The Archbishop's Palace at Charing in the Middle Ages

THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT CHARING IN THE MIDDLE AGES SARAH PEARSON The future of the archbishop's palace at Charing, a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade I Listed Building, is currently under discussion. Prior to any restoration programme it is likely that detailed archaeological investigation will be required. This paper is offered as an interim report, based upon a survey undertaken in 1996 by the former Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, with subsequent archival research. Part of the medieval residence, dating largely from the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, is unusually well preserved, and together with documentary evidence, a vivid picture emerges of the functions of a rural archiepiscopal residence of the time. The aim of the present paper is not to describe the buildings in minute detail, but to update previous work, set the surviving ranges in their historical context, and establish a baseline from which future research can begin. 1 The manor of Charing is recorded as a possession of the see of Canterbury from the eighth century.2 By the eleventh century, the size of the estates and complexity of administration led Archbishop Lanfranc to divide the properties between Christ Church Priory and the archbishopric itself. Charing was kept for the use of the archbishop.3 It lies, like many manors in this part of Kent, on the spring line below the scarp of the North Downs, and in common with many of the other archiepiscopal residences, for instance Croydon, Lambeth and Maidstone, the buildings were placed directly next to the parish church (Fig. 1; Plate I). In the Middle Ages the main road from Maidstone to Ashford, and ultimately to Canterbury or the coast, passed directly in front of the archbishop's gate. The estate, which contained eight sulungs at Domesday, and somewhat over 300 acres in later times, spread to east and west, and the buildings lay within a walled enclosure of 4.94 acres. 4 As frequently happened, a market grew up in front of the gate, and this was gradually replaced from the fifteenth century by permanent shops in the north-south street of the village, to the west of the residence. 315 GHARING PALACE KENT ;_: .. 􀀄··· .... SARAH PEARSON ', ··<:;:: ...... . RCHM ENGLAND Fig. I Landscape survey of the palace and surrounding area, 1996. © Crown copyright. NMR. 316 THE ARCHBISHoP·s PALACE AT CHARLNG lN THE MIDDLE AGES PLATE I The church and palace. viewed from the south. The market lay in front of the palace gate. The grassy area in the foreground, which was known as Old Pond Yard and Old Barn Yard in 1736, sloped down to a pond and the stream. Photo: the author. The surviving buildings date in the main from two periods: the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and the years around 1500. They are ranged around a courtyard entered via a gatehouse from the market place to the south (Fig. 2). The south range, together with a ruined one to the west, contained lodgings. The great hall and entrance porch of the residence lies along the east side of the court, and beyond it to the east there is evidence for a further service court, now destroyed. The north side of the main court comprised the private apartments, including two chamber ranges and a chapel. While the overall layout is clear, most of the detail has been destroyed, and close dating and precise archaeological analysis of the individual ranges is difficult. Little has been written about Charing, the most important contributions being an article by P. K. Kipps, published in 1934, and a few tantalisingly brief remarks made by Stuart Rigold during the 1969 summer meeting of the Royal Archaeological lnstitute.5 317 --========;=====-.. ,. .. 'K I T C H E N couRT (/l v) 􀀁 - tI1 0 U T ER couRT 􀀂 (: 0 z Garde robe (blocks parish church Gatehouse Fig. 2 Ground-plan of the palace, 1996. © Crown copyright. NMR. THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT CHARING IN THE MIDDLE AGES The archbishop held estates throughout south-east England, and during the Middle Ages he was the largest landowner in Kent. He had seventeen residences which he constantly used in Kent, seven in Sussex and three in Surrey. 