PADDLESWORTH

THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS-FR7dat. U JULY, 1902.
OUR VILLAGES j

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LX.—PADDLESWORTH. *

Paddlesworth is a little village in a small * parish of 516 acres area, occupying the high- f est land in East Kent, situate four miles J north-west of Folkestone, the nearest rail- * way station being Lyminge, on the Ellham £ Valley railway. There are two places in a England named Paddlesworth, both in £ Kent, the other one being a hamlet in the fc parish of Snodland. ^

HISTORY OP PADDLESWORTH. |'l

The history of Paddlesworth next Acrise j in pre-Norman times is little known, but 0 there seems no doubt but that this place, 0 like Lyminge, was a part of a Roman sta- j, tion, and whether the quaint little church s was originally built for public worship or fi for some other purpose, there appaar in its 0 masonry to-day traces of Romanesque. n The site of Paddlesworth church oeing the t highest land in Kent, it might have been v selected by the Romans, who had a Basilisca t down in the vallley at Lyminge, jis a suit- j, able place for a watch house; and suppos- b ing the Roman secular structure was after- j wards adapted as a place of worship, the ^ trace of the Roman to be seen in its northern door would be accounted for, be-cause the Saxons, following in the steps of 0 the Roman builders, would naturally be 1. inclined to follow their style. However ihat may have been, it seems certain that j there was a community occupying this high c land in Saxon times, and also that there e was a Saxon church here. It is also left on t] record that at that time the Mancr of Pad- v dies worth was held under the Archbishop ^ by Robertus de Hardres and Osbertus Pas- a ford. At the Conquest the lands were con- a fiscated. Not long after the Paddlesworth w Manor fell into the hands of the great u Norman familly of the Criols, Lords of n Westenhanger, who in the year 1191 gave e one of the farms at Paddlesworh to St. ^ Radieund’s Abbey. Bertram de Criol died r, possessed of the Manor about the year a 1280. His two sons dying childless the n estate went to Bartram's daughterJoan, a and she carried it in marriage to Sir Ri- w chard de Rokesle, of Lenham, who was 0 Captain of a tower of Dover Castle, which r. -&till bears his name. Sir Richard having 8 no sons, the Paddlesworth estate went to f( his eldest daughter Agnes, who married M Thomas de Poynings, and thus the Manor g. went into the Poynings family and re-mained with them until about the year 1470, e the last who held it of that family being u Robert de Poynings, who was a member of ^ Edward IV.'s Parliament. Sir Edward de t] Poynings, of the succeeding generation, was for several years Constable of Dover Castle. J From the Poynings Paddlesworth passed by sale to Sir Thomas Fogge, of Repton. It c remained in the possession of hi? descend- f ants until the reign of James I., when it g was sold to the DingLeys, who sold it to „ Thomas Talbot. He in turn sold it to t Ralph Harwood, and he alienated it in 1748 ^ to James Hammond, of Dover. On Mr. t Hammond’s death in 1790, it was sold to J Thomas Papillon, of Acrise, and Lt re- , mained in that family till about 40 years . ago. The principal owners of property in J the parish now are: Mr. Stephen Finn J Castle, of Martley, Worcester; and Mr. Robert Marsh Gammon, of Paddlesworth. j

