Old St AlbAn’S COurt, nOningtOn: An ArChiteCturAl Survey
howard austin jones
... but wise men, wise men, choose, and mend with care, never, your house, let bungling workman touch, they do too little, or they do too much … William Hammond 1752-1821, owner of Old St Alban’s Court in 1986 the KCC’s teacher training College at St Alban’s Court, nonington, was closed. this led to the breaking up of the associated estate and the selling of various buildings and parcels of land as separate lots. the original brick-built sixteenth-century manor house (Old St Alban’s Court), located below the imposing victorian mansion that superseded it (designed by architect george devey), was purchased for re-use as a private residence (Fig. 1). under the new owners, Peter and victoria hobbs, Old St Alban’s Court underwent extensive renovation work between 1997 and 2001. Within the house, most of the interior walls had to be stripped of their plaster and substantial areas of fooring needed replacement. this work allowed a detailed architectural and archaeological examination of the building to be undertaken by members of the dover Archaeological group. there was also an opportunity for investigation outside the building, ahead of service trenching and the landscaping and replanting of the adjoining garden areas. Surprisingly little had been previously published concerning this interesting and important Kentish manor house. however, three articles have since appeared in Archaeologia Cantiana;1 and an updated and expanded entry has appeared in latest Buildings of England volume.2 this report is concerned with details of the surviving remains of the historic building. the Site the historic mansion of St Alban’s Court was originally the focus of a substantial farming estate that constituted the manor of eswalt, situated on the east Kent chalklands roughly mid-way between dover and Canterbury. the house shelters in the bottom of a dry valley about one kilometre to the east of nonington parish church. (ngr tr 2631 5252.) it stands at an elevation of about 32m aod, upon a clay and fint gravel sub-soil (Nailbourne deposit). the medieval house revealed by the archaeological excavation possessed gardens that have been identifed on a Rent Roll of 1349, and the St Albans Abbots Roll 163 HOWARD AUSTIN JONES T etres 50 m LBANS COUR A
0 NONINGTON OLD ST SITE PLAN Sandwich Road Sandwich C17th walls buildings C19th outer forstall building C17th wall C17th inner forstall site of wall C17th C18th wings & site of C17 buildings (by Devey) late C19th C19th late stable Albans rebuilt C17th wall C19th Devey) Court (late C19th by garden St flower buildings C20th KCC wall C17th pier date on 1849 rebuilt C19th C17th wall C18th & gateway 1869 buildings KCC C20th Fig. 1Alban’s CourtSt site plan with the surviving OldAlban’s CourtSt shown in cross-hatch (including outbuildings at north-west).
164 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY
Phase 1 Phase 1a Phase 1b Phase 2 Phase 2a early fourteenth mid fifteenth early sixteenth c.1556 late sixteenth century century century century
Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 early mid seventeenth c.1790 seventeenth century century
N
OLD ST ALBANS COURT, NONINGTON, KENT CONSTRUCTION PHASES mens et del H A Jones January 1998 for the Dover Archaeological Group
Phase 6 Phase 7 c.1869 c.1880
Fig. 2 Old St Alban’s Court, construction phases. records it was repaired extensively in 1399. the pottery evidence is slim, but a construction date of c.1315 would seem feasible. Analysis of the surviving fabric of the house provided a basic outline of its structural history and further refnements to this sequence have been possible through archaeological excavation and the use of documentary records. taken together, the evidence indicates a fairly complex development to the structure (Fig. 2), with regular – perhaps almost continual – alterations, additions and changes being made from the ffteenth to the nineteenth century, when much of the house was demolished (Fig. 3). Most importantly this included the complete demolition, probably in the late 1870s, of the main range. records suggest this was originally built c.1665 and itself completely reordered c.1790. Prints and an early photograph survive of the showing the principal north-east façade of the house, in the classical style of that time; a detailed plan of the extant structure was prepared by the architect george devey before this demolition work began. this now provides an extremely valuable record of the former extent of the mansion (Fig. 4). the portions of the original house that were kept seem closely to correspond with the earliest parts of the structure which, retaining the c.1869 coach yard, together formed a picturesque collection of medieval style buildings to be viewed from the new house.
