DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

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OUR VILLAGES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND NOW. (1901)

ALDINGTON

THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FKIDAY, 22 AUGUST, 1902.

OUR VILLAGES

LX VI.—ALDINGTON

Aldington is a place of much historica interest, the centre of a parish of 3575 acres and of a manor much larger, on which ir ancient times there was an Archiopiscopa: Palace. The village occupies the ridge o: Quarry Hills, which commands an extensive view of Komney Marsh and that part of the Weald which formed the forest of Anderida. The village lies 5* miles north by vest from Hythe.

ALDINGTON S EARLY HISTORY

The history of Aldington begins with the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. South of the Church there is an eminence called Aldington Knoll, which is said tc have been the site of a Roman beacon, and between it and the Church there was a Roman Station. There is nothing now lefl above ground which may be pointed to as a trace of the Roman occupation of this locality, unless it be the Knoll. To some extent that is a natural eminence, but it appears to have been artificially heightened, probably by the Romans for the purpose of maintaining there a beacon fire, from which point the light could be seen many miles over sea and land—seaward to Dover, and right across the Straits, and it is said that -trhe landward view comprises 36 parish Churches.

ALDINGTON, A QUEEN’S GIFT.

The Manor of Aldington was in Saxon times a royal domain, and it was given in the year 961 by Queen Ediva, mother of the Kings Edmund and Edred, to the Christ Church, Canterbury, and it was one of its principal possessions. Mr. Furley, in his History of the Weald of Kent, says the Manor of Aldington “was and still is the largest Manor in Kent. It extends beyond the site of its former Park and demesne lands, through portions of Romney Marsh to Lydd and the Isle of Oxney. It then spreads over parts of Shadoxhurst, Wood-church. Tenterden. Rolvenden. Sandhurst, and Benenden. including some of the ancient townships now constituting parishes on the borders of the Weald. It posseses 44 denes, which is about, four times th » number of other Manors.” Whether this large and queenly gift included a Church is not known. Probably the Church was built here soon after the Manor became Church property, for a Church was here in Saxon times, and the remains of its Saxon tower still exists.

ALDINGTON PARK AND PALACE.

The Domesday Book records that at the time of the Conquest there was a Church here, and that the Manor had been part of the possessions of Christ Church, Canterbury, until Bishop Lanfranc divided the Church property between himself and the monks of Christ Chureh, at which partition he apportioned this Manor to the Archiopiscopal See. The mansion here which adjoins the north side of the Churchyard, became the residence of the Archbishops, end a very extensive Park was laid out around it. This residence was, it is believed, originally built by Lanfranc in the time of the Conqueror. However that may be, Lanfranc resided here, but only occasionally, for he built residences for himself at eight Manors in different parts of the Diocese. On one occasion at ,Udington, the "Archbishop was seized with almost mortal illness, during which he had visions of white horses, on one of which was seated the Sainted Dunstan, whose appearance Lanfranc accepted as an omen of his victory over the rapacious Bishop of Bayeux. After the days of Lanfranc there is very little on record to show to what extent Aldington was used as a residence by his immediate successors, but we find that Archbishop Morton, about the year 1480, pleased with the salubrity of the air, and the pleasantness of the site, greatly enlarged the manor house, and used it as his residence. The glories of Aldington which were revived at that time, do not seem to have declined until after the Reformation. Pro-bablv the cause of the liberal expenditure, which included the enlargement of the mansion, the erection of a private chapel, the extension of the Park, and the erection of the Church tower by Warham, was suggested by •the increased value of the Manor owing to the extensive lands in Romney Marsh, which had been worth nothing when first given bv Queen Ediva, had been made productive by sea defences and drainage. At the Reformation Aldington was one of the -group of rich manors that Heniy VIII. coveted, and which Archbishop Cranmer surrendered to the King under the name of an exchange, for which, value was never received by the Church. King Henry VIII. kept Aldington in his own hands from the time of its surrender in the year 1540 until his death. It was a very desirable heritage. Even m the days of Lanfraric it had its Park, and its fishponds, and w'hen it came into the Kings hands the Park had been made much larger, extending over Aldington Frith, being a chace both for deer and wild beasts of the forest. The Manor in the reign of Edward VI. was for a few years held by the Earl of Warwick, but, with that exception, it ^mained a royal possession down to the time of Charles I. A survey of it was made on 12th September, 1608, by Sir Edward Hales, Sir Thomas Scott, and Henry Heyman According to the evidence then taken from 15 of the tenants, it appears that there was no copy-hold tenure, that there were 44 dc™s^jind that there were no commons. The demesne lands, which included the Park, exceeded HHK) acres. Attached to Aldington manor house there were no less than five kitchens, nine barns, six stables, seven fodder houses, and eight dove houses. Mershan Park was then appendant to this Manor; the total number of tenants of Aldington Manor exceeded 200, and included 18 Kentish Knights, and All Souls and Magdalen Colleges, Oxford : their respective holdings amounted to 6000 acres, extending over m> 1,-ss than 23 parishes m a direct line irom Elmstead to Lydd. and all this territory was exclusive of the 44 denes scattered over the Weald of Kent. Since those days there have been great changes at Aldington Ihe need of roonev caused Charles I. to make the most he could of this property. It was distributed amongst many ^olde™