PADDLESWORTH CHURCH. J

There are two points in connection with t Paddlesworth Church which arrest attention t —its extreme smallness and its dedication I to St. Oswald. This church is supposed to \ be the smallest in the county, and there is f no other church in Kent dedicated to St. t Oswald, and probably none in the southern i counties. In the north of England the i dedication of churches to this saint is not < uncommon, for Oswald reigned over the < ancient kingdom of Northumbria; but he j was a nephew of Ethelburga, the foundress j of the Saxon Church and Nunnery at Ly- i minge, therefore this church at Paddles- , worth was dedicated in memory of him \ by Ethelburga or her immediate successors. , The Saxon church which Ethelburga foun- j ded at Lyminge is now only represented by , skeleton foundations unearthed in recent < years, but this church of St. Oswald at 1 Paddlesworth, which is stild intact, was 1 built only a few years later, dating from \ the last half of the seventh century, and \ • therefore it is probable that there is not to ] be found in England more than two or j three churches of such great antiquity. As , to its size, its length is only 47* feet, the -nave being 33* feet long and the chancel! 141 feet. Its breadth in the nave is 17 feet, and in the chancel 101 feet. The • thickness of the walls is 2 feet 8 inches. The church stands in the meadows on the south side of the small village, and there being no road to it except scarcely marked paths Across the greensward, it would from the distance hardly be recognized as a church. As already indicated, it consists of a nave and chancel; there is neither tower nor porch, but at the west end there is a small cable containing a bell. There are two entrances—one north and the other southof the nave exactly opposite each other. The south door, which is apparently not used, has its shafts rather elaborately ornamented. This door was engraved to illustrate the prospectus of Mr. Streatfeilds history, which was never published, and the work in it is assumed to be of the same date as the choir of Canterbury Cathedral This southern door is a feature of specud interest ; but the northern door, which is the onemuse,

ffi navefare1 amall'single fiScSM^ ri.und heads consisting extern illy of only

and®ch™5l have* samplles ®of ‘jtong^ and matenal of which this church is ta t

doors ^and^windnws^in1 several ^laces^iron

ftone being used. On the north side of the

merly stood there. That jmsige’ was

¦ «* ^T w tiornp^atp which wras worded will of John Barnesaaie, wmtii » thus: “ First I bequeath my soul to AJ mighty God, to our Blessrf Lady St Mw. and to all the company of hevyn, mv booy J? he buried in the churchyard of Padels-jil Tfpm I bequeath to the high altar 5w for mv tythes or offrynge forgotten xxd. Item, I bequeath towards the making of a new image of St. Oswald in the sam

n^Ssdaya.°CrmbSesSmavndde^

fwHUbaf everyone ofg

^ SS ^ yV^v^e0 «S, *£? C”

as shall' serve In the eting of the said shepe And I will that these be done formvsoule xx yeres next after my decease in the lor
1

