The Topography and Buildings of Horton Manor, near Canterbury

THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR, NEAR CANTERBURY* TIM TATTON-BROWN INTRODUCTION In the valley of the Great Stour to the south-west of Canterbury is a group of parishes which in origin are clearly a series of Anglo-Saxon estates. Starting on the edge of Canterbury and moving south-west, these estates (or manors as they are later called) are Thanington, Milton, Horton, Chartham, Chilham and Godmersham. Two of them have ninth-century charters relating to them1 and all of them are recorded in Domesday Book except Thanington which is in Domesday Monachorum. Using the tithe maps and some medieval and later documentary evidence, it is possible to suggest that the boundaries of these estates may have hardly changed between at least the ninth and the nineteenth centuries. 2 The estates, in Domesday Book and later, are in two Hundreds (Felborough and Westgate) which in turn are each part of the ancient east Kent lathes of the men of Wye and of Canterbury (WIWARLET LEST and BOROWART LEST in Domesday Book). Horton which, as we shall see later is often the odd one out, was originally in Felborough Hundred but, later, although still in * Published with the aid of a grant from the Department of the Environment. ' Chartham c. A.D. 871 (Sawyer No. 1202) and Godmersham A.D. 822/4 (Sawyer Nos. 1620 and 1434). The latter charter gives bounds which can be shown to be almost identical with later parish boundaries (I am grateful to Mr. J. McN. Dodgson for pointing this out to me). Both these estates belonged to the archbishop and the community of Christ Church. 2As was perhaps the case in many other parishes in north and east Kent. See, for example, D.W. Rollason, 'The Date of the Parish-boundary of Minster-in-Thanet (Kent)', Arch. Cant., xcv (1979) 7-18. 77 TIM TATfON-BROWN Chartham Parish, was part of Bridge and Petham Hundred. The Domesday Book evidence for the area can be summarized as follows: FELEBERG HUNDRED CERTEHAM (Held by the archbishop, later the monks of Christ Church) - 4 sulungs, land for 14 ploughs with 2 on demesne, 60 villeins and 15 cottars with 15½ ploughs, a church, 1 serf, 5 mills, 30 acres of meadow, and woodland for 25 swine. GOMERSHAM (Held by the archbishop, later the monks of Christ Church) - 8 sulungs, land for 12 ploughs with 2 on demesne, 60 villeins and 8 cottars have 17 ploughs, a church, 2 serfs, 1 mill, 12 acres of meadow, and woodland for 40 swine. CILLEHAM (Held by Fulbert of the Bishop of Bayeux) - 5 sulungs, land for 20 ploughs with 2 on demesne, 38 villeins and 12 cottars have 12 ploughs, a church, 6 mills, 9 acres of meadow, and woodland for 80 swine. HORTONE (Held by Ansfrid of the Bishop of Bayeux) - ½ sulung, land for I plough which is on the demesne, 13 villeins have ½ plough, I serf, 2 mills, 8 acres of meadow and 100 acres of silvae minutae (brushwood). ESSAMELESFORD - Shalmsford in Chartham (Held by Herfrid of the Bishop of Bayeux) - ½ sulung, land for 1 plough with 1 on demesne, 3 villeins, and 1 bordar have 1 plough, 3 serfs, and 8 acres of meadow. CHERINCHELLE - iater Shillingheld in Chilham (Held by Ansfrid of the Bishop of Bayeux) - ½ sulung, land for 1 plough with 2 on demesne, 8 villeins have 1 ½ ploughs. ESTURSETE (Westgate) HUNDRED MILTON (Held by Raimo the Sheriff of the archbishop) - ½ sulung, land for 2 ploughs, 5 bordars, 1 serf, and 2 mills. THANNINGTON - Domesday Monachorum only (Held by Godefrid Dapifer of the Archbishop) - 1 sulung. It is clear also that, though not mentioned in Domesday Book, 78 a THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR ,. ... ···/ CJ . D XllometrcsO a .._........􀀌...,.._ ., _ ___ Miles O s b -0-􀀒l .,...c􀀓c,-􀀔-,l---'-,,-.o...--;.􀀕􀀖r)..