hTtdLfroSvCwTedSaS tnisS of Sir DudW Digger of Chilhnm Castle, in whose family the estate remained for many Wneratmns;

residence “wL^Ted^ed ti”thl Wel.S a farmhouse The Court Lodge now existing on the north side of the Churchyard, built of ouarrv stone is but part of the remains of the Archiopi'seopal Palace^ The Private

^S\-^„;n,^VbUTt'%^ofCtbe chace at Aldington Frith was enclosed by M of Parliament in the year 1819. and about the same time the Manor House and estate passed to the ownershit of William Deedes. Esq.. of Saltwood Castle. . There nro several sub-manors in the nansh. the historv and ownership of which it would be iO0 -tofjioxip to trace in detail. Shrvmpen-den was held by the Kingsleys from the
time of Charles I. until 1775. Ruflm’s Hill, near the Church, was long the home of the Blechendens. Simnel’s, a mile from the Church, anciently held by a family of that name, came in the time of James I. into the possession of the Blechendens. Copthall,in the valley west of Ruffin’s Hill, anciently belonged to the Knight. Cophurst belonged to the Godfreys, but that also came to the Blechendens. About a century ago the Goldwell and Poulton Farms and other . lands in the parish, were in the possession of the Hobbs family, and at a later date Mr. Southon, a relative of the Hobbs, was the tenant of the Court Lodge.

MODERN ALDINGTON.

Aldington of to-day looks old. The grey old Church tower, seen from afar, bears the marks of antiquity, but none of delapila-bon. It looks as firm and fit to bear the blasts of its exposed situation as it did four centuries ago when it was built by Archbishop Warham. The ancient Court beside the Church does not now look at all like a palace, but its extensive stone boundary wall suggests that it once enclosed much more than it does to-day. Not far south of the Church is Cobb's Hall, the house where dwelt the Holy Maid of Kent, and the Rectory which was for a short time the home of Erasmus, and from which the Rev. Richard Masters went forth to suffer at Tyburn for his credulity and complicity with regard to the Holy Maid. On the east of the Church is a clump of trees, the only conspicuous ones on the now denuded heights. Further southward a narrow lane leads up to the Knoll, the one point to which all Aldington visitors go, because from that eminence can be seen the Kingdoms of the Weald and the Marshes in a moment of time. This eminence is said to have been used by the Romans for their beacon fires, and after a lapse of 2000 years it is used for a like purpose, its summit even now being covered with the blackened embers of a recent bonfire lighted in ceie« bration of Edward VII.'s Coronation. A better spot for a beacon or a bonfire could not be found, for the light which is set on tins conspicuous hill cannot be. hidden. Mr. Robert Furley in his history of the Weald, referring to this spot, savs: “The views are amongst the most pleasing in the County; they extend over Romney Marsh and the Channel, to Dungeness towards the sruth-east, and Beechborough, Saltwood, Monks Horton, Brabourne, Wye Downs. Eastwell, and Godminton inland. An American Senator once remarked that he never remembered to have seen a spot where good farming, grazing, scenery, and British commerce were more beautifully combined.” Bagshawe says that from this spot can be seen 36 parish Churches. We cannot vouch for that fact, but. can testify that the view seaward, over the area of the marshes, which looks the more extensive, owing to its flatness. is absolutely unique, while the landward view over the Weald of Kent might be placed m comparison with the prospect of the Promised Land from Pisgah’s top. ERASMUS AND ALDINGTON.