said church dirige and masse every yere. ti Item, to a secular priest to sing in the a same church for my soule and for all my c friends’ soules by the space of one hoole a yere x marcs, and to the reparation of the n church there v marcs, and to palying in of 21 the churchyard xid., and all' the residue to p be spent every yere in an obit as shall be ii thought necessary in equal porcions within tc the said church of Padelesworth for the a: health of my soule and all Christian soules, oi and not only an obit but in other good 11 deedea which shalL be thought needful to c< be doone in the aforesaid church of Padeles- e: worth.” These religious offices were per- T formed by the neighbouring canons of St. s< Radigund’s. The image of St. Oswald is R now gone; it probably disappeared at the to Reformation. There is a date 1558 carved tl or rather scratched on the face of the base ic on which the image stood, probably record- di ing the date of its destruction. In the south d: side of the chancel arch there is retained a bi squint, a very small one, by which the st occcupants of the top of that side of the m nave might see the elevation of the Host in bi the Mass, and as a reminder of the sort of s( vestments worn by the priests in those ai times and the articles in use in the church, ai it willl be interesting to here transcribe a p< brief inventory of the church goods at tl Paddlesworth found there on the 5th Decem- oi ber, 1552: "First, one cope of white ffus- w tyan, two vestments, one of red saye and gi the other of white ffustyan, two candlesticks tl of lattyn [that is, fine brass!, one cross of cl lattyn, a surplus on altar, and a playn a towell, two bells in the steple. Memoran- w dum: Borowed of William Gibben upon one li chalice of silver conteyning v. unces by tt estymacion 13s. 4d., which was bestowed-on tl the reparac’on of the churche.” This in- ii ventory bears the signatures of John Lam- si bard and George Lesden, churchwardens, ii and William Hokben, an inhabitant. There li are still/ to be seen in the stones of the w windows sockets for the many candles that C used to illuminate the church. It will be dl noted that in the inventory there is refer- cc ence to a steeple with two bells. There has ii: been no steeple in rccent- years, but at the is restoration of the church which took place M about the year 1872, there were found frag- y< ments of a Norman arch in the west wall, ai and that probably opened into a tower tl which in 1552 existed at the west end fa of the church. That tower, no doubt, ai fell into decay and was taken down for w safety in the days of church neglect that ta followed the Civil War. Before the church ta was last restored it was in a very ruinous C state. There was no steeplie or turret, and a C writer of a hundred years ago says: “The li eastern window (the only one) being boarded M up, the structure is quite dark at noonday.” J, The font in this Church is not very old, but M the font rests on a large mass of iron- Ii stone, which is deemed to be very ancient, and wras probably there before the site was used for a place of Christian worship. Anciently this Church was not used for baptisms or burials, those privileges being reserved for the Mother Church at Lyminge. o This seems to have been the case in tl the year 1352, there being a decree of Arch- s; bishop Islip promulgated in that year to p the effect “ that the body of Sarah Cole (pro- i bably of Cole Farm) should be exhumed by ti the parties against whom the action was t< brought (namely, Robert Smith and William i< Pilcher of the hamlet of Padlesworth), and v at their proper charges should be brought to g the Church at Lyminge and there buried.” ij It seems from this that the first burial, at i; Paddlesworth Church, which took place in n the year 1352. was illegal, and the body had b to be taken from its resting place and re-in- t terred at Lyminge, but from the will of t Robert Regge it appears that in the year 1459 v burials were allowed, but it is a noticeable 4 fact that this Church contains no memorial v tablets, and the Churchyard seems but little i used. How many graves there are un- r marked and forgotten it is not possible to r estimate, but there are at present in the j Churchyard only 17 gravestones all told, yet x it seems that there was at lleast one inter- , ment within the walls of this Church, for at \ the time of the restoration of the fabric, £ about 30 years ago, an immense stone was i found in the floor near the centre of the £ nave without date or inscription, but under c it at some depth in the sandy soil was found ( a massive oak coffin, portions of which were j very sound, but of what period or person it -belonged there was not the slightest indica- 1 tion. This Church has been restored in a j thoroughly antiquarian spirit, and the plas- , ter which used to cover its walls internally ] having been removed, and the ancient onen j jointed masonry is observable both within , and without. A more quaint and curious 1 parish Church does not exist in the United j Kingdom.

PADDLESWORTH VILLAGE.

Paddliesworth is an ideal place for quiet- 1 ness. Its deep lanes seem like entrench- . ments to keep out the noise of the busy world, in its meadows the lowing kine mode- , rate their voices, and although the village is set on a hill it has not the conspicuousness usually attached to that position, for the tableland being flat, the houses low, and the hedgerows high, the village is not seen, nor even the Church, until it is actually reached. It is admitted that Paddlesworth lies on the highest ground in Kent, but which particular point in the parish is actually the highest is a matter of discussion Guide books say that the Church stands on the highest land, and it is 650 feet above the sea llevel. Others point to a clump of trees called “ The Pillars on the • edge of the tableland nearly a quarter of a mile east of the Church, which is said to be the top of the roof of the East Kent world,

. but the kindly host of the Red Lion indicated a spot in the meadow about 100 yards nearer the Church than “the Pillars, where there is a ring cut out in the grass said to 1 have been done by the Royal Engineers to indicate some special point supposed to be ’ the highest. It was here that a monster bonfire was lighted at Queen Victorias 1 Jubilee, and as an indication of the eleva^

’ tion it may be mentioned that on Bonfire 1 Night, June 30th, this year, no less than 14 ! Coronation bonfires were seen from this 1 spot Referring to the latest official map

- published of the Ordnance Survey, it ap-1 pears that /the efleivation at rthe bonfire ’ point in the meadow is 600 feet, and at : another point just north of the Church the 1 elevation is given as 602 feet. This dis-r poses of the statement that the land at the ; Church is 650 feet high, but it confirms the

generally accepted statement that this ’ Church actually stands on the highest land