􀀗·---> 􀀄 0 8 Fig. l. a. Horton Manor in 1086. b. Felborough Hundred and surrounding Areas in 1086. Molash and Challock were already in existence3 • and were attached to Chilham and Godmersham, respectively, making up the rest of Felborough Hundred. The particularly large figure of woodland for swine in Godmersham and Chilham also suggests this, as Molash and Challock were clearly mainly areas of hilltop woodland. Fig. lb summarizes this material using the Domesday evidence in conjunction with geological evidence4 and later parish boundaries,5 and 3 Challock is mentioned in the charter of A.D. 824 (see above) and a chapel there is mentioned in Domesday Monachorum. It has an unusual dedication to St. Cosmus and St. Damian, cf. Blean Church. • The alluvium around the Stour was clearly the meadowland (and the sites of the mills); and the heavier clay soils on the tops of the chalk downland were (and still are in many places) the woodland areas. 5 Taken largely from the tithe maps. 79 TIM TATTON-BROWN PLATE I ( Pho10: Kem Archives Office) William Boycott's 1633 Map of Horton Manor. 80 a THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR b Chapell (elide FARMYAAI> 􀀇---'' CJ -0!\EAT 'lbo,i Kf\omelrcsO Miles 0 b Melt8'6 0 r.. , 0 IOO Fig. 2. Horton Manor in 1633. "° -􀀃- 100 it is quite clear that the original settlements in this part of the Stour Valley were situated on the edge of the marshland beside the river6 with their arable fields extending up chalk hillsides. The large tracts of forest, which occupied the high ground, were gradually controlled and at some early period (probably before the ninth century) the two secondary settlements at Challock and Molash were established. There must also have been a progressive cutting of new channels in the marshland both for the mills and to drain the area and turn it into meadow land. It is of interest that in Domesday Chartham has by far the largest recorded area of meadow (30 acres), and 6 Chilham is clearly an exception, but it is possible that the Saxon settlement was on the river, and that the present strategically placed village and castle originated only in the 1070s when Fulbert built his first castle here for the Bishop of Bayeux. This castle became the centre of the Hundred (and later of Fulbert's Barony). 81 TIM TAlTON-BROWN Horton Manor Chapel: 3\e Roof. looking South-\\est. PI.ATE !IA PLATE 118 Horton Manor Chapel: Chancel Roof. looking South-west. 82 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR Chartham and Chilham both have large numbers of mills (5 and 6, respectively). Apart from the three large manors of Godmersham, Chilham and Chartham (8, 5, and 4 sulungs respectively), we have in this area four much smaller, ½ sulung manors, which had presumably been cut out of the larger manors well before the Conquest. Two of these manors, Shalmsford and Shillingheld, always remained in the ecclesiastical reorganization of Lanfranc and Anselm as parts of the larger parishes of Chartham and Chilham, but the other two, Milton and Horton, acquired separate ecclesiastical status, Milton becoming a separate parish and Horton having a chapel where all rites except burial could take place (see below). Horton, although it was part of Chartham parish, was for some undiscovered reason later transferred from Felborough Hundred to Bridge and Petham Hundred. HORTON MANOR Turning to Horton Manor itself, we have three important documents to help us reconstruct its medieval topography. These are: the Domesday Book entry (1086), a fine estate map drawn by William Boycott in 1633 (Plate I), and the 1842 tithe map. Figs. la-3a show Horton Manor at these three dates, and though the Domesday map has been reconstructed, it is clear that very little has changed between the mid-eleventh and the mid-nineteenth centuries. The full entry for Horton in Domesday reads as follows:7 'IN FERLEBERGE HUNDRET Ansfrid holds HORTONE of the bishop (of Bayeux). It is assessed at ½ sulung. There is land for 1 plough, and it is there on the demesne and 13 villeins have half a plough. One serf is there and 2 mills worth (de) 1 mark of silver, and 8 acres of meadow and 100 acres of brushwood (silvae minutae). T.R.E. it was worth 40 (shillings), afterwards 30 shillings. It is now worth 100 shillings. Godric held it of King E(dward).' By comparing this with the later maps (see below), it seems likely that little