There hangs in the basement of the tower of Aldington Church a portrait of the celebrated Divine, Desiderius Erasmus, and close to it on a tablet is inscribed, “Erasmus, Rector of Aldington, March 11, 1511: after his portrait by Holbein in the Louvre, collated by Archbishop Warham. The portrait is given to the Church of Aldington in memory of its most famous Rector by George John Blomfield, M.A., Rector of Aldington, 1868—1894.” This inscription suggets the search for further information respecting the connection of Erasmus, the celebrated Reformer, with Aldington. Many of the biographical notices of Erasmus makes no mention at all of this phase of his life. Archbishop Warham was the great patron of Erasmus, who by his voluminous writings, and more especially by his publishing the Greek Testament with notes, is said to have* laid the egg which Luther hatched. Being somewhat migratory in his habits, Erasmus had come over to England and obtained several professorships at Cambridge University, but the stipends which they yielded were small, and he would take no fees from the students he taught: therefore with the object of inducing Erasmus to settle in England Archbishop Warham conferred on him the Rectory of Aldington, to which he was inducted on the 22nd March, 1511, the Rev. John Alan having vacated it, Erasmus having taken the oath of canonical obedience, undertook the cure of souls here, but he did not retain the living more than 15 months, for on the 31st July, 1512, the same Archbishop collated John Thorneton, D.D., Bishop of Dover, to the living, “on the resignation of Master Erasmus of Rotterdam.” and the Archbishop arranged that there should be paid out of the revenue of the Rectory of Aldington to Erasmus a pension of £20 a year. This pension was quite an exceptional thing, not to be taken as a precedent (although it has been so laken in the Benefices Resignation Act of modern times), and to justify his act in thus putting a burden on the future Rectors of Aldington, the Archbishop issued a mandate to “all sons of the Mother Church,” in which he said that it was contrary to his practice to impose pensions on any Church in his patronage, but he had determined to depart from the practice “in resp.ect of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a man learned in Latin and Greek languages, and who as a shining star illuminates his times with his learning and eloquence. For whereas the Archbishop conferred on him the Church at Aldyngton, and he wishing to resign it, because he is unable to expound in English the Word of God to the parishioners, has requested the Archbishop to provide him with a yearly pension from the same. The Archbishop, therefore, considering his devotion to the study of letters and his love for the English which has caused him to forsake Italy. France, and Germany, where he might have become wealthy, and to resort to this country where he might pass the rest, of his life with his friends, decrees him a yearly pension of £20 out of the funds of the said parish Church of Aldyngton.” It appears from the view which Erasmus took of this transaction that he did not estimate the Archbishop’s benevolence very highly. Mr. Furley gives the following translation of Erasmus’s statement of the transaction:— “ If I reckon all that he (Archbishop Warham) was ready to give me. great was his liberality to me: it we take into account what I leceived, it is a very moderate amount. He conferred on me only one living, or rather, he did not give it me. but obtruded it upon me in spite of mv constant refusal, because the flock required that the pastor should be of the same nation, which condition I, being ignorant of the language, could not fulfil. When he converted it into a pension and found that I grudeed to receive the money, which was collected from a peonle to whom I could be nothing but unprofitable, the excellent and pious man consoled me by saying. ‘What great service could vou do if vou were to preach to one country congregation? At present by vour books vnu instruct all nastors with much more abundant fruit, and does it seem to you unworthy if a small portion of the Church income returns to vou? T will take this care upon me: I will provide that nothing shall be wantine to that Church’,. And he did so: for. Temovine the person to whom I had resigned the pastorate, and who was his
Suffragan, and a man occupied with numerous affairs, he appointed another, a just man, learned in divinity, and of good and sober life.” Mr. Furley, referring to the high and pure motives that induced Erasmus to resign the living at Aldington, contrasts it with the state of things that has | existed in the parish since that time. He , says, writing in the year 1874, “ No less than 360 years have elapsed since Erasmus was Rector of Aldington; and though a rich liv-| ing, there has not, until within the last two

! t7meSk ErasmusSi” 6Ut Rector there siuCe the I THE HOLY MAID OF KENT.

