History of the demesne farm at Appledore from contemporary building records

HISTORY OF THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE FROM CON TEMPORARY BUILDING RECORDS MARY ADAMS, B.Sc. THE DEMESNE FARM IN THE EARLY PART OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY Appledore, with the exception of the church and sundry parcels of land - some in the Marsh and some in Schade - was a property of Christ Church Priory at Canterbury until the Dissolution and, as such, was farmed by the monks. Early in the thirteenth century it was common for monks to live on the individual farms, but Prior Eastry, who was appointed in 1285, made great changes in the system. He gave the responsibility of managing the great estates belonging to the priory to four custodians or monk wardens domiciled at Canterbury, who made twice yearly visits to each manor. The day-to-day management of the farms fell on a layman known as the 'serviens' or serjeant, who was responsible, as well, for keeping the farm accounts which were presented to the Treasury by the monk wardens at Michaelmas, following a 'visus' or audit made on their Spring visit to the farm. In the archives of Canterbury Cathedral there is a whole series of manorial accounts which are known collectively as the 'Bedel's Rolls', although they include not only accounts kept by the 'bedels', but also the separate accounts of the serjeants. It is the serjeants' accounts still existing in the Bedel's Rolls which list the building expenses incurred in Appledore between the years 1265 and 1472. Of these, eight refer to the thirteenth century, fifteen to the fifteenth century and the remaining 52 to the fourteenth century, giving an almost continuous record of repairs during the first half of that century. At first sight the accounts seem to be little more than a repetitive list of nails and pegs bought and carpenters and roofers hired to do repairs. However, the serjeant was expected to explain the use made of every item bought, every day's work paid for, and from these details it is possible to obtain a picture of the buildings making up the farm complex. 283 MARY ADAMS BUILDINGS ON THE DEMESNE FARM The first Bede! roll, for 1265 [1], 1 lists roofing repairs to a barn and dairy, plastering of a cow-shed, sheep-shed and the hall, and the cost of bolts for doors of the barn and the mill. In 1293 [6] there is reference to a kitchen and a stable, and in 1297 [7] to an oxen house and a shop. Accounts for the next few years report repairs being made to the Lord Prior's chamber, the serjeant's chamber and an unspecified chamber; to a garderobe; and they differentiate between a great barn, a small barn, a hay barn and a manger barn. A chapel is mentioned in 1351 [42]. In 1298 [8] there is the first account of New Building Work when a thatched, timber pig-pen was constructed at a total cost of 7 s. l 01/4d. However, it is possible to do more than list the buildings. Since, for the period of high farming (1306-24) and the following years of decline until just after the Black Death, an almost complete list of building repairs is recorded in the serjeants' accounts, it is possible, by an analysis of these, to determine the nature of the buildings. For a first example, consider the hay barn. The traditional Kentish hay barn in use up to the present day consists only of a roof supported on upright posts with most sides completely open. Could the fourteenth century hay barn have been of similar construction? All the repairs recorded by the serjeant were listed, and it was at once apparent that they referred only to roofing. There was no mention made of any repair to walls or doors over a period of some 50 years, and the conclusion must be that the fourteenth century barn had neither - and was essentially the same as hay barns existing today. One further detail about the hay barn can be deduced from the thatching reports of 1381 [19] and the following year. The north side of the roof was thatched in 1318, the south side in 1319, showing that the ridge of the barn had an east-west alignment. ROOFING There is no doubt that roofs were the most vulnerable parts of the buildings and n e eded m o s t attention. Ro ofing was done by a 'coopertor' or 'coverer', who was not necessarily a thatcher, although that interpretation is often given to the word. More reliable evidence for thatching, in view of the fact that it was often unnecessary to buy 1 A number in square brackets indicates the Bede! roll number. 284 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE straw, which was produced on the farm, is the purchase of rods and withies. Rods were used to hold the straw in place, and withies to tie the rods to the laths, and these clearly could not be used with tiles or other roofing materials. Roofing could also be carried out by a 'tegulator' or tiler, but since the term 'tile' could refer to the thin medieval bricks or to flooring tiles as well as to roofing tiles,2 this can lead to confusion. In 1332 [30] 50 tiles were bought for the stable, but a later entry in the same account records: 'For roofing stable - 6s. Straw, rods and binders bought for same - 12d.'