6 Charing was not one of the more prominent properties but it was well-placed as a stopping-off point en route between other residences.7 The movements of several archbishops can be traced through their registers, which list their various acts and where they were signed. The registers of Archbishop Pecham (1279- 92), for example, show that he was endlessly on the move.8 Not all his nights can be accounted for, because he did not sign documents every day, so he may have come to Charing more often than is recorded. Nonetheless, he can be identified as corning two, sometimes three, times a year. He might come from Maidstone and go to Mayfield or South Malling in Sussex. He might come from Otford, Croydon or Lambeth and journey on to Aldington or Hythe, or his destination might be Teynham, Wingham or Canterbury. Usually he is only known to have stayed a single night, but sometimes, as in April 1285, he may have remained at Charing for up to a week, and blank periods in the register may indicate longer stays in certain places, including Charing. By the time of Archbishop Pecham the manors were being directly exploited by the archbishops, but from the late eleventh to the early thirteenth century they had been leased out to farmers, who tended to be important local men. Charing, for which a late twelfth-century lease survives, was then held by Adam of Charing, who was the archbishop's steward in 1188. He had succeeded his father Ivo, and was to be followed by his son. The lease contained a clause requiring the farmer to provide for the archbishop and his household for two weeks each year, an amount of time which would allow him to use the property for overnight stays on several journeys.9 How the accommodation was divided between the farmer and the archbishop is not stated, but Becket ( 1162-70) is said to have favoured Charing, so it is likely that it was used fairly regularly and that there were good quality buildings at that time. 1° From this period there are no upstanding remains, but a single cushion capital which must date from the twelfth century has been reused in later walling. It suggests there was at least one building with free-standing columns, possibly an aisled hall, although its relatively small size might be more in keeping with a chapel or an undercroft. The Chamber and Chapel in the late thirteenth century By the late thirteenth century the manors had been taken back into 319 SARAH PEARSON demesne, and documents of the time of Archbishops Kilwardby and Pecham give us a glimpse of the various buildings at Charing. A statement of receipts and expenditure during Kilwardby' s time, 1273-8, itemises thatching on various buildings, including the great barn, the almonry, the gate and the 'cameram officii'. Note is made that boarded partition walls were made for the kitchen, and another partition wall was daubed in the wardrobe of the new chamber ('in parietate wardrobe nove camere dealbaudo ijd'). 11 In 1283-5, during the time of Archbishop Pecham, a survey of the customs of the manor of Charing outlined the holdings of the manor and, among other things, listed work due from the tenants. 12 From this we learn that certain tenants were responsible for maintaining 50ft (15m) of the roof over the private treasury or chamber and 100ft (30m) over the hay barn. 13 Other buildings which they had to maintain were the corn barn, piggeries, gatehouse and bake house, and whenever the archbishop came, some had to provide two men at the bake house, two at the kitchen and two at the brew house. Wealden tenants had to provide boards, laths, posts and studs when necessary, and work these into tie beams and posts as required. The most interesting fact to emerge from these documents is that the great chamber was considered 'new' in Kilwardby's time, that it may have been tiled, and that it was of some considerable size. One cannot be sure that the building referred to is the ruined chamber range at the west end of the private apartments (Fig. 2; Plate II), but since there is a general consensus that this building probably dates to the late thirteenth century, 14 it may well be the same one where, in I 279, Thomas de Bendinge did homage to the archbishop in his chamber in Charing at the foot of his bed. 15 Since the range has lost its roof and much of its walls the layout is not very clear, but it appears to have had a great first-floor chamber heated by a fireplace in the east wall and been lit in the south gable by a large window with seats to either side. Until recently it was tempting to assume that rafters, all with evidence for notched lap joints, that were reused over the adjacent range when that was heightened in c. 1500 might have come from this earlier chamber block. However, tree-ring analysis has produced the surprising result that, despite the notched lap joints, these rafters have a last measured ring date of 1481 and the timbers were probably felled between 1496 and 1521. 