I A matter of curious and sadly tragic in-i terest associated with Aldington is the pious fraud and cruel punishment of Elizabeth . Barton, styled “ The Holy Maid of Kent,” and her coadjutors. The house where Elizabeth Barton lived as a servant and saw her first- visions was Cobb’s Hall, situate at the j junction of the road a- quarter of a mile south of the church. William Lambarde, in his quaint way, thus recites the narrative : “ About the time of Easter, in the seventeenth yeere of the reigne of King Henne the Eight, it hapened a certaine maiden named Elizabeth Barton (then the servant of one Thomas Kob. of the parish of Aldington, twelve myles distant from Canterbury), to bee touched with a great infirmity in her bodie, which did ascend at divers times up into her throte, and swelled greatly : during the time whereof shee

seemed to bee in grevious paine. in so much as a man woulde have thought that shee had suffered the pangs of death it selfe, until the desease descended and fell downe into the bodie againe. Thus shee continued by fittes, the space of seaven monethes, and more, and at the last, in the month of November (at which time a young child of her maister’s lay desparately sick in a cradle by her), shee being vexed with the former disease asked (with great pangs and gron-ing), whether the child w-as departed this life or no; and when the women that attended answered no, she replied that it should anone: which worde was no sooner uttered, but the child fetched a deep sighe, and withal the soule departed out of the body of it. This her divination and foretelling was the first matter that moved her hearers to. admiration: but after this, in sundry of of her fits following, although shee seemed to the beholders to lie as stil as a dead bodie, as well in the traunces themselves, as after the pangs passed also she told plainly of divers things done at the church and other places where she w’as not present, which neverthelesse she seemed (by signs proceeding from hir) most lively to he-holde (as it were) with her eie.” A long story of Elizabeth Barton's dreams and sayings follows in the same strain. Her dreams turned mainly on the hermit at the chapel at Court-a-Street, in the adjoining parish of Lymne, and having a great desire to go there: and there she went, and uttered there many alleged prophecies. “During which meanwhile (Lambarde continues) the fame of this marvelous maiden was so spread abroad that it came to the ears of Warham, the Archbishop of Canterburv. who directed thither Doctour Bocking. Master Hadleighe, and Barnes (three monks of Christ Church, Canterbury), Father Lewes and his-jellowe (two observants), his official of Canterbury, and the Parson of Allington; with commission to e^aiqine the matter and to inform him of the truth. These men opposed her of the chiefe pointes of Popish belief, and finding her sound therein, not only w’aded no further in the discoveries of the fraude, but gave favourable countenance and joined w-ith her in setting forth the same. So that at her next voyage to Our Lady of Court of Strete, she entered the chappell with, Ave Regina Ccelorum, in pricksong accompanied by these commissioners, many ladies, gentlemen, and gentlewomen of the best degree, and three thousand persons besides of the common sort of people in the country.” Subsequently Elizabeth Barton was sent by the Archbishop to the Nunnery of St. Sepulchre at Canterbury, where she is said to have performed many marvels. “Thus,” continues Lambarde, “was Elizabeth Barton advaunced from the position of a bare servant to the estate of a glorious nonne; the hermitage of Court a Strete was enriched by a daily offering, S. Sepulchre’s got the possession of a Holy Mavden: God was blasphemed, the Holy Virgin, His mother, dishonoured: the silly people wrere miserably mocked: the bishops, priests, and monks in the meantime with closed eyes winking, and the Devil and his limbs with open mouth laughing at it.” This comedy might have gone on without developing into tragedy had the Holy Maid not meddled with the King and his doings. While the great divorce cause between Henry and Catherine was pending, the Maid, by the alleged command of an angel, pronounced against it, 8he also admonished Henry in person, at the command of her angel (for even the King had a private interview with her) that if he dared to marry Anne Boleyn while Catherine was alive he would no longer be looked upon as a King by God, but would die the death of a villain within a month, and be succeeded on the throne by his daughter Mary.’ After this the King deemed it necessary to close the woman’s mouth. She and her abettors were tried in the Star Chamber, and she confessed that her predictions were feigned to obtain worldly praise. She and her advisers were adjudged to stand at St. Paul’s Cross and confess the imposture, which they did ; but that did not satisfy the vengeance of the King. A bill of attainder for treason was brought against Elizabeth Barton and her abettors, Dr. Bocking. Richard Masters, the Rector of Aldington, John Deering, a monk of Canterbury, who published books asserting the miracles to be true; John Laurence, and Hugh Riche, of Canterbury. All these were executed at Tyburn on May 5th, 1534, nine years after the Holv Maid entered on her prophetic career. “Thus.” says Lambarde, “her dissimulation w’as deciphered, her Popish comforters were bewraied. the deceived people were well satisfied, these dangerous deceivers were worthily executed, and the Devil, their Maister, was quite and cleane confounded.”