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Fig. 3 the 1878 replacement St Alban’s Court description of the Surviving Fabric of the building As surviving, the general plan of Old St Alban’s Court is in the form of a Z, with the principal axis being north-west by south-east (Fig. 4). Five rooms and an upper storey lie along this axis, with a drawing room to the south-east and Kitchens to the north-west. A garage and opposing ranges of store rooms lie at the north-west end, projecting south-west, and a Hall and entrance lobby, again with a frst foor, are situated at the south-east end of the principal axis and project north-east. in the angle and set within a courtyard is a stair tower, with a walled garden beyond to the north-east. A curving brick wall extends away from the east corner of this garden (Fig. 1), fanking an area of lawn in front of the house. On the opposite south-west side is about an acre of what was by the 1870s a garden for fowers and exotic fruits, enclosed by tall brick walls.
South-east (front) elevation (Figs 5-7) Facing onto the lawn, the south-east end wall of the house is quite thick (75cm), and built of small, thin orange-pink bricks off a base plinth with a chamfered top. All the brickwork is laid in English bond and has been repointed subsequently with cement mortar, but the original white lime mortar survives behind. Abutting and projecting from its south-west end is a tall (c.4m) kitchen garden wall running
166 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY north-west by south-east, up to devey’s stable block of c.1869 beyond to the south-east. Positioned at the south-west end of this elevation but centrally with respect to the drawing room it lights is a two-storey angled bay surmounted by a tiled hipped pentice roof. there is a window of six front- and two angled side-lights respectively to each foor of this bay, with brickwork between and quoins to the comers. these, and the jambs, mullions and transoms which are cavetto in section, are formed of reused Caen stone. it is not known from where this was sourced – Canterbury or dover would seem the most likely places – but it certainly appears it could not have come from earlier buildings on or around the site. the glazing is supported by iron ferramenta. Above this bay is a (restored) crow-stepped gable all of brickwork, with canted tops, typical of the mid-sixteenth century, with a large sundial positioned centrally. recent cleaning of the sundial revealed an apparently genuine inscribed date of 1556, the same as that recorded on the building stone by a doorway further north-east to this same elevation. extending north-east from the drawing room but set back 0.6m from it and fronting the hall, is a wall of larger buff-red bricks laid in header bond and set in a cream lime mortar, all characteristic of the later eighteenth century. inserted in the centre of this is a ground foor and very wide mullioned six-light window with bath stone dressings. this would appear to be of mid to late nineteenth- century date, as is its surrounding patching and surmounting arch, all of which are of orange brickwork also laid in header bond. this latter is continued above frst-foor window-cill level, over a dentil course of cut brick, and surmounted by ornamental stepped battlements with canted tops, in the style of the crow-stepped gable adjacent. All this is work of the mid to late nineteenth century. At frst foor level and centrally above the wide window is a three-light dormer with a hipped tiled roof and metal casements set in a timber frame. Photographs show this was inserted c.1936-8. beside this dormer window to the north-east is a nineteenth- century chimney stack. the stack diminishes about a third of the way up and is set at 45 degrees, with the comers of the upper part in line with the faces of the lower. the top is capped with three outward stepping bricks courses with a wider continuation of the stack over. the whole is intended to match the stacks to the south-west kitchen garden elevation (see below). As noted above, the north-east end of the wall containing the bay window returned for some 0.60m. At frst-foor level in this return is visible a straight vertical joint with queen closers, either an abutment with an earlier (medieval timber?) wall or the jamb of a blocked square-headed doorway (Fig. 8). the tiled pitched roof over this north-east part extends beyond the chimney, and is brought down to a guttered eaves over a set-back dwarf nineteenth-century timber framed wall with large studs. this is jettied at its south-east end. Abutted against this is a pentice roof at a lower level over the continuation of the eighteenth-century wall, containing a four-centred tudor style opening rebuilt in bath stone. next to this is a (presumably reset) date stone of Caen inscribed 1556, which if authentic seems fairly to represent the date of the bay window. the end of the eighteenth-century wall is truncated with nineteenth-century brickwork: the line is continued by a low garden wall, capped in the nineteenth century with two courses of stepped dentils and a canted brickwork top.
