Excavations at the Site of West Court Manor House, Chalk

EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK PETER MOORE with contributions from K. Sabel, F. M. Meddens and A. Gollop The recent housing development at the site of the former West Court manor house, Chalk (Gravesend), led to an archaeological watching brief by Pre-Construct Archaeology. This was undertaken in June- July 1997 and uncovered a sequence of archaeological deposits and structures relating to the manor house and its outbuildings. The site lies on the north facing slope of a chalk outcrop overlooking the lower Westcourt Marshes, Great Clane Lane Marshes and the River Thames (Fig. 1). The original manor of Chalk was divided in the 1070s into the manor of West Chalk, or West Court, and the manor of East Chalk, with a manor house built on each for the chief tenant. West Court manor was owned by the De Cobham family from 1238 to 1362 and from c. 1644 to 1925, but was always tenanted. The manorial house and farm is believed to have been located at the site of this investigation since at least the twelfth century.' Nothing is known of the manorial buildings before the eighteenth century, but in 1739 a new manor house was constructed.2 It subsequently had an extension built at its eastern end and large wooden bays added to its south-facing facade.3 Work was completed by 1874 when a plan of the site showed the main house on the south-eastern boundary of a substantial farm complex.4 The house had three bays facing south into gardens and orchards with outbuildings to the northwest, and a large pond to the north. The site access road came north from the Lower Higham Road and was shown in 1874 as extending to a courtyard around the eastern and northern sides of the house, enclosed by a wall on the northern side. By 1975 this road had cut through this wall and continued to the northern limit of the farm complex. This overall site plan remained relatively unchanged from the nineteenth century through to the 1970s, although the nature of 353 PETER MOORE 563000/174000 S ^ y Canal Great Clane Lane Marshes Westcouri Marshes Gravesend Chalk 568000/172000 + Area 1 Trench 1 Trench 2 Wall Ditch Drain Conjecture Limit of excavation Fig. 1. Location of site; trench locations, the stable block in Trench 1 and features recorded in Area 1. (NGR TQ 6675 7335) 354 EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK some of the outbuilding structures had changed.5 Photographs show the outbuildings in the north-west of the farm to have included an oasthouse, a granary, barns and hop-drying floors over cart sheds. The house was occupied until 1984 after which it fell into disrepair, was vandalised, suffered two fires and was finally demolished in 1991.6 The parish of Chalk was joined to the Borough of Gravesend7 in 1935 since when the area has been steadily redeveloped from the west. By the time of this archaeological investigation the development site consisted of an area covering only the site of the demolished manor house and an east-west aligned stable block situated just to the north-west of the house. THE ARCHAEOLOGY Because the investigation necessarily followed the construction programme the site was divided into three areas of archaeological activity (Fig. 1). The watching brief commenced in Area 1 in the north-east of the site recording features revealed by the digging of foundation trenches for the new houses. It was noticed that in two further areas of proposed house foundations brick and chalk structures survived at ground level. Further investigations showed that in Trench 1, to the north-west, the east-west aligned stable block and earlier buildings survived, while a substantial portion of the manor house and its cellars lay to the south-east, in Trench 2. The archaeological team was increased and limited excavation undertaken on both these areas within the proposed construction footprint. A strip along the south side of the site was also investigated, but no archaeological remains were identified, and it was noted that the natural chalk was covered by as little as 0.15m of modern made ground. It is therefore likely that some form of erosion, or more likely truncation, had removed any earlier archaeology. Site recording involved the preparation of pro forma context sheets, plans and sections, as well as a photographic record. Very few finds were recovered, suggesting that rubbish was generally disposed of away from the study site. This made the secure dating of non-brick structures problematic. Details, including dating estimates, of the brick material found are given in Appendix 1. AREA 1 The excavation of foundation trenches to the north of the manor house re- 355 PETER MOORE vealed the presence of several archaeological features in section (Fig. 