ALDINGTON CHURCH.

No one should leave Aldington without paying a visit to the Church of which Erasmus was once the Rector—an edifice which both internally and externally abounds with interest. As it now stands this Church consists of a chancel, a south chapel, nave,, south aisle, south porch, vestry, and lofty western tower, and stair turret, and the remains of a Saxon tower. The style of the building is mainly perpendicular, but archteoiogical experts say that it was bulit at five different periods. As the Church now stands, there is a similarity between the nave with south aisle, and the chancel with south chapel, the latter being a miniature representation of the former. The nave has three decorated windows on the north side, and on the south an arcade of tw’o pointed arches resting on a central round pillar. The chancel also has three window’s on the north side similar in style to those in the nave, and on the south side an arcade of two pointed arches resting on a central pillar. There is also one south window in the chancel near the east end. The Perpendicular east window is very fine, havine five lights filled with stained glass, the gift of the late rector, the Rev. G. J. Blomfield. M A., erected bv Messrs. Heaton. Butler, and Bayne in the vear 1882. On the south of the altar is a sedilia with three seats of even height, divided by stone shafts and surmounted by graceful cinquefoil arches. There is a fourth arch further west on a
lower level, but the seat is wanting. A remarkable feature of this church is the large amount of finely carved oak in it, including a row of Misereres stalls which face the altar, having their backs to the chancel screen, which is also carved oak. lnere are also ordinary side stalls in the cll«r with very handsome iinials at the ends. The two reading desks and the pulpit are similarly carved, all apparently of the same period, the front panel of the pulpit having a boldly carved pelican. This carved work is continued across the top of the nave sis far as the arcade in three panels. A carved screen divides the south chapel from the chancel, and the chapel is wainscoted with carved panels having semicircular heads on the east and south sides; but in the centre of the south side is a special central double arched panel with the carved inscription :

A.D. 1617 W K. R A. Wfc.