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bay window c.1790
late C19th garden wall on line front C18th house c.1790 house = rebuild of house c.1665
position of C18th block approx position block shown on shown on C19th survey survey c.1629
garden walls on line of walls to C18th block on walls to C18th block on late C19th survey late C19th survey line of building shown on late C19th survey late C19th ragstone projection quoin? over line of construction joint reused in C16th wall over window flat plinth to later chamfered inserted 1998 C16th/early C19 ragstone plinth to C16 C19th facing C17th wall window quoin wall
relieving dovetail joint in line of chamfered C19 successive arch beam = position plinth to C16th wall window windows of late C16th blocked C16 post jamb late C19 door stairs late C16 mid C15th flint & tile C18/early changed to inserted beams ?drain walls to garderobe, C19 wall on window 1998 1998 over C18th over mid C16 low C18 C20 C18 door C19th blocking blocked C19 fireplace garden wall fireplace C16 beam C16 over doorway C19th C18th fireplace fireplace shown on late C18th C19th survey cistern (dotted) under
bee bole site early C18th of extension C18th/19th greenhouses bee bole
joists to C19th buttresses first floor over
C19th greenhouse/ C16th/17th garden wall boiler room
Fig. 4 Old St Alban’s Court ground foor plan.
168 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY
C19 garden wall bay window bay window c.1790 c.1790
late C19th garden wall on line front C18th house c.1790 house = rebuild of wing added house c.1665 c.1869
C19 garden wall
medieval footing position of C18th block approx position block shown on shown on C19th survey survey c.1629
C18th wing altered late garden walls on line of walls to C18th block on C19th walls to C18th block on late C19th survey late C19th survey line of building shown line of building shown on late C19th survey on late C19th survey early C16th late C19th late C19th ragstone ragstone fireplace with window inserted projection quoin? quoin? C18th facing C19 into late C18th over line of construction joint reused line of construction joint reused beam wall in C16th wall over in C16th wall over over window flat plinth to later chamfered chamfered HALL inserted 1998 C16th/early C19 ragstone plinth to C16 C19 ragstone plinth to C16 C17 C19th facing C17th wall window quoin wall window quoin wall timber medieval flint stair rubble footing relieving dovetail joint in line of chamfered C19 successive line of chamfered C19 successive arch beam = position plinth to C16th wall window windows plinth to C16th wall window windows of late C16th blocked C16 blocked C16 DRAWING post jamb mid C15th flint & tile jamb mid C15th flint & tile mid C16 late C19 door stairs late C16 late C16 ROOM C18/early changed to inserted beams ?drain walls to garderobe, ?drain walls to garderobe, timber C19 wall on window 1998 1998 over C18th over C18th over doorframe mid C16 mid C16 mid C16 medieval flint later C16/early low C18 C20 C18 door C18 door C19th blocking blocked C19 fireplace blocking blocked C19 fireplace fireplace rubble footing C17 garden wall garden wall fireplace C16 NB plinth to side wall 2 beam C16 C16 blocked C18th door over doorway doorway C16 courses higher than end C19th C18th fireplace window ?replacing wall fireplace shown on late C18th C16 C19th survey cistern window (dotted) under
phase 1 - late 15th/early 16th century bee bole site bee bole site N early C18th of of phase 2 - c.1556 extension C18th/19th C18th/19th greenhouses greenhouses bee bole bee bole phase 3 - c.1650
phase 4 - 18th century 0 1 2 3 4 5 10 metres joists to C19th buttresses joists to C19th buttresses phase 5 - c.1869 first floor first floor 0 6 12 18 24 30 feet over OLD ST ALBANS COURT, NONINGTON, KENT C19th greenhouse/ C16th/17th garden wall C16th/17th garden wall GROUND FLOOR PLAN boiler room mens et del H A Jones January 1998 for the Dover Archaeological Group on a base survey by Nicholas Blake
169 HOWARD AUSTIN JONES
Fig. 5 The picturesque collection of medieval style buildings of Old St Alban’s Court viewed from the new house (now much obscured by tree growth.
Fig. 6 Old St Alban’s Court: south-west (fower garden) elevation; photo 1869.
170 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY
Fig. 7 Old St Alban’s Court from the south-east: archaeologists have exposed the tudor courtyard which fronted the 1556 brick build.