1). A large steeply-sided ditch with a concave base [8] was recorded over a length of 6m on a north-south alignment, with a width of 3.1m. While the top of its cut was found at 3.51m OD to the south and 3.08m OD at its northern end, its base only varied between 2.81m and 2.82m OD. Its fill was a greyish brown sandy clay with frequent chalk flecks and a single sherd of pottery was recovered, of Sandy Shelly Ware (EMSS) dating to between 1000-1150. This ditch was cut by a later pit or posthole [9] which was 0.4m in diameter and 0.58m deep. A narrower steeply-sided ditch [1] was recorded south of ditch [8] over a length of 9m. It was up to 0.86m wide and over 0.6m deep and was backfilled with a yellowish brown sandy clay from which no finds were recovered. As it was orientated at a slight angle to ditch [8] with the space between them narrowing to a potential intersection south of the site of the manor house it is unlikely that they were contemporary. In the same area two large pits where found, sub-circular in shape. Pit [2] was a shallow cut, over 5.1m in diameter, up to 0.41m deep and was found to cut ditch [1]. Pit [3] was 4.2m in diameter and up to 0.62m deep. It contained a pelvic bone from a rabbit or hare but no dating material was recovered from either pit, nor was the stratigraphic relationship between them apparent. Three brick structures were recorded in this area; wall [6] and soakaways [5] and [10]. The wall, on a northwest-southeast alignment, was 0.42m wide and survived to a height of 0.26m. It was traced for 5m but was not seen to the east so it may have been truncated by pits [2] and [3]. It almost certainly represents the boundary wall between the courtyard area north of the manor house and the area of outbuildings to the north. A small cut [7] was seen beneath this wall in one foundation construction trench. A large soakaway [5] was found south of the line of wall [6] cutting ditch [1]. It was built with a double brick mortarless construction 0.2m wide with an external diameter of 2.4m and had a concrete manhole cover. It was observed to a depth of 2.4m and at 2.0m below ground level it cut natural chalk. The second soakaway [10] was also a double brick mortarless construction but was only 1.8m in diameter. Even with the lack of datable artefacts and the lack of stratigraphical relationships between most of the features in this area, some relative dating is possible. Wall [7], and almost certainly soakaways [5] and [10], are probably eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century in date and fall within the south-eastern domestic quadrant of the manor complex. Ditch [I] is earlier than soakaway [5] and line of ditch [8] does not respect the manor house to the south and is therefore likely to have been backfilled prior to the 1739 construction date of the building. While the single sherd of Sandy Shelly Ware cannot conclusively date the ditch to its eleventh/twelfth century period it shows some activity on the site contemporary with that revealed by the documentary evidence for the creation of West Court manor and the building of a manor house. TRENCH 1 In the north-west corner of the site a 11.5m length of outbuilding was un- 356 EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK covered which, because of its long narrow plan and multiple internal divisions, 8 has been identified as a stable block (Fig. 1). Much of the floor had a concrete surface but in places it still consisted of bricks (Fig. 2). An entrance on the north side had a concrete doorstep with mortises for jambs and led out to a stone cobbled path and concrete yard surface. Apart from a few re-used examples, all the bricks used in this block were machine made, frogged and post-dated 1850. Two sondages excavated through this stable block revealed the presence of two backfilled cellars from an earlier building, possibly constructed in three phases. The western cellar (see Fig. 3A) consisted of the natural chalk (which at the time of excavation was exposed at ground level on the south side of this trench) having a vertical face cut [118] into it on an east-west alignment, and a dressed chalk block wall [116], up to 0.68m wide and set in a yellow/cream mortar with flint inclusions, built up against it. This chalk wail, of which a 0.9m long length was exposed, butted up against the eastern return of a substantial flint-built wall [117], which was up to 0.6m wide and extended north before again turning eastward forming the cellar's northern wall. Unless there was a structural reason for the building of two completely different contemporary walls it is likely that two phases of cellar construction/ rebuilding are represented. A small area of the cellar's floor was exposed and was shown to be of natural chalk. The top of the