. In this case the tiles, or bricks, were probably used for the floor. Similarly, when a tiler (tegulator) and his lad were paid 3s. 6d. to tile the barn in 1315 [16], 5½d. was spent on roofing (cooperend) it, which again suggests that it was the floor that was tiled. The great barn was certainly thatched in 1313 [15], and when the hall was re-roofed in 1321 [22] and the stable rebuilt, straw and binders were bought for both buildings showing that both were thatched. It is not until 1342 [34] that it is certain that roof-tiling took place, when a tiler was hired to tile over (super) the barn, and tile-pins were bought to fix the tiles in place. Although a barn was tiled, the hall was still thatched and there are no further references to tiling before the middle of the century, the records making it quite clear that thatching was used for all roof repairs. FARM BUILDINGS Considering the great number of repairs listed in the Bedel rolls, it is a little surprising that there are so few references to mending pig-sties and cattle-sheds and housing for other stock. A major renovation of the thatched sheep-shed and the 'stot' - stable ( 'stots' being plough horses) occurred, and there were half-a-dozen minor repairs, but it seems probable that most repairs to the stock houses were carried out by the farm labourers - the 'famuli' - with whatever materials came to hand while the expensive professional care was reserved for the more prestigious barns and stable. The 1312 [14] roll lists repairs to a small barn, a great barn and a granary, a term which can also mean a barn; and the roll of 1321 [22] mentions mending the doors of two barns. Spasmodic references to corn barns and a vetch barn would seem to indicate usage rather than separate buildings. 2 L.F. Salzman, Building in England down to 1540. 285 MARY ADAMS There are, in fact, only two brief mentions of the small barn, 12 of the great barn and 26 of just 'a' barn, which might mean either. If just repairs specifically referring to the great barn are considered, they give a picture of a building with timber-clad walls, since only timber and nails are used to mend them, and a thatched roof. The repairs of 1340 [33] and 1344 [36] to barn walls involving studs, laths and plaster would then apply to the second barn, which may well have been the one tiled in 1342 [34], for thatching repairs were carried out on the great barn in the following year - something which would appear unnecessary for a newly tiled roof. The remaining maintenance work - underpinning in 1305 [9] with lime, in 1327 [27] with stone brought by boat, and with stone and lime in 1378 [51]; and the mending and renewal of sills in 1353 [43] and 1378 [51] - like repairs to barn doors, might presumably apply to either barn. It appears that a covered cattle yard (manger barn) was in course of construction at the time of the Black Death, 1349 [41] when it was being thatched, but there is no mention of it after this date. The stable appears to have been built to an almost domestic specification with draught-proof lath-and-plaster walls, windows with hinged shutters and a thatched roof. That it was kept in an excellent state of repair is obvious from the frequency of the repairs to it; and following a period of floods and depression, when virtually no repair work was done, it was rebuilt in 1321 [22] with timber ferried up-river from Agney. It had 15 pairs of rafters. The centring of these must be conjectural, but observation of early roofs suggests that it would be in the region of 20 in. If this were so, the length of the building would be some 23 ft. (7 m.). Not a large building, but very fine accommodation, and this was undoubtedly used as the 'guest stable' for the horses of the visiting monk warden and his bailiff and clerk, not to mention the Lord Prior's stallion that was sent to Appledore in 1315 [16] for salt water treatment, (the hospitality offered to the attendant grooms costing l0d., as compared with the 46s. ld. which it cost to entertain the Prior himself in 1308 [11].) DOMESTIC BUILDINGS In view of the numerous occasions on which repairs were made to walls of barns and stables and shops, it was rather surprising to find that, apart from 'boards bought to mend the gables of the hall at Appledore' in 1279 [2] and periodic mending of the wooden window shutters, the repairs to the hall were entirely concerned with roofing. Since, unlike the hay barn and the covered yard, the hall must have 286 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE been equipped with walls, the conclusion must be that they were built of stone. In fact, there is no good reason to dispute the probability of this, for stone could easily be transported up river to Appledore, and it has already been seen that stone was brought by boat for underpinning the barn in 1327. In 1321 [22] fifty pairs of 'poles' or rafters were bought to re-roof the hall, which, based on a 20-in. centring, would make the length of the hall about 81 ft. [27 m.]