has changed between 1086 and 1633. The 100 acres of 7 See V.C.H. (Kent) iii, 237a. 83 TIM TATTON-BROWN brushwood (or underwood), a rare and unusually large amount (most Domesday woodland is recorded in terms of the number of swine, i.e. pannage), is clearly at the upper end of the manor in the area later called Horton Wood. Interestingly enough this is very close to the acreage of woodland both on the tithe map (104 acres) and on the 1633 map (96½ acres). If the Domesday acre is the same as the later medieval and post-medieval acre (it was fixed by Edward I from 1305), then we can suggest that the Hoth and Spitman fields on the 1633 map had already by 1086 been cut out of the woodland area. If, however, we assume that these fields had not been assarted in 1086 and include the southern end of Horton Bottom (later Mill Downs) in the wood, we have an area of approximately 200 acres, perhaps 100 acres of brushwood and 100 acres of wildwood not used for swine. By contrast only 8 acres of meadow are mentioned in Domesday which is a small amount compared to the 51 ½ acres on the 1633 map and the 57 acres on the tithe map. Here it seems likely that in Domesday the valley bottom around the Stour was still marshy in most places and bisected with a series of smaller channels which in part were natural and in part were for the mills. Fig. la shows a partly reconstructed sequence of channels. Traces of some of these channels (where not dug away by modern gravel pits) still exist in the present meadows. The Domesday arable land was certainly on the lower slopes of the downs and it is likely that the demesne land was closest to the river and to the settlement site at Horton. The 'land for one plough' (perhaps about 100 acres) may have extended as far as the upper road (the one to Petham); beyond this on the fringe of the wood and in the upper part of Horton Bottom was presumably the villeins' land (½ plough - c. 50 acres). The serf was presumably attached to the demesne. Turning to the 1633 estate map8 (Plate I), this fine document is an important bridge between the Domesday evidence and the tithe map. The map is entitled 'A map & Disscription of the Mannor of Hortton lying in the parish of Chartham in Kent with 7 parcells of arrable 8 parcells meadow and 8 parcells woode thereunto belonging Contayninge 378 acers 13 pertches whereof arable 229. 3. 8. Boycott (nearly illegible) meadow 51. 2. 23. Gulielmus Descripsit woode 96. 2. 22. 1633' • In the Kent Archives Office, U386 P2. 84 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR Lucerne fle.Jd K􀀋O a i--'---+-.....,._--+-􀀋......-􀀌 M"' 0 b ....,...01--,-,...,...,...,...,.􀀌...,􀀍-􀀎􀀏.......... 􀀐 -􀀑-.-100 F'Hl 0 100 Fig. 3. Horton Manor in 1842. 300 The scale at the bottom is entitled 'Scala perticarum'. The map itself shows clearly all the fields in the manor with their names and acreages as well as the names of the surrounding land owners, Mr. Honniwood on the north-east, Sir John Tomson on the south, Christ Church, Mr. Tomson and Mr. Fagge on the west and the Earle of Westmorlande on the north. The lower road 'from Shamsfoorde Bridge to Canterburye' and the higher, more winding road 'from Pettham to Canterbury' are also shown as well as the road to Horton Manor House with the chapel, mill and farmyard. This map almost certainly depicts Horton Manor as it was in the later medieval period. The arable fields were clearly large open fields, with traces of the strips still survivng on the west side of Horton Bottom. The woodland has two fields (Spitman and Hoth fields) cut out of it and shaws survive around them, while the meadow land has largely been drained and in one area at least (Gravell meade), gravel has been dug. The depressions caused by 85 TIM TATTON-BROWN these small early gravel pits can still be seen in the present day water-meadows. There are also quite a lot of large trees (perhaps willows) growing beside the streams. The map also depicts Horton Manor House, its chapel, water mill and farmyard buildings. The plan of these has been in part reconstructed in Fig. 