chalk wall was preserved at 4.49m OD while the floor was at a level of 3.05m OD, and its internal dimensions were 4.22m north-south by c. 5m east-west. No ceramic building materials were incorporated within either wall [116] or wall [117]. To the east in the second sondage three walls were found and probably represent the construction of a later cellar extension (Fig. 3B). Wall [125] lay on the same east-west alignment as wall [116] to the west, wall [124] butted up against it on a north-south alignment with its northern end forming one side of a doorway, with wall [123] forming the other side. These walls differed from those to the west in that they incorporated amounts of ceramic building material. Wall [123] was mostly a chalk rubble wall whose eastern face may have collapsed judging by its rough eastern face and wider base. However, its southern end, forming the northern doorway jamb, was brick and tile faced (Plate I). Wall [124] consisted of a mixture of chalk blocks and brick, abutting wall [125] which was well faced with courses of dressed chalk, tile and brick, but was only 0.1 lm thick where it stood 0.98m above its base. Walls [125], [124] the south end of [123], the doorway between [123] and [124], together with flint wall [117], were all rendered with mortar. In addition the eastern natural chalk floor was cut to a level 0.17m above the chalk cut western floor and it seems that a sand bedding layer [121] and brick floor layer [120] were laid at this time to make up the floor height difference. The bricks used in the eastern cellar were dull orange, had uneven bases and sunken top margins, while the ones used on the floor of the western cellar were similar, though wider. They can be roughly dated to a period between the late fifteenth and the end of the seventeenth century, though their use in basement walls is likely to place them after the mid-sixteenth century, as 357 N Drain Stable Floor 4.38m ODpmflg if . f—i—r-^p-r g g g v x— Floor Make-up 114 • Flint wall L_l Chalk floor 0 Stable Wall ^ 1 2 2 ^ 1 1 4.38m OD Natural Chalk 2M Fig. 2. Section across the western end of Trench 1, showing the stable block over the Medieval cellar. EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK Section Natural N II • • / / > ••/•' / \—7 B 123 / Natural Key • Flint wall E Chalk wall El Chalk floor Brick floor Brick and chalk wall 5M — Limit of excavation Conjecture Fig- 3. Trench 1. (A) Walls and floor of Medieval cellar. (B) Walls and floor of both Medieval cellar to the left and the later cellar to the right dated to between the mid-16th and late 17th centuries. 0 359 PETER MOORE PLATE I K'J '•- Trench 1. Westward view of the chalk floor and backfilled entrance from the mid-16th to late 17th-century cellar into the Medieval cellar (foreground), the southern end of wall [123] on the right, wall [124] in the centre left and wall [125] on the left. prior to this brick would have been used relatively sparingly, reserved for such features as chimney stacks and dressings. The dressed chalk used in the construction of the cellar walls is likely to originate from the North Downs area to the south , as the local chalk is likely to be too porous.9 The southern chalk wall in the western basement is likely to pre-date the sixteenth/ seventeenth-century eastern cellar, while the western cellar flint walls are likely to represent an older phase of construction, probably Medieval. At a later date the structure was demolished down to ground level, and the cellar rapidly backfilled with two deposits of demolition material, [114] and [115], containing a high proportion of broken tile and bricks (Fig. 2), but no chalk blocks or large flints, suggesting that the building had been built of brick and tile and probably wood. Finds from the backfill consisted of fragments from a large brown glazed Pancheon-shaped vessel, identified as Post-Medieval Redware with a date range of 1700-1800, two wine bottle bases, a clay tobacco pipe stem and a pipe bowl dated to between 1730 and 1780. This suggests a mid eighteenth-century demolition date for this building, i.e. contemporary with, or shortly after, the construction of the later manor house in 1739. 