. These rafters cost Id. a pair and were obviously all alike, so that the roof was of the uniform scantling form common in the south-east of England. Two new 'sschourhodis' over the hall were made; the purpose of these is conjectural, but they may have been secondary rafters or scissor braces, which were in use at this time. It is interesting to see that the hall contained a hand-washing facility, for in 1324 [24] timber was purchased to make a wooden base for the 'lotorri' or lavatory; and at the same time the carpenter made a 'fixed plank' in the hall. This was probably a seating bench fixed to the dais screen at the upper end of the hall. That there was a pantry is shown by the fact that the carpenter also mended the pantry wall, which was then plastered. (It seems likely that this timber wall was the screen between the hall and the services area, this being the common arrangement at this time.) Four Bedel rolls contain details of repairs to garderobes. In fact, there were two of them at least, for the 1322 [23] account reads: 'one roofer and his lad for roofing over the eastern bay of the hall and the drain of the garderobe there, the eastern bay of the great barn and the garderobe there' - a situation which seems decidedly odd for such a facility! It is clear that the hall was a long, gabled building with a thatched roof, but there is little evidence to show whether it was a ground floor or a first .floor hall, the latter being rather more likely in a stone hall built prior to 1265. Certainly, the garderobe indicates an upper storey, but it probably communicated with one of the chambers. The rolls refer to a room called just 'the' chamber, - which might refer to a separate room or to one of the other chambers named: the serjeant's chamber or the prior's chamber. It would appear, from the hospitality records, that Prior Eastry made several visits to Appledore, the first in 1286 [5] just after he bcame prior, and again in 1298 [8] and 1308 [11]. In 1305 [9], when the garderobe was mended, the walls of the prior's chamber were 'repaired' and plastered, and in 1324 [24] its thatch received attention. The serjeant's chamber, which also had its thatch restored in 1324 [24], had its walls mended by a carpenter and was daubed in 1337 [32], while the walls of 'the' chamber were studded, with pegs and nails, and plastered in 1340 [33]. Of course, these 287 MARY ADAMS timber-framed walls could have been interior screen walls as in the case of the pantry, but the specific reference to the roofs of the prior's chamber and the serjeant's chamber would seem to indicate that they covered individual buildings, and were not just screened off portions of the hall. The prior's chamber, as guest-room for eminent visitors, must have been the upper room of a prestigious building and as such was probably stone-built. This theory is supported by the fact that there is no mention of timber repairs to this chamber. The mysterious garderobe in the barn suggests that there was a chamber there - not a unique arrangement, since a chamber exists in the porch of the fourteenth century barn in Bredon. A chamber could be accommodated in a gatehouse, but there is little evidence for the existence of such a building here although there was certainly a great gate. The Bedel Roll of 1342 [35] mentions this gate, which was renovated this year with new ledges, boards and hinges, having previously been mended in 1327 [27]. It seems to have been protected by a thatched roof. A building of obvious importance was the kitchen, but few repairs to it are mentioned. New hinges were bought for the shutters in 1336 [32] and in 1340 [33] its walls were 'studded' by a carpenter and plastered, showing that this was of lath-and-plaster construction. There are no reports of thatching or roofing repairs - which might indicate a tiled roof. Doors, in particular the barn doors, were often in need of mending and of new locks, and were supplied with hook and pin hinges, as were the 'fenester' or wooden window shutters. The only remaining building for household use was the chapel, and no repairs to this are reported until the roofing in 1350 [42]. It is clear that there was a very large array of fine buildings making up the demesne farm at this time: the great stone hall with its chambers, kitchen and chapel; there were the splendid barns and stable; and as well as these there was undoubtedly a sprawl of cattle sheds behind the grand hous.e. It must have seemed a dwelling o f awe inspiring magnificence to the local townsfolk, in fact - a regular 'castle'. WINDMILL These were buildings of such importance that repairs to them are usually recorded under separate headings in the sergeant's accounts. However, the first reference to the mill at Appledore occurs in the list of general building repairs in the first Bede! roll, and thus shows that the mill was in existence by 1265. 