2b. Oddly enough, the house appears to be shown as a building with an internal courtyard but, as we shall see below, there is no evidence for this now on the ground. Turning to the Tithe Map evidence (Fig. 3), we see immediately that there has been very little change in the intervening two centuries. The area of the whole manor recorded in the tithe apportionments is 394-3-26 compared to 378-0-13 in 1633. Hothfield has been divided with a Hop ground and new woodland to the east while Spitman field has been joined to the rest of the arable and called Larkey valley. It is also clear that the open fields of Horton Bottom have been 'enclosed' and divided up into four large arable fields. 9 The two fields near Horton itself (Millfield and Chapel field) have also been subdivided. The water meadows on the other hand have been joined up with many of the old channels filled in. The water mill has also gone. Only as recently as the 1830s had the northern area of meadowland been cut off by the new Turnpike road. 10 The greatest changes to the topography of the manor took place in the later nineteenth century and it was at this time when the manor was finally broken up. Soon after 1872, the new County Lunatic Asylum (now St. Augustine's Hospital) was built just to the west of Mill Beach. It acquired some of the western fields of the manor. The other fields were also divided between Horton itself and a new farm at Upper Horton; the latter being built with its own new regular system of arable fields in the now cleared Horton Wood. Today only the shaws along the old manorial boundaries survive as woodland. At Horton manor itself (Fig. 3b), the old farmyard was removed and a whole new series of buildings were erected, including a new waterwheel with its own new !eat. In the period between the wars in the present century, the manor house was finally cut off from the farm, though it still today retains 4¾ acres, the wood around the chapel and the orchard beyond (Lucerne field and the smaller Hawkfield on the tithe map). • This is, however, in no way formal 'enclosure' as in the Midlands. '" It was cut through again by the South-Eastern Railway in 1846. 86 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR THE DESCENT OF HORTON MANOR The descent of the Manor of Horton has been listed fairly fully by Edward Hasted, 11 and it is only necessary here to summarize the evidence and expand it in one or two places. Domesday Book (see above) tells us that in 1066 the manor was held by Godric, one of Edward the Confessor's knights. After the conquest, it became one of Odo of Bayeux's many manors in Kent, and was held of Odo by Ansfrid, one of his Kentish knights.12 After Odo's disgrace in 1088, the manor went to Haimo the Sheriff of Kent and then descended through his son, Haimo (also Sheriff of Kent), and then his brother Robert de Crevecoeur, 13 and so with all his other estates to the early twelfth-century Earls of Gloucester. In the thirteenth century the Badlesmeres held the manor of the great honor of Gloucester. Lady Joan de Badlesmere who had married Sir John de Northwood, 14 held the manor and it was perhaps she or her father who built the first chapel here in the late thirteenth century (see below). Both Lady Joan and Sir John de Northwood died in 1319, and the manor then descended through the Northwood family until the widow of Sir Roger de Northwood, Agnes (his fifth wife!) gave it to her third husband, Christopher Shuckborough, Esq., of Warwickshire.'5 They came to live at Horton in c. 1369, and Christopher Shuckborough was almost certainly the man who c. 1380 rebuilt Horton Manor Chapel. At the same time he was having a dispute with John Beckford, Rector of Chartharn, over the celebration of Divine Offices in the chapel. The case was heard before the Archdeacon's Court and in 1380 it was decided that all the Divine Offices could be celebrated at Horton Chapel except burial ( exceptis tantum defunctorum sepulturis et exequiis). 