360 EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK TRENCH 2 The remains of the Manor House were found to be cut into the natural chalk on the south side and consisted of two main phases of construction (Fig. 4). The first, dating to the eighteenth century, consisted of a cellar and foundations of a room to the north. The second, dating to the nineteenth century, consisted of an extension to the eastern end of the building, with a cellar beneath, the construction of a small barrel-vaulted cellar and the construction of two large bay windows on the building's southern facade. These cellars were found to be cut into the natural chalk on the south side but cut into an earlier layer [224] on the north side which contained one pottery sherd of Mill Green ware, with a date range of 1270-1350. The cellars were machine excavated, cleaned by hand and recorded. The eighteenth-century construction was confirmed by the survival of a brick floored cellar and the foundations of a room to the north. The eastern two-thirds of the cellar lay within the excavated area while the exposure of the tops of two sections of a wall to the west, possibly divided by a doorway, defined the western extent of the cellar. It was rectangular in plan with an internal width of 4.15m, length of 6.15m and height of 1.82m. The eighteenth-century bricks in the east and south walls [214] and [221] were orange-red and were mostly laid in header bond. This is one of the strongest bonds10 which is best used in supporting walls." A slight recess in wall [214] and the remains of a raised footing extending out from wall [221] suggest that there may have been a raised bench in the south-eastern corner of the cellar. The north wall [204] of the cellar is interpreted as having been built at the same time as the south and east walls; although it consisted of pre-eighteenth century brick it was bonded with an identical mortar mix to walls [203] and [226] in the north room which was built solely of eighteenth-century bricks. This room, built at ground level to the north, had an internal width (northsouth) of 3.45m and a minimum excavated length of 4.5m. It was constructed of eighteenth-century bricks over a rubble foundation [227] cut into a sandy clay deposit with chalk flecks [224] (containing one pottery sherd with a date range of 1270-1350) which was exposed but not excavated. The rubble foundation itself incorporates chalk, flint and Kentish Ragstone and pieces of frogged brick. The dating evidence from the excavated structure is consistent with a construction date of 1739. Major alterations to the building were undertaken in the nineteenth century. A new extension was built onto the eastern end, increasing the overall length of the house by 6.25m, consisting of walls [200], [205] and [219]. A cellar constructed as part of the extension had a doorway knocked through to the older cellar to the west (Plate II). Both cellar floors [220] and [222/3] were laid at this period with a ramp constructed down to the eastern, 0.28m deeper, cellar floor. The previously external wall [214] had an additional skin of brick [219] added on its eastern face and buttresses were extended into the cellar from wall [205]. The new extension was built 1.10m wider than the western cellar but was subsequently reduced in size by the addition of internal walls onto the north wall [200], possibly to accommodate a coal chute. The deposits immediately to the north of wall 361 PETER MOORE 226 N 227 203 204 200 / r- ^7 / / 3.97m OD / 5T 21 219 3.69m OD 7T 216 205 21 215 over 221 5.55m OD 211 7 T 1739 Building 5M ^ Mid 19th century additions Mid 19th century wall built over 1739 wall Trench 2 Fig. 4. Trench 2. Phased plan of 1739 cellar to the west and the mid 19th-century extension to the left. [200] were investigated but were found to have been deeply truncated by modern activity. This new end of the house was built with a large bay window [211] on its southern facade and at the same time a corresponding bay [216] was constructed out from what was now the middle of the house, requiring structural alteration [215] of the southern wall [221]. Map and photographic evidence showed that a matching bay was also constructed on the western end of the house, outside the area of excavation.'2 The extension work used orange machine-made bricks dating to post-1850 but prior to the plan showing the resultant house in 1874.13 A vaulted brick cellar [218] was found under the middle bay window. It is 362 EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK PLATE II • Trench 2. Eastward view of the 19th-century cellar of extension to manor house with the south facing bay window foundations on the right. The entrance into the 18th-century eastern cellar wall is in left foreground. uncertain whether this was built before or after the bay windows. Though the bricks were also machine made, they were narrower than those used in the extension work. DISCUSSION The site was found to have archaeology surviving only in its northern half because the natural chalk was just below the ground surface over much of the area, with deeper deposits occurring only where the chalk dipped down towards the north. Any archaeological deposits had therefore been eroded or truncated with only features such as cellars, ditches and pits surviving. These were isolated and few stratigraphical relationships were