288 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE There are no further references to it until 1307 [10] when oil and soap to grease the mill, 25 ells of canvas to mend the sails, a rope 'to hold the mill' and a bolt for the door were bought. Work was also done on the mill-stone, the total cost of these affairs being 10s. 2½d. In 1318 an item: 'mending the shop - 4d.' suggests that a business outlet of some kind was attached to the mill. Up to 1323 oil and soap were bought regularly at the serjeant's expense; in 1324 and 1325, years of great floods, no repairs to the mill are recorded, and after that there are no records of the purchase of soap and oil. Since they must still have been needed for the running of the mill, the miller presumably had to bear this expense himself. Repairs to the body of the mill indicate that the timber frame and roof were covered with 'schotbord' or battens held in place by nails - for only nails were commonly bought to mend the roof and walls. The 1368 roll [47] mentions 'schotbord' bought for mending the 'wat wogh' or wattle wall of the mill. The working parts of the mill listed for repair are the 'spyndel' and the 'mattok' or bill for which iron was needed; the 'trand-stavas' or cross-beams; the cogs and cog-wheel; the 'trendella' or trundle-wheel; a lantern wheel with cogs and a ' drofbeam'. The spindle was lengthened on several occasions - in 1342, 1349 and 1365 [34, 41, 45]. The sail-yards, the wooden frames carrying the canvas sails, were particularly vulnerable. One was mended in 1309 [12], and a new one bought in 1312 [14] for 4s. 7d. The cost of transporting it by water from Newenden and fitting it into the mill with the three remaining yards brought the total amount up to 8s. 5d. The next new sail yard was needed in 1347 [39] and was brought by boat from Agney and set in place for just 3s. 8d.; and despite the plague, another one was inserted in the mill in 1348 [ 40] It was 1351 [42] before another sail-yard was replaced, but there is no mention of bringing it up-river. Instead, 5d. was paid for 'sawing sails', so it looks as if this sail-yard might have been a home-made job. There is little to indicate whether or not the mill was one of the buildings, which had to be rebuilt as a result of the French raid of 1380 or the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, but the general building repairs for 1383 [55] include the following items: 'Food and drink given to the men helping to lift and carry the mill posts and other timber - in all for them - 2s. 2d.'; and also: 'Digging round the post of the mill - 4s. 2d.', entries which certainly seem to point to a rebuilding of the mill with its earth-fast post at this time. The 'farming' or leasing account for 1384 to 1385 [56] states: 'And 289 MARY ADAMS 30s. from the leasing of the wind-mill from Christmas until the feast of John the Baptist and no more because it stood empty this year'. It is in the same year that there is an account of 'New Work' on the mill, when the internal machinery of the mill was extensively renovated and renewed. The spindle and small spindle were mended and re-used, but a 'sheaf' of new cogs was bought from the miller at Romney. Two new trundle wheels and new wooden 'circles' for the mill-stones were made, and new mill-stones, together with plaster of Paris for them, were purchased. For one of these, the miller was taken to Folkestone for three days to choose the stone, which was then shipped back to Appledore by sea. The stone cost 41s. 8d., transport by boat 10s. 2d., the miller's journeying expenses were 18d., while food for the labourers who moved the stone cost 8d., a total sum of £2 14s. A new mill-stone was an expensive item. Only one new stone was, apparently, purchased. However, the first item in this account states: 'In the expenses of the carter in carrying a mill stone from Canterbury - 12d.', which suggests that an unwanted stone from a Canterbury mill provided the second mill-stone, an example of fourteenth-century economy. As well as this major renovation of the mill there was, it is interesting to see, a large new thatched pig-pen built on the site. It cost l ls. 9d. After this there is only one more reference to the mill in the fourteenth-century Bedel rolls, when, in 1389 [57] 23s. 9d. was spent on 'diverse' costs of the mill buildings. By the beginning of the fifteenth century the 'Manor Farm' was leased out, together with the land, tenements, and the mill, which is referred to as 'Home's mill' in 1472 [75]. It was in 1480 [MA 6-80] that the Manor, acquired a new mill. The account reads: 'Payment to John Stylle, mill-wright, for working and making a new wind-mill at Appledore with timber bought for it, and all materials and necessaries bought for the said mill as can be seen on the particulars beyond this account. £4 3s. 5d.' (Unfortunately those particulars are not to be found.) It also cost the farmer 5d. to hire a boat 'called a lighter' to carry the mill-stone from an unspecified source; and 2s. to meet the expenses of a man and a labourer who rode horse-back to Canterbury on one occasion to fetch iron for the mill. Since the priory accepted responsibility for the repair of leased buildings, an entry for 1484 [MA 6] which states that 'iron-work' was carried out on the 'antique molendium', suggests that at this date Home's mill was on lease to the Horne family. However, this is the last certain reference to the old mill, although the machinery of one or the other mill continued to need repair, year after year. 290 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE THE DEMESNE FARM AF TER THE BLACK DEATH The Bedel Rolls for the latter part of the fourteenth century do not form an