'These' says Hasted 'were more than ordinary privileges; it being usual, even in chapels which had the right of sepulture granted to them, to oblige the inhabits to baptize and marry, and the women to have their purifications at the mother church'. Agnes Shuckborough died in 1404 and her husband alienated the manor to Gregory Ballard in 1407. It then continued in the Ballard '' The History and Topographical Survey of the Coumy of Kent, vii (1798), 31:?-5. " Probably the Ansfrid Masculus, the clerk, who also held the manor of Cherinchelle in Chilham as well as at least nine other manors in east Kent, V.C.H., (Kent). iii, 190 ff. " D.C. Douglas, The Domesday Monachorum of Christ Church, Camerbury ( 1944), 55. 14 See 'Genealogical Notices of the Northwoods', Arch. Cant., ii ( 1859). 9-41. 87 TIM TATTON-BROWN family until Nicholas Ballard sold it to Roger Trollop, Esq., in 1557. He in turn sold it to Sir Edward Warner, and after his death his brother and heir, Robert, sold it in 1574 to Sir Roger Manwood, whose son sold it in the early seventeenth century to Christopher Toldervye, Esq., to whose niece it eventually passed. She married Sir Robert Darell of Calehill, and he must have commissioned Boycott's 'map and description' of 1633. The manor then remained with the Darells of Calehill until it was broken up in the later nineteenth century. In Hasted's time Henry Darell was in possession, while the Tithe Survey of 1842 says the land belonged to Edward Darell and was occupied by him and Samuel Beard. All the main Darell family manuscripts were purchased from the executors of Miss Darell-Blunt by the Kent Archives Office in October 1953, and these are now in the archives office. They include Horton Manor material from 1582 to 1838, including the 1633 estate map. 16 HORTON MANOR CHAPEL During the summer of 1981, the Canterbury Archaeological Trust was given a grant by the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate to make detailed measured drawings of the chapel which is a 'Scheduled Ancient Monument'. This building, which was in very poor condition, was almost completely covered in ivy and hidden away in a wood on the south side of the farmyard. It had been neglected for many years and was surrounded on the north and east by latenineteenth- century buildings (including an oast and a water tower) which were also covered in ivy and collapsing. The chapel almost certainly ceased to be used as a chapel at the Reformation and by Hasted's day it had been 'many years disused as a chapel, and made use of as a barn'. All the medieval walls and roofs in the chapel were, however, still there though most of the evidence for the medieval windows had gone. In 1861, however, Glynne17 records that there was a single light trefoil-headed window on the north side and that the building was used as a granary. Sometime after this the oast house was added on the north and the '' Op. cit., supra. 16 Catalogued by Dr. Felix Hull as U.386 T 45 see his 'Kent Archives Offices, Accessions 1953-4', Arch. Cant., lxviii (1954), 198-9, and F. Hull, Guide to the Kent County Archives Office (1958), 139-41. 17 Rev. S. Glynne, Churches of Kent, and A. Hussey, 'Chapels in Kent', in Arch. Cant., xxix (1911), 226-7. 88 PLATE IIIA Horton Manor Chapel: Nave Roof. looking North-ea􀁛! with Chancel Arca below. PLATE IIIB Horton Manor Chapel: Northern Half of western Truss in the Nave Roof. -I:i m b -0 0 a ;:c ► -0 :i:-< ► z 0 CJ C ;= 0 z a Vl 0 "I'\ :i: 0 􀀄 z :;:: ► z 0 ;:c TIM TATTON-BROWN Pre 14th century 14th cenl\Jry l uncertain \ NAVE CHANCEL PISCINA Fig. 4. Horton Manor Chapel: Ground Level Plan and possible Phasing. window was destroyed. Inside the chapel itself an additional floor was inserted into the nave and two floors (with small wooden staircases) were inserted into the chancel. All these floors are now in very poor condition. For our survey (Figs. 4-11) we have missed out all post-medieval features and attempted to reconstruct, where possible, the medieval form of the chapel. 