16 Thus, whatever the explanation for their early form may be, the rafters certainly cannot have come from the early chamber range. The one other building which is likely to date from this period is the chapel. This was on the first floor, lying to the north-east of the private apartment block, and probably connected to it by other ranges 320 THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT CHARfNG IN THE MIDDLE AGES PLATE II The private acc ommodation from the south-east. To the left is the ruined chamber range of the late thirteenth century. The central ranges were built in stone in the late fourteenth century and heightened in brick in the late fifteenth. The passage I inking the private apartments to the hall can be seen to the right. Photo: the author which have now gone (Fig. 2). Only the ground floor of the east end now survives, incorporated into a single-storey outhouse. But in the late eighteenth century the frame of the great east window still remained. Hasted described it as 'standing entire, being built of squared stone, mixed with flints; on the south side of it are three windows with pointed arches, and at the east end a much larger one of the same form' .'7 It was built of flint with stone quoins, and some of the plastering on the interior of the ground floor remains. The surviving undercroft below the chapel was not vaulted but spanned by massive timber joists which were housed in 30 x 30cm ( I x I ft) sockets, set at 30cm intervals. Both the scantling of the floor joists and the former presence of two-centred windows make it certain that the remains of the chapel form part of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth-century work. 321 SARAH PEARSON Plans for expansion Both building and documentary evidence for the residence become more explicit with the advent of Archbishop Winchelsea in 1294. From the registers indicating where he signed documents it is clear that Charing was a favoured spot.18 Like Pecham he came about twice a year, and on several occasions he stayed for some time. In April 1295 he was there for ten days. In May 1298 he probably stayed two weeks, with a further four days in June. Much later, in 1309, 1310 and at New Year 1311/12 he appears to have stayed for nearly a month at a time. As Du Boulay has shown, during the thirteenth century the archbishop's administration became ever more complex, and when Winchelsea died in 1313 there were ten household departments: wardrobe, chapel, chamber, almonry, buttery, pantry, kitchen, stables, armoury and hall. Most of these will have been physically represented by buildings, and several of them must have employed a number of people. 19 In Winchelsea's will mention is made of a number of retainers including a steward, a marshal, a valet, a tailor, an usher, a cook, a subordinate cook, and so forth, and to these one must add the archbishop's personal ad visors. How many of them went on the move with the archbishop is less clear, but even without guests the retinue must have been sizeable and it looks as if the buildings at Charing were no longer large enough to accommodate everyone. Thus in May 1298, while he was there for an extended visit, Winchelsea applied to the king for permission to take in land on the south side of his court at Charing which entailed moving part of the road from Lenham to Ashford, specifically for the enlargement of the court. On 12 June 1298, when the archbishop was again in Charing, the application was heard by the sheriff of Kent and a number of local jurors, and permission to take in twenty-four feet was granted (Appendix 1).20 Although he seems to have had to go to Otford the next day, he returned immediately for a further stay of three nights. 21 Thus Winchel sea's visits that summer must have been taken up with plans for new buildings. A map of Charing suggests what may have occurred (Fig. 3). The buildings lie very close to the north side of the church, separated from the churchyard by a f1int wall. If the line of this wall is carried westwards, ignoring the diagonal section of wall which joins the gatehouse range, it would connect more or less directly with the road from Lenham which joins the High Street from the west. At present a dog-leg across the High Street brings this road to the market place in front of the palace, but it is probable that before 1298 the east-west road ran straight across the front of the archbishop's property, and that his application concerned moving it southwards in order to en- 322 THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT CHARING IN THE MIDDLE AGES PALACE PRECINCT Fig. 3 Sketch map of Charing indicating the possible effect of the archbishop's successful application to enlarge his court in 1298. Prior to this the Lenham-Ashford road could have passed to the north of the church. After 1298 it may have followed the line of the present footpath to the south. Later it was diverted along Pett Lane. Drawn by the author. large his court and make room for the gatehouse range. Today, the road from the High Street stops at the church, but it is generally agreed that the old road to Ashford formerly ran through the market place and past the church. If the pre-1298 road ran in a straight line it would have passed north of the church; but once the palace had been extended it is possible that it was rerouted south of the church, where there is still a footpath. Later, it was diverted altogether, passing north of the palace precinct along what is known as Pett Lane. This diversion is undated, but possibly occurred after the Middle Ages since the three surviving fifteenth-century