established. Very few artefacts were recovered, which was partly to do with the nature of the watch- •ng brief, but may also indicate the disposal of rubbish elsewhere on, or off, the site. While any direct dating evidence was scanty, a Medieval occup- 363 PETER MOORE ation was established nonetheless. A single sherd of Sandy Shelly Ware (1000-1150) was recovered from ditch [8] which cannot conclusively date the ditch to this period but shows activity on site contemporary with the documentary evidence for the creation of the West Court Manor and the building of a manor house. The manor house constructed in 1739 would have been built over the line of the western edge of this ditch but layer [224], containing a sherd of Mill Green ware (1270-1350), survived to the west of this ditch alignment. This suggests that the ditch was probably Medieval in date. The western room of the double-cellared structure found in Trench 1 is also likely to have been Medieval in date. Its use of a chalk wall against the exposed natural chalk face, but a flint wall along the western and northern sides, may represent different phases of construction or the deliberate use of alternative materials for structural reasons. The floor of this cellar consisted of the truncated underlying chalk but the dressed chalk blocks used in the wall are likely to originate from the North Downs. It is highly unlikely that this structure would have been a farm outbuilding but was probably the cellar of the manor house. The surviving archaeological evidence suggests that there was activity on the site at least from the eleventh century with a Medieval manor house, perhaps demarcated with a substantial ditch, lying at, and probably beyond, the northern part of this site. At a later stage the Medieval building was extended to the east incorporating an additional cellar. This new cellar accessed the older one through a doorway cut into the eastern wall of the original wall, and used bricks and tiles to face the exposed wall ends. The new southern wall extension was constructed using both brick and dressed chalk. Again this cellar had a bare chalk floor but because it was at a higher level than the floor to the west the western floor surface was brought up to a similar level using bricks laid on a sand bedding. The date range for these bricks and tiles is likely to be between the mid-sixteenth and the late seventeenth centuries. The few finds from the backfill of both these cellars dated the building to between c. 1730 and c. 1780. No flint or chalk rubble was found in the backfill but brick fragments and peg tiles, with round, square and diamond shaped peg holes, suggest that the demolished building was not built of chalk and flint but was probably a timber structure with a later brick and timber addition with a peg-tiled roof, styles common to the region. Its mid eighteenth-century demolition date would correspond with the construction of a new manor house in 1739, the eastern end of which was uncovered in Trench 2. This consisted of a cellar to the south and the foundations of a room to the 364 EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK north. Two additional stretches of wall likely to be contemporary with this phase of construction were seen exposed to the west of this trench. Photographs of the southern facade14 show that the eighteenthcentury building was typically symmetrical with a chimney stack at either end and a central door maintaining the symmetry. Sashes, also typical of the Georgian period, were used in the first floor fenestration, which was relatively extensive and was either ostentatious (it makes the building appear larger) and/or possibly reflects the need to maximise the light for the pursuit of indoor activities. The roof cover was of peg tiles. It is not certain if the rooms behind those above the basement were beneath the same roof as the front of the building. They may have formed an outshot, or been roofed by a separate gabled roof. The ground floor wall would have originally been flush with the upper floor, presenting a more imposing facade. The gables show a traditional vernacular influence, which reflects the building's status as a working farm house. In the nineteenth century, between 1850 and 1874, the house was extended, incorporating a new eastern cellar. The cellar was wider and deeper than the one to the west, a doorway was knocked through between them and a brick floor was laid in both. The extension included the foundations to a bay window on the south facade and two more bays were added to the same facade to the west. The bays represent a concession to the Gothic and Elizabethan revivals15 and fit in with the desire to move away from the formal towards a more informal 'cottage' look. Perhaps contemporary with this