St Thomas A. Becket's Well, Otford

ST. THOMAS A BECKET'S WELL, OTFORD By F. R. J. PATEMAN AND OTHERS1 EXCAVATIONS at Becket's WeU were carried out by the Otford and District Historical Society, under the personal direction of its Chairman, Mr. F. R. J. Pateman, in consultation with Lieut.-Col. G. W. Meates, who planned the procedure. The work was done exclusively on Sunday mornings during the summer, from 1951 to 1954. A detailed report has been deposited in the K.A.S. Library. THE SITE N.G.R. 51/531592. Becket's Well is situated where springs issue from below the lower chalk and where the upper gault emerges on the east side of the Darent gap through the North Downs. The Roman villa at " Progress " (Arch. Cant., XXXIX) is 500 yards to the east and Otford Church 300 yards to the north-west. Between the well and the church is another Roman site (Arch. Cant., XLVII). Becket's WeU is a stone-waUed sunken reservoir into which flow springs of pure water, principally through two inlets with two-centred arches. This well chamber, which is enclosed on three sides by a surround wall, is about 35 feet long by 13 feet wide (east end), its waUs being about 8 feet high—their tops are at ground level—with the exception of the sluice wall on the west which is 5 feet high. Although the sluice wall is about 5 feet thick there is a substantial buttress on each side of the outlet on its western face. Six stone steps at the south-west corner give access to the well chamber. The stream after passing through the sluice waU runs thence by a channel between steep banks westward through a lower chamber, which is enclosed by ruined walls, 27 feet (north and south sides) by 35 feet (west side). The water flows from the site through a rectangular outlet in the base of the west waU into watercress beds and a small lake; and finaUy, by underground conduits, probably Tudor, passes through the site of the early manor house and later Tudor palace of the archbishops. The stream, which formerly fed the old moat, now discharges into Bubblestone Brook, a tributary of the Darent. As the name implies, there is a strong Becket tradition associated with the well (vide Lambarde's Perambulation), and it has certainly been linked with the archbishop's house in Otford from early times as a primary source of pure water. Since the late nineteenth century it has 1 See end of Paper. 172 ST. THOMAS A BECKET'S WELL, OTFORD 173 ST. THOMAS A BECKET'S WELL, OTFORD also acquired a Roman association, owing, no doubt, to the surrounding scatter of Roman material; but the excavations have not disclosed any Roman work. THE EXCAVATIONS The excavations proved more difficult than was anticipated. The initial work of clearing vegetation and debris took several days, the first trench being opened in July, 1951. Later the surrounding springs greatly impeded work at the lowest levels. Trench IA, at the north-west corner of the sluice wall, was dug to water level, revealing that the sluice waU was built of large dressed ragstone. The natural soil rose sharply to the north, with a lower fiUing of gault clay containing no datable finds. Above the gault the earth had been much disturbed in recent times by the insertion of hop-anchors, except immediately north of the end of the sluice waU, where an undisturbed layer, containing a Nuremburg token (c. 1530) and fragments of a Siegburg jug and incorporating a well-defined charcoal deposit, was revealed. Elsewhere, scattered through the filling were Roman tile and shards of the fourteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Trench HA at the corresponding point on the south side of the channel estabhshed the same dating for the south end of the sluice waU, another Nuremburg token appearing in a position similar to the first. Scatter from this trench included Wealden glass, plaster and tile fragments and sixteenth-century stoneware. The clay filling was the same as on the north and practically sterile. On the west side of the south buttress below water level a small post-hole contained the point of a stake. Trenches IVA and IVB were dug between the south waU of the well chamber and its surround waU. The first revealed massive sections of the upper part of the original south wall, faced on both sides with stone, sandwiching a chalk core. It had fallen inwards, necessitating the erection of the present south waU north of the original. The trench's upper filling contained finds varying from Roman brick or tile to nineteenth-century pottery, and Wealden glass was prominent; but the finds in the lower filling indicated a late eighteenth-century date. Trench IVB contained Leeds ware and other nineteenth-century finds in the upper filling; large ragstone blocks and eighteenth-century shards in the lower. At the bottom was an extension of the east wall bonded into the original south waU about 4 feet south of the present south waU. These original waUs were faced with stone on the inside only and backed by chalk blocks; but above a straight course visible inside the weU chamber, 5 feet above floor level, the east wall was of the chalk-core type mentioned above, as was also the west end of the north waU 174 lUllIM*!"