almost continuous account of repairs but, instead, record the more significant building works of this period and thus cast a light on the development of Appledore during these years. That this must have been dependent in part on the Black Death is shown by the 'schoppe' records. Appledore had for a long time been a port of some importance, and the 'town' housed a number of shops. These were the property of the priory, and the serjeant recorded both the expense of repairs and the income which he received from them. In 1279 [2] this amounted to 10s. 4d. from four 'schopp' with 'tabula' - planks, presumably counters - and land; 20d. from the shop 'next to the church'; and 12d. from four 'schamell' or stalls. By 1297 [7] there were seven shops and five stalls. By 1321 [22] the income from the shops had crept up to 18s. per annum and was to remain at this level until 1347 [38]. However, the revenue from the stalls, which stayed at 18d. a year between 1303 [9] until 1335 [31], then dropped to 8d. and 'no more because of the derelict building behind the said stalls'. It would seem that no effort was made to improve the building because the proceeds from the stalls remained at 8d. until 1347. The Bedel roll for 1347 to 1348 [40] contains three 'visus', but none mention income from shop or stall. In the next account, for 1349 [ 41] there is this statement: 'Et de IX solidis receptis de shoppis locatis in villa + non plus quare omnes tenentes mortum sunt quibus solebant locari.' (Nine shillings received from the shops in the town and no more because all the holders who used to be there are dead.) A statement that shows clearly how badly Appledore was affected by the Black Death. No more income from shops a n d stalls is recorded, b u t a t Michaelmas 1351 [42] the town shop was leased out by Lord William of Thanet, a former monk warden, to a Richard Rudyan for 16s. a year. (He retained the lease until 1380 [54] when, in a final reference to the shop, he held it on a forty year lease at 15s. per annum.) In this year (1350-1351) ten days thatching of hall, barn and chapel, mentioned for the first time, was the only repair work done. It was 1353 [43] when more comprehensive maintenance work was undertaken. By Michaelmas all the important buildings had received attention, and the kitchen had been extensively renovated, re-roofed with a thousand tiles bought for the job. The degree of neglect following the Black Death is suggested by the fact that holes in the walls of the hall, the kitchen and the barn had all to be plastered. After this there are no more details of repairs to the farm buildings for over ten years. 291 MARY ADAMS However, in 1365 (45] the serjeant received 12s. from renting out a piece of land called Blakebourneland to a W illiam Symon who, together with a Roger Andrew, had been leasing a piece of land called Clerksland (next to Scharle) for three years on a ten year term at 13s. 4d. per annum. In this, the priory was following a practice which it had begun around 1335 to help with the taxation imposed to meet the demands of the Hundred Year's War. It was around 1367 (47] that a house in Great Chart was bought for 40s., taken down, carried to Appledore and re-erected to form a new kitchen. In this case the work involved is written down in great detail. A mason underpinned it with stone and lime, sundry new sills and beams were made, studs and daubing laths were bought for the walls which were then plastered and lime-washed. The roof was tiled; 10,000 tiles costing 40s. and 500 costing 2s. 6d. were bought; and for the fireback and hearth, 800 Flanders tiles costing 3s. 4d. The total cost of this princely kitchen was £9 3s. 5d., and this included 20d. worth of food and drink given to the men who helped to raise the frame, and the 16s. fee of the carpenter. This suggests that the demesne farm now possessed two kitchens, for the one so carefully restored in 1353 must surely have been still in use. After this, for a period of ten years, only two Bede! rolls survive and record no repairs of any significance. However, more leasing of land occurs; in 1374, a plot of ground 'under' the manor garden and a 'croft' next to the church were let; and more importantly, in 1375 the pasture land of Scharle was rented out on a twelve-year term for the large sum of £6 per annum. Since Dover Priory also owned a considerable quantity of land in Appledore, with the relinquishing of the large and fertile Scharle pasturage the priory must have been left with little farming land apart from the reclaimed land in the Marsh. It is not surprising, then, that between 1376 and 1377 (50] major changes begin to appear in the manor. The first of these important developments took place when a barn in Agney was taken down and rebuilt at Appledore. The carpenter was paid 63s. 4d. for his work; the food and drink given to the men for raising the frame cost 3s. 4d., and 70 new rafters were bought for it, but unfortunately the remainder of this roll is missing. In 1378 (51] another building was moved - the chapel. Unlike the house and barn, the chapel was not taken down and rebuilt, but was dragged from one place to another: 'In I carpenter conductum pro dicta capella trahendum ab uno loco in alium - 26s. 8d.'