• in East Kent. There is also a tradition at 7 Paddlesworth that the highest land there is

* exact!v level with the top of Dover Castle, r hut that is giving too much exalitation to 1 Dover, for the top of the north turret of ? the Keep is but .469 feet above sea level,

B therefore the site of Paddlesworth Church a is 123 feet higher. Although the scientific

- measurements of the Royal Engineers must e be respected, the clump of trees known as R “The Pillars’’looks the highest point, and e as the poular mind recognizes that point e as the ton of the County, it will- be of in-f terest to record the number and kind of 1 tiees of which the Pillars consist. They e are: 32 Scotch firs, one ash, and two syca-e more trees: and outside the ring of firs are

• 21 elder trees, two white thorns, and e one sveamore tree. In the number of in-

* habitants at Paddlesworth there have been
many fluctuations. Three hundred years ago the number must have been much laiger than now, for in 1588 there were 86 communicants, that is to say, adult persons who were qualified as communicants, find the number was the same in 1640. These figures seem to indicate that at those times the population of the parish was quite a hundred. A hundred years ago, at the census of 1801, the population was returned as 42. Twenty years later, in 1821, the number was 44, composed of 24 males and 20 females, and there were then in the i parish nine houses. In 1831 the number of 1 inhabitants was 54, but in 1841 it had fallen to 49, the number of houses being returned i as nine. There has been no improvement t on these figures since. At the census of 1 1S91 the number was 46, and at the last census of 1901 the number had reached 49, i exactly the same number as 60 years ago. i There are signs, however, that there will be t some development. Some land near the ] Red Lion on the direct road to Folkestone is f to be sold for building purposes, and for i those in search of heaiith this must be an f ideal spot for bungalows for summer resi- i dence. Kentish historians who wrote a hun- c dred years ago describe the land here as t barren, but we question whether they ever l saw it. Owing to the extreme elevation it i might be expected that it would be arid, 1 but as a matter of fact it is not so. The red < soil retains moisture better than the chalk, ( and in the meadow between the Red Lion 1 and the Church there is now (July, 1902) a < pond with water in it, although owing to r the shortage of rainfall most other ponds on lower levels are dry, while the fields, 1 which are mostly pastures, are fresh and < green. This part of East Kent is within j the anticline line which is believed to in- j elude the Kentish Coal Fields, and there is < a bed of ironstone below the Hastings beds, 1 which, owing to the elevation of the land, lies perhaps 900 feet deep, but there appears 1 to be also ironstone about the surface in < this neighbourhood, and also slag and refuse 1 indicating that at an early period iron was t smelted in the neighbourhood. Where this ironstone came from is not known, but ’ lumps of the stone are built in the i walls of both Paddlesworth and Lyminge i Churches. One of the landmarks of Pad- j dlesworth is the old Red Lion Inn. Of • course compared with the church it is quite ] juvenile, but it is a very old house. There . is no date or other mark to fix its age, but ; Mr. Stephen Hogben, who died some thirty , years ago, and who was a hundred years j and six months old, could not remember • the building of this house, so it must be s far in its second century. The following < are the principal inhabitants of Paddles- j worth: Mr. M. R. Gammon, Oswald Cot- . tage, churchwarden; Mrs. Pay, Church Cot- , tage; Mr. William Cross, Paddlesworth 1 Court; Mr. James Cross; Mr. H. Cross, • Chairman of the Parish Council.; Mr. Wil- ; liam Hogben, Assistant Overseer; Mrs. -Mary Hogben, Cobham’s Rough; Mr. James , Jell, Cole Farm, Dairyman; Mr. James Mummery; Mrs. Anne Dixon, Red Lion Inn; and Mrs. Finch, Elms Farm.

THE VICARS OF TILMANSTONE

In our account of the village and church of Tilmansioue printed some momns ago in the uovisa ±,xpkess, we, owing to want of space at the time, omitted one interesting pnase of tne subject—the list of he Vicars. This subject has been treated very exhaustively by the Rev. Thomas Shipdem Framp-ton, F.S.A., in the Arcil®ologia Cantiana lor 1»93, where he gives a list of 45 Vicars with interesting notes thereon. The Rev. T.