— , ig. UMl""-'""!'!' I'r n t r•'""*"'•• iir"-1ji'm §1 Uoi^Trt ^Sls So nspuuo WALL i ) H l l l l ' " " " J ' m m " " " " H , MOR.T* ^ ^ --1 C...M LATER. Sou-rn WA.LU yME5-_/l\ hV*-)z -/C\ •SOUTH SURROOMO StCTlQU A- A SCALt Si X f i t ] 1QUAL QMfr lucn ORJGtUA.L .SOUTH V/ALVT1ODK. H WmHmm&w. TUBitwi:Kv;::/.\-:v::^ SCAL* Out TOPT tQUAlS QMt lMCtt A 4" V 3 A 4" LEVSV. tltVATlQkJ WtS] \x/AU-lO\A/tR,CnAMStK. ffl I ' ...I =P= ^ » LP*T£R. t^K^ER. BRICK.- Ctt*\.»C SHVEAMGltoOHDSoi^^*: KA^sToMtKft&iTONs -vuor-iK, f \LUi4G BED »STRSAM B*.HK. V/M.L WALL ScALf: fouri;f-&: &T -£QUAI Out \ucit [face p. 174 ST. THOMAS A BECKET'S WELL, OTFORD uncovered in IA. Stratification in both trenches was not clear, but they established the dimensions of the origmal east wall, in which the inlet arches were never centrally placed, and also showed how the south wall had been rebuilt in recent centuries. Trench V was opened outside the north-east corner of the well chamber. Under the nineteenth-century scatter there appeared behind the north wall a compact mass about 6 inches deep of plaster and brick, apparently hardcore, and similar in character to plaster in H A and IVA in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century layers. Below this was a compact layer of broken roofing tiles. The section of the east wall displayed chalk core construction above the expected level (at which a layer of bunder's sand stretched across the trench), and chalk backing construction below. At the base of the trench, a water channel encased in chalk blocks was found leading to the north inlet; the fining above it was the same largely sterile clay, and probing indicated that this extended at least 9 feet east of the east waU. Rods were passed through the two channels for a distance of 24 feet from the north inlet and 19 feet from the south before clay resistance was encountered. Excavation of the floor of the well chamber revealed the following layers: chalk blocks, gault, silt, flints, grey marl—14 inches from top to natural. The presence of silt over a bed of flints strongly suggests an earher floor. The only finds were in the silt and none was datable later than Roman. The upper surface of the flint " floor " was 2 inches below the level of the under side of the ragstone blocks on which the north wall stands. Hence it appears to have been earlier than any of the surviving masonry. The flint " floor " was also found under the silt at the bottom of Trench V, and in this case it was above a layer of chalk set on the natural clay. A narrow channel from the northern inlet, marked by the absence of chalk flooring blocks, may mark the course of a lead pipe mentioned in the Otford Ministers' Accounts for 1440-1, for a blocked opening in the west face of the sluice wall appears at the appropriate point. Trenches lo and I IB at the west end of the lower chamber showed the existence of two conglomerate masses, one each side of the channel, consisting mainly of chalk, ragstone and brick, mortared together. Associated with them was brickwork, laid as stretchers from the west waU along the banks of the channel, each course being set back from the one below, and the lower courses bonded into the brickwork above the outlet in the west waU. The west wall of the lower chamber was seen (Trenches Ho and D) to rest upon a foundation of chalk and irregular brick courses, undefined in extent and depth. (The nature of the terrain, the presence of heavy railings and shortage of labour prevented further investigation.) On this foundation were eight courses of brick, each course stepped up 175 ST. THOMAS A BECKET'S WELL, OTFORD southwards, apparently linked with the brickwork in similar form in the stream banks east of the wall. Under the eight, another course emerged from the chalk foundation and extended north to form the top course over the outlet and east to connect with the long stretcher course on the south bank of the channel. On the stepped bricks rested the lower courses of a stone wall, similar in character to the surround waU, and upon this the later west wall surviving above ground. Two pieces of a bowl of Purbeck limestone were found in the upper part of the south waU of the well chamber. The internal diameter of the complete bowl was 1 foot 8 inches, and it may have been a medieval mortar or perhaps the original font of Otford Church. The identification of the site of the