. This fee included mending the granary and making a new fence round the chapel, which was underpinned with stone and lime. Its walls were plastered and lime-washed, and 1,000 tiles were bought for the roof. This was obviously a small timber building, for a stone building could 292 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE not have been 'dragged' without collapsing, and of extremely fine, robust construction, explaining why, unlike the barn, no repairs to its walls had been reported. It seems extremely unlikely that it was moved a great distance! The following y ear, 1379 [53], saw the building of a new chamber and granary, the carpenter being paid £7 13s. 4d. for his work. The timber for this was felled and carried from 'Bishopsden' and the building was tiled. 7,000 tiles were bought at a cost of 5s. per 1,000; 5,000 at 4s. per 1,000; and corner tiles, ridge tiles and tiles for a gutter together cost 12s. It would seem, then, that this was built with a hipped roof; and since the new chamber and granary were obviously under one roof, it is interesting to note that the lower room is referred to as a granary, (and in the following year as 'the barn under the chamber') thus giving a contemporary name - and therefore the intended use - for this apartment. The total cost of construction was £14 7s. 4d. As soon as the chamber was finished work began on a new hall. Some of the timber for this came from the wood at Ebony and was carried to Appledore by water, and some came from 'Walkherst'. The carpenter was paid ten marks (a mark being 13s. 4d.) of which the Sergeant had paid only half - 66s. 8d. - by Michaelmas 1380 [54]. Again the tiles bought - 10,000 at 5s. per 1,000, with ridge and corner tiles costing 10s., suggest that this hall had a hipped roof. A new kitchen was also built at the same time. The cost of the kitchen was £2 12s. 4d., and of the hall, £13 9s. 3d., a surprisingly small sum when compared with the cost of the smaller chamber and granary. However, in the Treasurer's Accounts for the priory at Canterbury, in the expenses for 1380, is recorded the following statement: '7,000 laths bought for the hall at Appledore - 31s. 8d.' [MA 2], showing that a subsidy was given by the priory to help with the cost of this building. By Michaelmas 1380 [51] money had been paid for constructing the barn, the chamber and the kitchen and for raising the hall, but the carpenter had not received his full fee, and no mention had been made of doors and windows for the hall. In fact, the doors and windows of the chamber were only paid for in 1380, their cost being listed under 'building repairs', and so it seems likely that they were still to be constructed for the hall when the building account was written out in 1380. If this was indeed the case, it means that the hall was still incomplete when the French came sailing up the Rother - and sacked the town. The sacking of Appledore by the French in 1380 must have been catastrophic. The extent of the damage to the town can be estimated from the Priory treasurer's account of 1381 to 1382 [MA 2]: 'Item. The barn and other buildings rebuilt at Appledore with wages of carpenter, 293 MARY ADAMS cost of tiles and carriage expenses this year - £55 14s. lld.' - a very large sum indeed. As well as the money provided by the priory for rebuilding the allimportant barn and various other buildings not mentioned, the serjeant's account of 1382 to 1383 [55] also lists a great number of minor repairs, as well as a quite separate list of repairs to the market stalls. The accounts for 1380 to 1382 are, unfortunately, missing. It is doubtful if the new hall had been completed before the French raid, nor can it be known if the new chamber and hall were destroyed in the raid. If they were, however, by 1382 to 1383 [55] they had been rebuilt, for their walls were ready for plastering and 'pargeting' by this time. From this can be learnt the fact that the great chamber was entered through an 'oriole' or upstairs porchway,3 the hall through a porch, and there was a small chamber as well, presumably in the hall. A new pig-pen was built, and extensive damage to the cheesemaker's house was repaired, its roof being thatched with rushes - the only occasion on which their use is reported. They made an expensive roof, for they cost 2s. 6d., while the cost of scything them was 5s. 10d. A dove-cote on the Mill-land needed re-roofing; and a cow-shed and the 'domus situla' (the 'bucket' building, so possibly the well house?) needed repairs. The restoration of the market stalls is listed separately, the main expense being the salary of the carpenters who, together, made 15 new stalls, carried them to the market place and also mended all the stalls there. The serjeant paid out a total sum of £8 6s. 2d., a large sum, although small compared with that given by the Treasury. There can be no doubt that Appledore town was virtually destroyed by the French raid. In 1385 [56], by which time the rebuilding of the town was well advanced, fresh damage was done by strong winds and gales that took the roofs off various buildings so that the tiler and his lad were employed for seven and a half days to re-tile them. The last of the fourteenth-century Bede! rolls is for 1389, and merely records repairs to the 'domus pro situla' and the mill buildings, and the replacing of eight ridge tiles on the hall roof. