Reports

( 114 ) RESEARCH ABOUT DEAL AND SANDWICH IN 1945 AND 1946. SINCE the close of fighting there have been various opportunities to survey buildings damaged by bombing and shelling, and to examine long-hidden features which have been exposed or are now being opened up in reparations. In Deal especiaUy in the Middle Street area various dereUct properties of the later seventeenth century show good moulded beams and cornices, while in one case sound proofing between ceiling and the floor of the room above had been obtained by filling the space with oats. DEAL. Custom House Lane. Abutting on this lane is a large brick building of basement, ground and upper floor and attics. The structure, with its shaped gable end typical of late seventeenth century date, is noteworthy as its upper floor was completely panelled from floor to ceiling with thin pine panelling. This had been patched with contemporary work of rather different proportions, and at one place a complete overmantel of three divisions with planted columns, rectangular and diamond panels and other typical refinements, all glued work, had been fixed where there was no fireplace opening (Plate I, Figs. 1 and 2). The two sash window openings on the lane had square jambs, and the larger one retained its original sashes. The joists for the attic floor had been boarded—not lath and plastered—and the joins masked with fillets. The two attic windows on the lane side still retained their leaded diamond-glazed iron frames. The Manor House, Upper Deal. This fine brick building, once known as Upper Deal House and the residence of Joshua Coppin, first mayor in 1699, with its forecourt, porch (Plate II), and its projecting wings at the back, came into well-merited prominence early in 1939 when it came into the market. The writer, who had long known it, described it in The Times of 19th January of that year. The date then given to the house was early Jacobean but brick-faced and modernized in the time of WilUam and Mary. Its present owners— Mr. and Mrs. T. Coales—were not satisfied with certain internal decorations— wallpapers on canvas, manifest cavities, and Victorian fireplaces. They became curious and their personal industry has revealed a far more interesting building than had been suspected with its history, possibly going back to late medieval times. The evidence for this, the undoubted manor house of Deal Prebend, seems to be shown by massive half-timbering at the southern end of a long hall, which was subsequently divided and the present great chimney stack inserted with fireplaces back to back on ground and upper floor. The house was also added to on the eastern side in timber-framed work. This included the great staircase of straight flights. Of this period are the moulded oak door frames with interesting stop chamfers, and one oak-panelled door PLATE I, Flo. 1. LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BUILDING ON CUSTOM HOUSE LANE, DEAL. Lower part of re-used painted pine overmantel in upper floor. PLATE I, FIG. 2. LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CUSTOM HOUSE LANE, DEAL. Painted pine panelling in upper floor. BUILDING ON fMP6^ PLATE H. THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER DEAL. Porch, circa temp. William and Mary. PLATE III. THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER DEAL. Stop chamfer to door frames. PLATE IT. THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER DEAL. Door. PLATE V. THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER DEAL. Fireplace in Hall. 8' wide. PLATE VI. THE MANOR HOUSE, UPPER DEAL. Head of staircase with built-in eighteenth century sleeping cabin. PLATE VII. THE WHITEFRIARS, SANDWICH. Graining on oak panels. * , f PLATE VIII. THE WHITEFRIARS, SANDWICH. Enlarged view of oak panel decorated with later (?) graining. BJEPOKTS. 115 (Plates III and IV). The opening up of the central chimney stack brought to Ught the fine stone-framed fireplace with its moulded jambs and four-centred arch 8ft. wide. The shields in the spandrels have unfortunately had the coats of arms erased, so a valuable indication of date is missing (Plate IV). The timber framing each side of and over the opening seems to have been added to take the weight off the depressed arch. On the right hand side of the fireplace one side of the frame of a doorway similar to that shown on Plate III, 1 has been exposed. Plate V shows the head of the staircase with the interesting little eighteenth century sleeping cabin. Further features opened up in the reparations included (1) a wall buUt of smaU bricks identical with those noted at Dover and iUustrated and described on p. 79 of Arch. Cant., LVIII (1945), (2) plant-like scroll work painted on the panelhng in an upper room, (3) shaped iron scutcheons for door-closing rings and (4) fragments of Chinese-like wallpaper dating back probably to the WiUiam and Mary epoch. On this paper had been pasted borders, one over the other, of two different patterns. These papers and others it is hoped to describe in a later volume. SANDWIOH. The Whitefriars. This outwardly late seventeenth century house occupies the New Street frontage of the demesne of the Carmehte Friary. Since Lord and Lady Uthwatt took possession restoration work in one of the rooms has exposed its late sixteenth century oak paneUing. The distinctive feature of the panels, however, is that some later decorator has added his idea of wood graining, much as the Victorian painter and grainer did his lasting work on deal. (Plate VII, Figs. 1 and 2.) AU that is old is not always good. The Long House, Strand Street. During the last twelve months it was found necessary by the new owners, Major J. and Mrs. Stanford, to have a good deal of repairing carried out to this late sixteenth century house. This necessitated stripping the waUs of several rooms of the layers of paper stretched on canvas which had been nailed on oak paneUing and on the half-timber framing. The exposure of this latter showed that great care had been taken to decorate the plaster-faced filhng between the timbers with low rehef lozenges and strap work impressed on the wet plaster by rollers on which the pattern had been cut. Another room had had its plastering treated in a different way. Here there was a three-inch border of a very dehcate and charming Renaissance design mainly made up of repeating pairs of peacocks facing towards an urn. The waUs of a third room still retained traces of colour decoration of a formal nature. At some late period large additions had been built on to the back of the house to take a staircase and more rooms. In testing the formerly outer waU of one of the original rooms it was found that a smaU window had been left untouched but just masked both outside and inside with paper on canvas. W. P. D. STEBBING.