conduit house of the archiepiscopal palace mentioned in the survey of 1573 (Arch. Cant., XXXI, p. 21) could not be estabhshed. The sixteenth-century dimensions of the weU chamber do not fit; those of the lower chamber are more amenable to identification, but the absence of foundations in Trenches IA and I IA make it highly speculative. CONCLUSIONS The excavations have shown that in the course of its history major repairs and renovations to Becket's WeU were a frequent necessity. Disturbance of soil and re-use of material had been so extensive that finds in sealed deposits were somewhat rare and the interpretation of evidence was always difficult. The following conclusions are therefore tentative and should be received with caution. The earliest surviving masonry visible is in the lower courses of the north and east waUs and parts of the sluice waU of the well chamber. The work is not distinguished in character but suggests a late medieval date. It is surmised that a well chamber was built between the stream banks about 20 feet from the springhead and the space between banks and walls filled with clay and levelled off. Otford Ministers' Accounts demonstrate that a stone structure already existed in 1440-1. In view of the fact that the earliest medieval finds, fairly evenly scattered round the site, are fourteenth century, this first building is ascribed to that period. It may be significant that 1382-3 is the most outstanding year of building and repairs at the manor house recorded in the Ministers' Accounts so far transcribed. The present floor is also ascribed to that period, but the flint layer beneath it may represent the floor of an earher structure. Between 1510 and 1520 Archbishop Warham pulled down most of the manor house and buUt a palace covering about four acres. This would have necessitated an improved water supply. The original lower chamber would seem to belong to this period, but its purpose is not known. It may have housed cisterns to give a greater flow of water 176 PLATE I 0*<£A * *4 *L St. Thomas a Becket's Well. Otford. View of sluice wall and well chamber, facing north-east. [face p. 176 ST. THOMAS A BECKET'S WELL, OTFORD to the palace. In the period 1541-6, Henry VTII was spending money on the palace, which he had acquired from Cranmer in 1537. The sluice wall, strengthened by Warham, was now supplemented by two buttresses, but these may have been built for the support of some superstructure such as a conduit house. During the second half of the sixteenth century the palace fell into decay, and early in the seventeenth century it passed into private hands; but the well continued to be a necessary source of water to the occupants of Castle Farm until recent times. Early in the seventeenth century the upper courses of the north, east and south walls of the well chamber were rebuflt or raised, and in the lower chamber a stone west waU was erected on Warham's brick foundations. The surround walls are also apparently of this period. Subsequently the south waU of the well chamber collapsed. It was rebuilt north of its original position apparently at the end of the eighteenth century. At the same time the north, west and south waUs of the lower chamber seem to have been substantiaUy rebuilt. The nineteenth century saw the erection of the short waU linking the north waU of the lower chamber with the sluice waU, and the rebuilding of the upper courses of the south waU of the weU chamber. Becket's Well has been scheduled as an ancient monument by the Ministry of Works. Part of the north waU of the well chamber has coUapsed (February, 1954) and aU the masonry urgently requires skilled attention, but unfortunately it seems unlikely that funds will be avaUable to save the structure from rapid decay. The site is unique in Kent, and weU worthy of preservation. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Otford and District Historical Society expresses its grateful thanks to Mr. E. D. McDowaU, MJ.Struct.E., the owner, for his permission and co-operation in the work of excavation, and to Mrs. McDowaU for her constant hospitality to workers on the site; to Mr. L. R. A. Grove, B.A., F.S.A., of Maidstone Museum, Mr. A. Warhurst, B.A., late of Maidstone Museum, and Mr. N. C. Cook, B.A., F.S.A., of the GufldhaU Museum, London, for the identification of finds; to Mr. F. C. Elliston-Erwood, F.S.A., and Dr. Gordon Ward, M.D., F.S.A., for their expert suggestions and advice; and to Mr. H. J. Mann, B.A., who took the photographs. Help and encouragement were given by many others, above all by Lieut.-Col. G. W. Meates, F.S.A., but for whose guidance the excavation would neither have been undertaken nor brought to a conclusion. j? R J# pA T B M A N R. D. CLARKE, M.A. A. D. STOYEL L. E. TOMPKINS, F.R.I.CS. 177 15