houses on the corners of the High Street and the two branches of the present east-west road face the latter, suggesting that it remained the more important thoroughfare throughout the Middle Ages. 22 The plans for an enlarged court were not to serve the archbishop and his retinue alone. As has been noted by others,23 the obligation to dispense hospitality on a large scale became more pressing during the 323 SARAH PEARSON late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and at this time the residence at Charing was not only used by important secular or religious guests, but by the king himself. Edward I came in June 1297, and again in June 1299, at exactly the time when plans for expansion must have been under discussion.24 The first of these occasions is particularly interesting for, as the result of a quarrel with the king, Winchelsea's estates were sequestrated by Edward I from January to June 1297 and he was debarred from using them. They were restored to him on 12 June, eleven days after the king had stopped at Charing. 25 So on that occasion the king must have been there without the archbishop. Winchelsea did not come to Charing much in the middle years of his archiepiscopate, partly because his continuing problems with Edward I led to his exile abroad between 1306 and 1308, and partly perhaps because of building work. We do not know how much was achieved while he was archbishop, but one can speculate that at least some progress had been made by the time he came for lengthier stays in 1310, 1311 and 1312. The Hall The hall is now but a shadow of its former self (Fig. 2, Plate III). It PLATE III The east range of the palace showing the Great Hall, porch and service end, with the narrow range on the left which linked the Hall to the private apartments. Photo: the at1thor 324 THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE AT CHARII"1G IN THE MIDDLE AGES was turned into a barn in the eighteenth century, an oast was built into one corner, and the whole was divided by central posts and reroofed in two spans at a much lower level than it was before. Prior to this, carved corbels set a little less than halfway up the walls carried a single-span roof with a far steeper pitch than the double-span roof of today (Fig. 4). The hall was five bays long (Fig. 5), the central three lit, at least on the west side, by windows like the one which survives (Plate IV). Two tiers of trefoil-headed lights are surmounted by an octafoil with elongated cusps. The details of corbels and window tracery have led to a suggested date of c. 1300-1310. The east wall has been largely rebuilt. The south bay of the hall, to the left of the long section, contained the screens passage. The west entrance to the hall still survives although it is largely obscured; the site of the east doorway can be identified, but its actual frame has gone. The north bay was the high end, whose form is somewhat uncertain since there has been a lot of rebuilding here, but on the west wall there is evidence for a doorway formerly leading from the hall to a passage linking the hall to the private apartments. The internal dimensions, l 0.7m (35ft) wide by 21.8m (7 I ½ft) long, make this one of the largest surviving unaisled halls in the country. Among the nearest in size and form are two relatively local halls built in the early fourteenth century: Mayfield in Sussex and Penshurst Place in Kent. Mayfield was another residence of the archbishops, and one which they often visited immediately before or after Charing. It is usually thought to have been built by Archbishop Reynolds, who succeeded Winchel sea in 1313. 26 The hall there was also unaisled, but unlike Charing a great stone arch spans the space, providing intermediate support for longitudinal roof timbers. Similar stone arches were also used under the central trusses of the much smaller halls of Ightham Mote and Batte! Hall, Leeds (Kent), both built in the 1330s. The hall at Penshurst Place, probably built in the early l 340s, is shorter than Charing, but a metre wider, measuring 11.9m (39ft).27 Thus the builder was faced with much the same problem of placing a timber roof across an unusually wide span. However, at Penshurst the corbels are set far higher up the wall than at Charing, so the details of the roofs were probably not similar. In fact, the end trusses of the much smaller hall at Ightham Mote are far closer to the Charing arrangement. There low-set corbels support arch braces which in turn carry wall posts rising to the cornice running along the inner face of the wan. The upper part of the roof has crown posts carried on collars at the apex of the arch braces. 28 There is no proof that the form of the lghtham Mote roof reflects that of Charing in detail, but scars in the walls above the corbels at CI1aring indicate the former presence of 325 East SARAH PEARSON approximate height of original ridge later doorway 1st-noo,tffli c.UOO West '... Moul