There are two stained glass windows on the south side with brasses to the memory of the late Vicar Blomfield’s children. The carving, some of which has been restored, is evidently from the style as well as from the date on it, to be of the Jacobean period. The south chapel communicates with the south aisle by means of a narrow pointed arch and a lancet opening in the span. In the south wall at the top of the aisle there is a souare opening purposely left to show traces of some structure there which was probablv superseded when the south chapel was built—perhaps stone stairs by which the opening, level with the arcade it the top of the nave leading to a rood loft, was reached. The south aisle ends at the south door and below that a low dark chamber with very thick flint walls used as a vestry and presenting a blank wall to the lower part of the nave. This, we believe, is the base of the old Saxon tower. The roof of it externally is now made even with the roof of the south aisle. The present south to/wer is a very fine piece of Perpendicular work commenced by Archbishop Warham in the vear 1507, but not finished until 1557, the time of Cardinal Pole. The commencement of this tower is much more ornate than its completion. It looks as though Warham had scarcely counted the cost of his work, and after spending the available funds on the door, window and niches, had to suspend operations when the work w’as some little distance above the roof of the church. The upper portion seems to have been done without any attempt at ornamentation, and the top both of the tower and the north-east stair-turret, which rises above the tower, seem to have been left without the requisite finishing touches. The west front of the tower is well worth lingering over, for seldom is such work seen in a country church. The fine Perpendicular door is ornamented with quartrefoils in the spandrels. Over it there is a central niche very beautifully canopied, with open work above, apparently intended to produce effect by throwing light on the image within. A little higher up on each side of the window are niches for full length figures, very handsomely canopied and ornamented at the foot. These niches are no;v empty. What figures, if any, ever occupied them does not appear to be recorded. The tower not having been built many years before the Reformation, possibly these niches were never filled. Over the door level with the central niche there is a line of masonry ornamented at intervals with two shields, two sculptured squares, and two miniature niches. On the south side of the door is a stoup, worked in character with the other ornamentation. As to the age of this church, and the several parts of it, there appears to be some doubt. Adopting the statement that it was built at five different periods, the first part w’as probably erected in late Saxon times, and consisted of the body of the church, now represented by the nave, with a Saxon flint tower projecting at the south-west angle, now used as the vestry. Over the vestry door there is a closed window. Both the door and the window, before the south aisle was built, would be external. The second instalment of the building probably was the chancel, early in the fourteenth century. There are on the side of the north window next the pulpit, the remains of two nt! es. with a slight round shaft dividing them, rnd a fragment of an elaborately ornamented capital. This is doubtless part of some elaborate work which existed there when that w’as the east end of the church and the position of the principal altar. The third part of the building was doubtless the south aisle, when the arcade was inserted in the old wall and an external north wall re-built to correspond with the stone masonry of the other part. This work was very likely done bv Archbishop Morton when he enlarged Ihe buildings of the Court. Soon after that the south chapel was built by the families at Ruffin’s Hill and Simnell: and lastly, the western tower, commenced by Archbishop Warham in 1507, continued by Cranmer. and finished by Cardinal Pole in 1557. This sketch of the building stages is, however, largely problematical, and subject to correction.

THE CHURCH YARD. !

Aldington Churchyard, which on the northern side abuts on the Court House, has a road under the north church wall leading to the grounds beyond, hence there are few, if any, interments there. On the south* side, at the east end of the south chapel, are three white marble tombstones. On the first is inscribed: “ Here rests the body of George John Blomfield. M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford, vicar of Dartford, Kent, 12 yfars, and rector of this parish 26 years. Obit Sept., 1900.” Next is a stone in memory of “ Issabella Blomfield (daughter of Charles John Blomfield, Bishop of London). The outer stone is to the memory of Edward George Blomfield, M.A., vicar of Wolston, Hants, obit 1885.

POPULATION AND EDUCATION. |

The population of Aldington parish has noti increased. In 1821 the inhabitants numbered 735, and at the last census the number was 540. The houses, however, have increased from 88 at the first-mentioned date to 130 in 1901. The rector of Aldington maintained a school here for many generar tions prior to the general establishment of elementary schools for the poor. The pre- , sent school was founded by the late William Deedes. Esq., of Saltwood Castle, in the year 1835, for 150 children, and the returned average attendance is 110. The present rector is the Rev. M. E. M. Nunn. M.A.. and the churchwardens Messrs. H. R. Marsh and J. Welsh.

SALTWOOD CASTLE

Sir,—I have read with great interest the account of “ Saltwood ” in the “ Dover Express” of August 8th, and should be glad to be allowed to correct an error in the account of the Castle. It was not com-| pletely restored in 1884. The double gate house was the only part restored: the drawing-room, dining-room, and offices w’ere added to the gate house, the rest of the ruins not being touched. The Castle came into the possession of the Deedes family by ?he marriage of William Deedes with Sophia Bridges in 1791. g MARy g DEEDES

Saltwood Castle, August 16th, 1902.
 

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