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY By the fifteenth century demesne farming had come to an end. The land and the tenements on it were leased out, and the manor accounts were 3 Margaret Wood, The English Mediaeval House. 294 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE prepared by the 'bedel' and the 'firmarius' or farmer, who was also the 'superintendent of the walls and manor barn'. (John Lang and Nicholas Philip seem to have shared these jobs rather haphazardly between 1407 [60] and 1421 [66].) The walls at Appledore were the all-important sea defences, but the manor barn included other buildings on the Court Lodge Farm, and those such as the windmill for which the Priory still kept the responsibility. The building accounts for this century are more spasmodic so that deductions become invalid, and the great majority of entries now give no details of the building to which they refer. Thus there is no indication of why 14 cart-loads of stone, and 14 cart-loads of timber were purchased for the Manor in 1415 [65]. The timber came from Walkherst and cost 10d. a load and lld. extra for carriage. The stone cost lOd. a load, including carriage, but its source is not revealed. It does not appear to have been transported by boat, for this was usually stated, so seems to have come from a local supply although there was no quarry in the neighbourhood. Since the farmer was 'keeper of the barn', it is not surprising that tiling the barn is the most common repair recorded. However, the purchase of 5,500 tiles plus corner tiles and gutter-tiles, and 50 days spent in tiling [63 and 64], seems excessive for just repair work and may well refer to the one of the two new barns commissioned by Prior Chillenden (1391-1411) at this time.4 Similarly, when in 1407 [60], 16,000 tiles costing 48s. 4d. were bought for the stable together with 16s.-worth of straw for thatching it, it seems likely that a new stable was built. In view of this very large number of 'tegulae', it appears that this may be the first time that a building was constructed of brick. The introduction of the names of vendors is a new development in these accounts: in 1428 [67] John Myles was selling tiles and he was still doing so in 1433 [68}; in 1439 [69} tiles were bought from Richard Myles; and in 1471 [75] the business had passed to a Thomas Myles. It was in this year, (1471), that a bread oven was made 'infra' below, the kitchen; and the Hall, kitchen and cheese house were daubed. The farmer's accounts after this date are bound in a series of volumes entitled: Miscellaneous Accounts. In 1480 [MA 6 - 80] there are two significant items. The first records the hospitality given to four carpenters for three weeks while they were taking down a barn. The second is the account of the building of the new windmill. (It may 4 Lit. Cant. Iii, in the Canterbury Cathedral Archives. 295 MARY ADAMS be that the apparently rather small sum paid to John Stylle is accounted for by the fact that use was made of the timber from this barn.) In 1483 [MA 6- 131] 20d. was spent on 'pavyng stone and bryk' for the bread oven in the cellar, and 4s. 8d. was paid to a 'man' for making this oven and for daubing the hall and kitchen. The buildings for which repairs are listed include the cattle-shed, market stalls, pig-sty and cheese house, but frequently only 'dom' - buildings are mentioned. Repairs to these, together with mill repairs and mending of bridges and sea defences, carry on well into the sixteenth century until, with the Dissolution of the monasteries, Appledore ceased to be a possession of Christ Church Priory. THE HISTORY IN RELATION TO APPLEDORE TODAY Court Lodge Farm, which has been the accepted site of the Appledore manor for the last six hundred years, is clearly the place where the new barn, chamber and hall were erected j u s t prior to 1 380. This establishment of the demesne farm on a new site is not unique, for a similar change took place at Brook5 which was also a possession of Christ Church Priory, at about the same time. Today, apart from the mound on which John Stylle's windmill once stood, the only medieval building remaining is a fine, aisled barn, much renovated over the years. It is quite likely that this is the barn which was rebuilt by the priory following the French raid. Its situation in the curtilage of the new manor house; the copious employment of re-used timber in its structure, timber which must have been readily available from the ruins of the town and which would have greatly expedited the rebuilding; and the size of the barn, which is compatible with the replacement of a barn containing seventy rafters; all these are facts that contribute to such an assumption. Dr Jane Wade, Head of Vernacular Studies in the Department of Architecture at Canterbury School of Art, commented on the good carpentry, and was able to accept a late fourteenth century date for the building of this more typically fifteenth-century barn. The site of the earlier demesne farm must, of course, be a matter of conjecture, but there seems little doubt that it existed on the fine medieval site now occupied by Home's Place and Gusborne Farm. The site of the old mill, of which the base still stands on high ground just south of Home's Place, is strong evidence for this. s Jane Wade, Traditional Kent Buildings no. 5. 