assertions this blank must have been filled up many years after the Sandys ceased to have any interest at Northbourne. In the Church there is also a memorial to Richard Harvey, of Eastry, obit 1675. He was in his day the owner of the West Studdal property. The nave has not many points of interest. Outside the arch there are corbels left in the wall which seem to have supported a rood loft, and near the pulpit there is a blank doorlike recess in the north wall, which probably was a way of approach to the rood loft from seme structure erected in the outside angle between the nave and the north sept. The nave is lighted by two large windows, one on each side, and further west two smaller ones on each side high up. There were formerly two porches, but the northern one is now transformed into a vestry. The south door is ancient, and richly sculptured with early work. In the Vestry there is a card containing a long list of the Vicars and Rectors, the present Rector being the Rev. W. C. Thomas, who was instituted in the year 1896.