The Dutch & Flemish Gables of Kent, Part 1

By Gordon Taylor

Part One: The Background

Distinctive features of vernacular buildings of the 17th and first half of the 18th century of the eastern coastal counties, from Yorkshire down to Kent, are the pediments and curves of Dutch, Flemish, and Huguenot – strictly speaking – Netherlandish, gables.

An enquiry about a former farmhouse at Hopes Lane, Northwood led to a five-year retirement study of these buildings. With the assistance of KCC’s Historic Buildings List, numerous books on all aspects of building (some ignoring, and others only mentioning in passing, Dutch gables - but two stressing the need for a study), I set about the task. A paper on buildings with Dutch influence inspired me to do the study and analyse the gables.

After many years in estate agency in Thanet, I understood that these buildings (around 180 in Kent) were the result of Protestant refugees from Catholic oppression in the Spanish Netherlands. It transpired that I was wrong and the picture is considerably more complicated.

Studies of Arch. Cant. and other sources showed that refugees/immigrants from the Low Countries have been coming over here from at least the 12th century up to World War Two, when 60,000 arrived. Buildings with these gables were only built over roughly 150 years. After the English Civil War and Charles I’s execution in 1649, many royalists fled to the northern provinces of Holland, which had gained their independence the year before. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, they returned to England, having acquired a taste for many things Dutch, particularly their art and architecture. Like the fad in the 19th century for all things Chinese, ‘Dutchness’ became fashionable. As well as art and architecture, horticulture and pottery were imported and copied.

William of Orange (a province in North Holland) was offered the throne of England in 1689, thus furthering the Dutch influence. It is no coincidence that the main period of Dutch gable construction is from 1660 to 1720, but they appeared before that. The generally quoted earliest building with a date (in wall anchors) is 1657 (Longport, Canterbury), but there are earlier examples. The best known in Kent, albeit on larger houses, are at Knole (additions dated 1603/5), Ford

Place, Wrotham Heath (same date and both on dormer windows only) and the wonderful brickwork of Broome Park, built 1635 to 1638. Outside of Kent they are found as early as 1571 in Trerice, Cornwall, and Kirby Hall, Northants from around 1580 and at Montacute House, Somerset at 1598. So examples, therefore, from the late 16th century can be expected on vernacular buildings; two ‘possibles’ are single-storey cottages at St Nicholas at Wade on Thanet, namely Pepper Alley (originally three humble cottages) and Elder Cottage. The mix of brick and flint in diapering on the latter is similar to the diapering on the 15th century Tonford Manor, Canterbury.

The Dutch were known for their drainage expertise and were in England in the 1560’s. They are famous for drainage works in East Anglia (Vermuyden and others spending many years there in the late 16th and first half of the 17th century), but they also carried out schemes on a smaller scale in Essex (Canvey Island) and in Kent (Wantsum Channel). In the former area, buildings can possibly be linked to them - a cottage (1713) reputedly having ‘Niet zonder Arbyt’ (nothing without work) over the door in Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire. Possibly the St Nicholas examples mentioned above are from a similar source. I visited East Anglia to compare styles.

Traders from the Low Countries were also responsible for houses with Dutch gables as at Kew Palace (formerly ‘Dutch House’ 1631), SW London “built for Samuel Fortrey a Flemish merchant whose family had escaped religious persecution in France” (3). Topsham, a port in Devon, has a row of these houses also attributed to traders from across the North Sea. Traders may have been able to afford to build themselves a house - it is unlikely that refugees could.

My study has shown, however, that the main reason for these curvilinear gables was fashion. Exactly 50% of the properties outside of the towns in East Kent have Dutch gables added to older buildings that were mostly timber framed, with Finglesham Farm having a further extension, this time in the Georgian fashion. St Peter’s Farm (Thanet) was built mid-17th century, had a porch added in 1682 and was refronted in 1710 in the fashionable Queen Anne style.

Another example is Hode Farm at Patrixbourne; the original house has the earlier crow stepped gable of 1566 with a curvilinear extension dated 1674. People don’t change – fashion is important. My study has shown that the builders of Dutch gables in England developed their own distinctive style; those that try and match examples here with those in the Netherlands are mistaken and this view is echoed by others (4). In the Netherlands the gables mostly face the road, whereas here that is very rare - a row of three in Sandwich that did being demolished in the second half of the 20th century (5).

The second part of this article (in the October Newsletter) will deal in detail with the pediments, dates and brick bonds.

References:

1. Arthur Percival MBE MA DLitt (1986). For his paper, ‘The Dutch Influence on English Vernacular Architecture with particular reference to East Kent,’ Percival listed the properties with window hoods, pilasters etc., but included those with straight gables. He did list two that had had curved gables straightened that I would probably have missed.
2. Going Dutch by Lisa Jardine. Also: The Embarrassment of Riches - An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama. Also: Holland & Britain by Charles Wilson. Various articles in Bygone Kent.
3. A History of the English House by Nathaniel Lloyd 1931 re-published 1985.
4. The Cape House & Its Interior, 1985 by Obholzer et al. and Matthew Rice, Building Norfolk, 2008. Also: Kent Houses by Anthony Quiney pub. 1993 by Antique Collectors’ Club.
5. Arthur Percival.