18 Horton Chapel is in plan a very simple, two-celled structure and, as can be seen in Fig. 4, two main periods of work are discernible, the late-fourteenth century (or final) phase and, in the nave at least, an earlier phase. It is clear, both from the roof (see below) and the rR A perspective reconstruction of the chapel was published as Fig. 1 in Arch. Cant., xcvii (1981) rn. It should also be noted that no attempt was made during the recording work to strip off plaster or examine in detail the fabric of the walls. 90 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR I- I- 1- f-1- -- t-t- 1-- -1- 1- - 1- 1- -1-1-1-1-- = = 􀀆 = :;- = 1-.-,-.----,-,---,-,--..,.....,.,,..,,...,,..._---r.-,_ ,r-n - - •-􀀃 Fig. 5. Horton Manor Chapel: Roof Plans. - straight joints on the north and south, that the chancel arch and surrounding walling had been insertxd at a later date. The original chapel may have consisted of both the later nave and chancel (with no intervening arch), but it is also possible, though less likely, that originally there was a different (? smaller) chancel. The north and south buttresses, though now in very poor condition (that on the north has almost disappeared), appear to be a secondary feature of the nave, and it is clear that the western wall of the nave, made of coursed flints, is original up to eaves level (Fig. 6). The whole of the gable and bell turret are of the second (c. late-fourteenth century) phase, and have knapped flints and odd pieces of reused ashlar for facework. Apart from flint and chalk-block, which is used for corework, the walls of the chapel use Caen stone and, particularly in the turret for the two bells, Kentish Ragstone. There is nothing in the chapel, either in situ or reused, which suggests a Norman or twelfth- 91 TIM TATTON-BROWN Metreso Feet 0 - - - Fig. 6. Horton Manor Chapel: External West Elevation. 92 15 PLATE IVA Horton Manor Chapel: Chancel Roof, looking North-cast. Horton Manor Chapel: North Door of the Nave from inside. -l :i:: tn -l 0 "O 0 0 􀀂 :i:: -< > z 0cc C r= 0 z 0 C/) 0 'T'I :i:: 0 g z s:: )> z 0 ;7:l TIM TATTON-BROWN Metres o Feet 0!!•5iii1!!!5'!•!!iiiiiiil•!!!!'iiii5iii!!!iiii!-􀀓-􀀔!5 Fig. 7. Horton Manor Chapel: Naye, looking West. 94 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR Metres o Feet o 15 􀀏-----5-􀀐-!!"iiiii-i'!!!-!iiii!•􀀑-5-􀀒-􀀓- - \ __________ Details at scale>< to 5 Fig. 8. Horton Manor Chapel: Nave, looking East and Details of Chancel Arch Mouldings. 95 TIM TATTON-BROWN PLATE VA (Photo: M.G. Heenan) Horton Manor: Hall Roof looking Sourh. PLATE VB (Plroto: M.G. Horton Manor: West End of Hall Roof. 96 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR century chapel being here originally, and it is very likely that the first chapel at Horton dates from the very late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. Apart from the evidence of the walls, the nave roof also clearly shows two phases of work, and it is very likely that the earlier roof here ( a sciss0r-braced roof without crown-posts or collar-purlin) went with the earlier walls and dates from c. 1300. It should be remembered that at this time Chartham Church was being completely re-built with a series of vast sciss0r-braced roofs, 19 and it is more than a possibility that this was the time when Horton was allowed its own private chapel for the first time. Returning to the nave roof, it can be seen clearly (Figs. 9-11) that the original scissor-braced roof extended beyond and predates the chancel arch. During the rebuilding work of the late fourteenth century the original west gable was demolished, and once the new chancel arch had been inserted a new tie-beam20 and crown-post were inserted at the east end of the nave. The tie-beam in the centre of the nave may well be an original tie-beam, but if so it had new mouldings cut on its undersides (as did the inner wall-plates) in the late fourteenth century. Once the two eastern crown-posts and the collar-purlin had been inserted, a special truss was framed at the west end to fit in under the final rafters and scissors (Fig. 7). This had a high tie-beam (to clear the new west window) and two wallposts on corbels. Like the centre crown-post, the new western one was braced both to the scissors and to the collar purlin, which at this point has a simple butt-joint in it. The purlin is in fact only held together by the mortice of the brace with two pegs in it {Figs. 10- 11). The new western truss, which also has braces from the wallposts to the tie-beam, also has a fine series of mouldings on it; the braces even have tiny brooches at the base of the chamfers (Fig. 7). Once this truss had been inserted the western gable and bell turret were rebuilt. 