296 THE DEMESNE FARM AT APPLEDORE Evidence of a different sort is provided by a letter written in 1780 by a Mr Jefferson, who was engaged in field-work for Edward Hasted. He writes, regarding Home's Place: 'The extent of the old Building, both from the appearance of the Ground and the Testimony of the present Occupier, who tells me that large stones have frequently been dug up on all sides of the of the present dwelling, has undoubtedly been very considerable. '6 This observation bears out the premise that a large stone hall previously existed on the site. The 'considerable extent' of the dwelling, possibly owing more in the first place to the need to provide guest accommodation for visitors using the port than to the need of the farm, made its maintenance after the Black Death nearly impossible. The 'holes in the walls' that needed mending in 1353 bear witness to this. With this in mind, it is possible to postulate the events of the final years of the farm on this site. This is what appears to have happened initially: the fine house was leased to William Horne, who took up residence at Michaelmas 1366. Unfortunately, the Treasury accounts, that would have made this plain, are missing. There are no recoi;ds of the Hornes leasing land from Christ Church Priory, but by 1504 they were renting a large acreage of land 'in socage - service unknown' from Dover Priory.7 It seems probable, then, that the 1522 [MA 13] reference to land in Appledore 'formerly in the manor of Gervase Horne' alludes to land belonging to Dover Priory. Unfortunately, there is no indication at present of the date on which they became possessed of this land. Since the farming of the demesne lands continued, the priory must have retained the farm buildings, but with no cooking facilities and little or no housing for 'famuli' or the visiting monk warden. This was remedied as speedily as possible by the erection of the house bought from Great Chart to form a kitchen, and, in view of its size, probably living quarters as well. The 1368 account shows that this was completed somewhere between Michaelmas 1367 and 1368. It could be this temporary lack of accommodation that explains the rather strange licence granted to William Horne in 1366, which allowed just him to hear Mass in the Chapel until November 1367: 'Item xj Kai. Decembris anno Domini ut supra concessa fuit licencia celebrare divina in sua presencia in oratorio mansi sui infra parochiam de Apoldre situati per unum annum duratura. 8 May be this licence 6 From a photocopy of this letter lent to me by the late Sir John Winnifrith. 7 C.R. Haines: Dover Priory. 8 From Archbishop Langham's Register in Lambeth Palace Library. 297 MARY ADAMS indicates that William Horne offered hospitality to the monk warden during that year. Certainly, by the time the new 'kitchen' was in use the priory had resumed its sole use of the chapel, and William Horne was, presumably, attending mass at the parish church. (The licensing of chapels was largely intended to ensure that wealthy parishioners attended mass at the parish church, where their financial contributions to the punitive taxes on the churches were essential.) After this the serjeant and his labourers continued to run the demesne farm for a number of y ears, while first Clerksland (possibly now Oaksland), then Blakebourneland (probably the Blacklands in the Dowells) and finally Scharle (Sherley) were leased out, and the decision was made to transfer the management of the Priory land to a new Court Lodge on the site close to the town and parish church. It may be that the removal of the chapel from a situation, for which the use was to become purely secular, marks the final evacuation of the old farm in 1378. When this took place, the building of the new Court Lodge was under way but by no means complete, nor was it complete when the French sacked the town in 1380, so the exact date on which the move took place must remain uncertain. The chapel probably became the 'Chapel of St James on the Heath' mentioned in Wills of 1470.9 From the name 'Gusborne Farm', it appears that the forebears of that 'Richard Gosbonie near Hornes Mill' who was selling 'ffriths' in 1472 [75] took over the farm when the priory finally vacated it and moved the demesne farm to the new site at Court Lodge. The old hall and its attendant chambers continued to be occupied by William Horne until the time of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The attacks made on 'Home's Place', on the 10th and the 17th June, are well documented10 and relate the 'knocking down' of William Home's houses on June 17th, an event which probably led to the final loss of the great stone hall of Appledore. 9 Sir John Winifrith: History of Appledore. 10 Arch. Cant., iii (1860), and Sir John Winnfrith, op. cit. 298