S. Frampton, who is a well-known and reliable authority in Kentish church history, is of opinion mat there was a church at Tilmanstone in the Norman and not improbably in the Saxon period. He finds that there is an actual record of the existence of the church in the time of Archbishop Baldwin, 1185-90; but he commences his list of 45 Vicars with Milo de Liliengestan, who was presented to the living 20th October, 1271. There is nothing of special interest recorded of several of the Vicars, but some notorious and some noteworthy it will be interesting to mention. For instance, there was one who was Vicar about the year 1313, named Walter, of whom there would have been no history if circumstances had not arisen which caused him to leave the parish hurriedly. The record on the County Assize Roll, tells the story thus: Walter, Vicar of the Church of Tylmanstone, and Thomas, Clerk of the said Vicar, and Robert de Raundes were together in the Borough of Tylmanstone, and a dispute having arisen between them, the aforesaid Robert would have killed Walter the Vicar; but seenig this, the said Thomas the Clerk both drew his knife and struck the aforesaid Robert in the back, whereupon on the eighth day after he died therefrom. Eleanor, who was the wife of the deceased Robert, appealed in the County Court against the Vicar and his Clerk touching the death of her husband. It seems it was not until the widow had appealed the fourth time that she obtained redress. The case was then removed by the King’s writ to the King’s Bench, whereupon Thomas the Clerk was delivered up as a convicted Clerk to the Bishop and died in prison. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the Vicar, but the sheriff returned an answer that Walter the Vicar was not to be found, therefore he was outlawed. . , , „ . ..

The year 1349 is notable in connection with this Vicarage, for there having been three successive presentations in thTee months, the supposition being that the Black Death then so prevalent carried two out of the three off. Up to this date the presentations were made by the King, and after that by the Archbishop until the year

' 14j?.’hn Okebourne, in the year 1468, was presented by the JPrior of St. John of Jerusalem, and the Prior exercised the patronage until 1524, when it reverted to the Arch-

^ir John SmaLe, who was presented to the Vicarage in 1474, seems to be a man who was not an ornament to the church nor a credit to Tilmanstone. At a Court held in 1480, the tenants made oath That the Vykeer Sir John Smale came to the alehouse at midnight and his man with hym, seyng this wordys to his man : Go yn and geve a blowe. A pon the whyche wordys there was a fray and lykely to a bene manslawter Ferdermore when the man was hurt and lay in poynt of Dethe, he then said unto the Vekery : Corsed be thu Vykere, thow art caws of my hurt, and of this fray, werefore

- thow art worthy to be hangyd for this inatr ! ter. Ideo in misericordia xs.” Notwith-¦ standing this fracas, Sir John Smale con-| tinned to be Vicar for thirty-five years rfter

* William Cockes, presented in 1546 by I Archbishon Cranmer. was deprived of nis t living on the accession of Queen Mary fhe ! Rev. Thomas Lilford was presented to the , vacancy. During this Vicar’s term several > rather curious Tilmanstone wills were de-l posited in the Archdiaconal Registry, which , throw some sidelights on Tilmanstone affairs » in Queen Mary’s days. It may be inferred J that the highway between Sandwich and t Eastrv was not then as good as it should be, 5 for the will) of Thomas Cockes provided tha* I at the cost of his executrix every year there t should be laid on the road between Eastry

- and Sandwich one hundred loads of stone*, f Thomas Lilford. the Vicar, although appoii-7 ted bv Queen Mary, continued in his offlce

- during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and » dying in 1586, by his will he left several I beouests to the parish and the poor, and the

- will concluded thus: "I give to Mr. Mundv l [bis successor] for a funeral sermon to be
preached by him At my burial a dubblf duckett of gold And thus the Lord of His infinite greate mercye and grace receyve my soule into Hia blessed tuition, and the same to place amonge His electe children m His blessed Kingdome of Heaven.”