􀁵 1 The chancel roof is a much simpler affair with no tie-beams or purlins. The small collars were lapped onto the eastern sides of the rafters. The junctions between the rafters, ashlar-pieces, and wallplates were obscured by the inserted floor, but it was possible to see that the inner wall-plates only had a simple chamfer on them. In both roofs several of the rafters are missing, but this has not been 10 S.E. Rigold, 'Chartham Church' in Arch. Joum., cxxvi ( 1970), 􀁥65-6. 20 Unlike the central tie-beam, this one has clearly been inserted over the wall plates between two pairs of rafters. 21 The eastern side of the bell-turret was inaccessible and therefore could not be surveyed. 97 TIM TATTON-BROWN Metreso 5 Feet o 15 !!!!!5-;;;i!!-􀀐-'iiiiiiil--􀀑-iii!-5-􀀒--;;;;!!-5-􀀓- Elevation e plan oF piscina at scale >< 10 Fig. 9. Horton Manor Chapel: Chancel, looking West with Elevation and Plan of Piscina. 98 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR 􀀄 Metreso 1 5 Feet 0 15 a.. I 11 K 1 '" 􀀅 @ l ........., I p - I l fl t􀀂 ' t:J L---- I 7··- ------------ - 'A single light tref'oU-headed window on the north side' Gtynne 1861 􀀆 Fig. 10. Horton Manor Chapel: Longitudinal Section, looking North (window details hypothetical). shown in the figures. The date of the chancel roof is uncertain; either c. 1300 or c. 1380 are possibilities, though perhaps the former is more likely. Unfortunately, though the inner sides of the east window survive, the whole of the eastern gable of the chapel has gone. Apart from the mouldings, the piscina (Fig. 9) and the chancel arch (Fig. 8), few decorative details survive, though it is possible to suggest the positions of many of the windows and doors in the chapel as a few jamb-stones survive (Figs. 4, 10 and 11). In the nave there was a west window and a window on either side towards the east end. One of these was the window seen by Glynne. 22 Also in 22 See note 17 above. 99 A TIM TATTON-BROWN Metres o 5 5!!i!i!!l􀀆!!5iiiiiiiiii􀀇!!!5iiiiiiiiiiiiiii rTL]}, i 1 1 1 _____ , ? Mediaeval Floor Fig. 11. Horton Manor Chapel: Longitudinal Section, looking South (window details hypothetical). - - Metres O 1 5 r-------------, I I Feet 0 10 20 -·-·-·-·-·- iQ p I I ·-·-·-·-·- i I l HALL ffi i 􀀍 i i (',, ;. 􀀎 A Fig. 12. Horton Manor: Plan. 100 THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR VA: 1 1 , /!! I I: I 'I ' I I ! I I I 11 I I I I I 1 I 􀀈 t;::,,-? not in situ :I...... ·􀀂 Feet o5iil!5iii1!!5ii.!!•􀀑!'!!!'iiiil􀀒---!!!'iiiiil!!'!J5 Fig. 13. Horton Manor: Section through Hall and north Wing. the nave most of the rerearch of a north door survives. In the chancel, apart from the east window (the side jambs of which survive), no other windows are visible. It is likely, however, that there were originally two small windows on each side. The chancel also has a north door, and though this may be entirely postmedieval, a few outside jamb-stones on the east (Fig. 10) suggest it might in part be medieval. The floor in the chancel has now been greatly reduced, and so no sign of the altar base and dais survive. Above the chancel arch and off-centre to the south (Figs. 5, 8-10) are the remains of a blocked doorway whose function is unknown. 101 TIM TATTON-BROWN Fig. 14. Horton Manor: Longitudinal Section through Hall. HORTON MANOR HOUSE ,􀀃[ 1111 "'I 1:!1 ''I•!,: 11, ,,, ,1 :i1II, :1􀀍 I,,, HA While carrying out our survey of the chapel, we were able to look briefly at the house, 23 and particularly at the roofs. Provisional drawings of what is immediately visible (Figs. 12-14) have been 23 Incredibly, the house is not a 'listed building', though spot-listing is being considered now that the house is up for sale. 102 LL THE TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR 1·r·1􀀈·r·1 - ... - ..... ... - Screens passage ''\ ----r-n-- -n-- -· --􀀑s -- --n--- -,--.