phase, but using slightly different bricks was the construction of a small barrel vaulted cellar beneath the central bay window. None of the brickwork revealed on site was of the local yellow stock brick, which is known to have been used in the area from at least 1727 and which came to dominate the London market in the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.16 The brick used may have been produced locally or brought in from elsewhere by river, facilitated by the proximity of the site to the Thames. The archaeological investigation showed the presence of activity on the site from the eleventh century, and a manor house from the Medieval period to the late twentieth century. The original house was extended in the period from the mid sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, and was replaced in 1739. This new house was itself extended in the mid-nineteenth century and was the final house to be demolished. While the house was known as a manor house its style reflected its status as a tenanted working farm house. 365 PETER MOORE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd would like to thank Crest Homes (Southern) Limited for funding the project, and especially Mr M. Bernard and Mr I. Smith for their help and co-operation. Also Ms L. Dyson, Kent County Council, for her support and advice throughout the work. Special thanks also to Sandra Soder of the Gravesend Historical Society for her keen interest and help, Mr R. H. Hiscock for his help concerning the history of local brick making and Ms Louise Harrison of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust for helping with the confirmation of the brick dates. The authors would like to thank the field team, Mark Bagwell, Dawn Griffiths, Jon Lowe, Dougie Killock, Mark Randerson and Jo Thomas for their hard work. The finds were identified by F. M. Meddens, the ceramic building materials by Ken Sabel and the illustrations are by Jon Lowe. NOTES 1 E. Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, iii (1797-1801, republished 1972). C. R. Bull, 'West Court farm, Chalk', Gravesend Historical Society Transactions, 1989, 18-20. Idem, An A to Z History of Chalk Parish (Chalk Parish History Group, 1992), 19. 2 A brick in the south wal 1 of the manor house had the date 1739; see Bull, 1989, op. cit. (note 1). 3 R. H. Hiscock and D. W. Grierson, Around Gravesend in Old Photographs. 4 Ordnance Survey, Kent Sheet X.7, 1:2500, 1874. 5 Ordnance Survey, Kent Sheet X.7, 1:2500, 1909: Plan TQ 6677 SE, 1:2500, 1975. 6 Bull, 1989 and 1992, op. cit. (note 1). Hiscock and Grierson, op. cit. (note 3). 7 Bull, 1989, op. cit. (note 1). 8 Ordnance Survey, 1874, op. cit. (note 5). 9 A. Clifton-Taylor, The Pattern of English Building (1987), 62. 10 R. W. Brunskill, Brick Building in Britain (1990), 89. 1' Photographs of the house show the walls above ground to have been built in Flemish bond, the most widespread bond in the eighteenth century. Bull, 1989, op. cit. (note 1); Hiscock and Grierson, op. cit. (note 3). 12 Hiscock and Grierson, op. cit. (note 3); Ordnance Survey, 1874, op. cit. (note 4). 13 Ordnance Survey, 1874, op. cit. (note 4). 14 Bull, 1989, op. cit. (notel). 15 S. Muthesius, The English Terraced House (1982). 16 It appears in St George's church by Charles Sloane, dated 1727 (pers comm. R. H. Hiscock). 366 EXCAVATIONS AT THE SITE OF WEST COURT MANOR HOUSE, CHALK APPENDIX 1 - CERAMIC BUILDING MATERIALS The building materials were analysed using the London system of classification. The fabric number specifies an objects from, composition, and approximate dating. Examples of the fabrics can be found in the archives of Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd. and/or the Museum of London. TABLET BRICK TYPES Context number [120] [125] [200], [205], [211], [216] & [219] [203] & [226] [204] [214] & [221] [218] [227] Stable in Trench 1 Size of materials (mm) and fabric 228-32x113-5x56- 62: 3033 230x100x55-9: 3033 220-3x108-110x64- 6: 3033 228x110x64:3033 215-30x107x55-8: 3033 220x100x64: 3033 222x105x65-6: 3033 103x68: ? 228x110x62:3033 Description uneven bases, indented borders, sunken top margins uneven bases, indented borders, sunken top margins machine made even bases unfrogged, uneven bases, indented borders unfrogged, even bases machine made frogged fine sandy brick shallow frog, yellow surface speckling Date c. 1450/1480- c. 1700 c. 1450/1480- c. 1700 Post-1850 18th century c. 1450/1480/ c. 1700 18th century Post-1850 18th-early 19th century late 18th-20th century The fabrics were: •>033This represents sandy soft brick made of local brickearths, with a moderate iron oxide content and occasional calcium carbonate inclusions. '°This peg tile fabric is fine with occasional iron oxide, calcium carbonate and quartz inclusions. 367