The Rev. John Boys, the son of Mr. Thomas Boys, of Eythorne, was presented to the Vicarage 1599. He held the Vicarage until1 1618, when he resigned on being appointed to the Bectory of Great Mongeham, which he only held six years. He died suddenly in his study on the 26th Septem-ber. 1625.

The Rev. Nicholas Bellingsley, presented m 1644, was the father of an author of the same name, who wrote “The Infancy of the World. •.

The Rev. Humphrey Dicus, who was Vicar and died in 1675, is referred to a manuscript 1 ui- Lambeth Library, together with the :i

air!x parish during the lifetime of ]

Mr Humphrey Dicus, thus: “A man of 1 good parts and principles but in some things 1 indiscreet. He is tenant to the Archbishop i at £6. Improved rent £50. Twenty houses < m the parish, but not above twenty persons ! come to the Communion. Sir Thomas Pey- ’ ton, Lord of the Manor, Mr. Fogge, the chief i man in the parish, WilJiam Neale, taylor, i John Ayres, carpenter, notorious Anabap- i tists. Church much out of repair. Chaun- i cell well. No surplice.” The John Ayers, ! carpenter, above referred to, was an ances- i tor of Parker and Alfred Ayers, who in re- ,

Town E£SciTeIe memb8rs 01 0,6 Dover '

The Rev. Thomas Mander, instituted 1697. ! In the year following the chancel of the church was wholly repaired at the cost of j Mrs. Jane Bray, being the owner of all the , glebe land in the parish. The oldest parts 1 of the existing Communion plate date from ¦ the time of this Vicar, who died in 1716.

The Rev. Nicholas Carter, who was insti- , tuted in 1716, and was also Perpetual Curate of Deal Chapel, was the father of the eele- • brated Elizabeth Carter, after whom the Carter Institute at Deal was named.

The Rev. John Jacob, who was instituted Vicar of Tilmanstone in 1755, in a return made to Lambeth in May, 1758, as to his residence and service, wrote : “ Besides Tilmanstone I have the living of Margate, where I reside, but have a Curate at Tilmanstone always resident, and allow him £20 a year and the surplice fees; he is in Priest's Orders. I go over at proper times as often as I conveniently can. The curate is Vicar of Waldershare, the adjoining parish, where he has no house, and but six or seven houses in the parish. The living of Tilmanstone being but small, there has been from time imemorial but service once a day and always a sermon; has aJways been supplied with some other Church; has no weekly prayers. There is no chapel in the parish. The children are always catechised in Lent. The Sacrement is administered four times in the year, and generally between 20 and 30 communicants.”

The Rev. Nehemiah Nisbett, instituted in 1788, made the following entry in the parish register: "Memorandum, That the parish of Tilmanstone was illuminated on the 18th day of March, 1789, in honor of His Majesty King George III.’s recovery of health.”

The Rev. Charles Baker, instituted in 1803, was also Reictor of Charlton next Dover, Perpetual Curate of Ash, and Rector of Know*liton. During his time the Church bell was re-cast by Mears of London.

The Rev. Robert Twigg, Vicar from 1842 till 1880, was instrumental in obtaining the restoration of he Church, which included the rebuilding of the east wall of the chancel, the body of the Church, and the tower. The restoration of the Chancel and an addition to the Churchyard was done at th*% cost of the late Mr. E. Royd Rice, of Dane Court.

The Rev. J. H. Jaquet is the present Vicar, who was instituted m 1880. The year after his appointment the ofld Vicarage House, built by Mr. Carter in 1719, was taken down, and a more commodious one erected on the same site, towards which the Ecclesiastical Cf mmissioners, who are the lay Rectors, contributed £1500. In 1884 the Church was completely restored under the supervision of Mr. Ewan Chrisian, architect, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners contributing £328 for the Chancel, and the remainder of the wo»k, costing £870, raised by subscriptions. During the progress of the work two Saxon tombstones and a stone coffin lid were roand embedded in the walls. The present Vicar has now held this post at Tilmanstone 22 years, and in addition to the important work to the Church done during that period, his ministrations in the parish have been highly appreciated.