-- '\ n q P :: nI 􀀃: :r ;: 1 j IJ Timber reused in cellar Metreso 1 5 55'2iii!a'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii􀀇5iiiiiiiiiiiiiii Feet o 15 !!5iiiiZ!!5iiiil!!!!!Mliiiiii!!-!!!!'iiiiii'!!!M5iiiiM!!!!5iiiol!!!!5iil!!!!!M made, and it is immediately clear that the house dates from the late medieval period (perhaps later fifteenth century and was rebuilt when the Ballards owned the manor). In plan (Fig. 12), the house is large with a three-bay central hall and projecting wings at either end. The original front of the house was on the south-east (though today it is on the other side), and the projecting bays were both probably originally jettied. Though most of the timber-framing is now concealed, 'some close-studding is visible on the southern pFOjecting wing. The northern projecting wing was later (perhaps late sixteenth century) underbuilt in brick, and a five-light casement 103 TIM TATTON-BROWN PLATE VI Horton Manor Chapel: View from the South-west in c. \925 taken by Frank Bailey ( Photo. Kent Royal Museum, Canterbury. by permission of the owner of the negative. Mr. L. Smith). window with transoms (heavily restored) still survives on this side. This wing, which was almost certainly beyond the high end of the hall. was probably the solar wing and a three-bay crown-post roof (Figs. 13- 14) survives over much of it. The central crown-posts sit on cambered tie-beams with arched braces below. The Hall also is of three bays with squat crown-posts also sitting on cambered tiebeams with large arched braces below. At the north end of the hall a door on the north-west and some studding are still visible with distinctly ogee braces in the roof (Fig. 13). The hall crown-posts, which were heavily coated in soot, are cross-shaped in section and have braces up to the soulaces and the collar-purlin. In the cellar below the south range of the building is a reused moulded beam (Fig. 14, inset) which may have come from the south end of the hall where the screens must have been. Unfortunately, the original roof of the south range has gone and most of the remaining framing here 104 THE TO POGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS OF HORTON MANOR is concealed. This range must originally (as today) have contained the buttery and pantry. If any restoration work is carried out on the house, a great deal more of the original building can be expected to be revealed. The present house has not only had a new wing added to the south-west, but also a whole new 'block' added to the northeast side which fills in the original front. It is just possible that there was an additional section of the house on the west. The 1633 estate map (Plate I) appears to show the house as a courtyard building. However, only excavation can answer this question. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to Dr. C.J. Young of the Department of the Environment for commissioning the survey of the chapel and to Miss J. Mount for allowing us access to all parts of the house and chapel. Without her help our survey would be far less complete. We are also grateful to Paul Blockley for taking photographs inside the chapel and Michael Heenan for the photos of the inside of house roofs. The drawings of the manor house are partially based on a survey of the house, kindly lent to us by Miss Mount, by John Conrad (the son of Joseph Conrad) done in 1947. Finally, I am particularly grateful to John Bowen, who not only carried out all the drawing work, but also discussed with me all aspects of the interpretation. Mrs. Margaret Sparks was kind enough to read and comment on an earlier draft of this paper. Plate VI is from a photograph by Canterbury Museums from a glass negative by Frank Bailey c. 1925, by permission of the owner of the negative, Mr. Leon Smith. (Exhibited RMC, January 1983). 105