South-west (fower garden) elevation this fronts the drawing room and the dining room, part of the kitchen block on the ground foor, and four bedrooms above. Essentially this is of similar build to the south-east (end) wall, and must therefore be of mid-sixteenth century date: small orange-pink bricks in a hard lime mortar and a brickwork plinth which is however two courses higher than the plinth on the south-east elevation. For ffteen or so courses above the plinth, an arrangement of pairs of header and stretcher bricks is staggered to give a diaper pattern. Above this is the walling is in a fairly regular english bond. the wall is capped by projecting ornamental crenellations with chamfered faces and roll tops, alternately rising and falling, set off a dentil course, also of cut brick. to the north-west these stop short on the line of the north- west kitchen garden wall, the roof continuing further. Set in the wall are several square-headed windows of four lights, slightly taller than wide, with jambs, cill, hood and single transom and mullion all in bath stone, with the glazing again supported by iron ferramenta. Although evidently of the mid to later nineteenth century, these are fairly certainly replacements of earlier similar windows. to the north-west end at ground level is a small doorway, cut through the plinth, though appearing contemporary with it. It has a fat arch over, roughly formed in brickwork. At the other (south-east) end of this elevation is a door of perhaps the eighteenth century, with a segmental brick arch over, quite possibly formed by enlarging an earlier original window. there are two projecting chimney breasts to this elevation, that to the south-east
171 HOWARD AUSTIN JONES 10 metres eet 30 f 24 blocked window inserted c.1936-8 C16 door ON, KENT 18 5 4 N 12 3 mid C16 fireplace Archaeological Group NONINGT 2 6 T, C18th roof over C18th roof over late C19th extension 1 0 0 rame timber C17 stair 1998 for the Dover 16th century mid C16 timber doorf Nicholas Blake LBANS COUR Jones January by A A FLOOR PLAN mid C16 fireplace position of window C15 oriel phase 2 - c.1556 phase 1 - late 15th/early phase 3 - c.1650 phase 4 - 18th century phase 5 - c.1869 mens et del H on a base survey OLD ST FIRST mid C16 timber framing position of late C16th under post dovetail joint in beam = window late C19 timber later C16 framing window late C16 position late beam gable C15 jettied jettied C15 C15 over late C19 extension opening formed 1998 Fig. 8 OldAlban’s CourtSt frst-foor plan. window inserted 1998
172 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY being wider than the other. both have a canted brick topping, and at either end of each with a wide gap between is a tall chimney set at 45 degrees, with the comers of the upper part in line with the faces of the breasts. the chimneys are each capped with three outward stepping bricks courses with a wider continuation of the stack over, terminating in a pot. the wide gap between them implies it had perhaps been intended to accommodate further chimneys – probably to serve the third foor suggested by other evidence but which was never built. As well as the windows, much of the chimneys and crenellations appear to have been rebuilt in the later nineteenth century, probably c.1869 when other building works are known from documentary evidence to have been carried out. there is no reason however to suppose their original form is not retained.
North-east (courtyard) elevation (Figs 9 and 10) in the south comer of the courtyard is a stair turret. the construction exactly matches that of the south-west kitchen garden elevation, including the change in brick bond from diaper to english. the windows are small, both arched and fat head, with reused Caen stone dressings. Adjacent the stair turret, within the courtyard on the return north-west elevation, is the projecting chimney-breast and stack to an inglenook freplace within the Hall. Part of the fank wall to its base is a later nineteenth-century rebuilding, but overall the chimney is similar in form to the others. Although the brick tumbling to its sloping sides might suggest a seventeenth- rather than sixteenth-century date, they are not unknown at the earlier date, and the queen closers to the end to the stair turret indicated the latter is clearly a later abutment. the north-east (courtyard) elevation proper comprises a brickwork ground storey and a timber-framed upper level. the latter is in two distinct parts, evidently of two periods but close in date. the brickwork fronting the drawing room and part of the Kitchen contained a great deal of victorian rebuilding and indeed, where the building reduces in height at the north-west, the wall has been completely refaced. Much was repointed sometime in the mid twentieth century. this, the addition of a nineteenth-century timber framed jettied extension, plus the insertion of doors and windows, albeit probably replacing earlier openings, makes interpretation diffcult. The brickwork in the south-east half is similar to that of the stair turret, and is fully bonded with it, but without the diaper work. it is noted that south-east end of the north-west wall of the tower has queen closers at its abutment with the frst-foor timber-framed wall; these are absent from its return with the ground foor brick wall, and demonstrate the stair tower is earlier than or, more probably, contemporary with, the timber wall. A couple of vertical joints in the ground foor brick wall represented the positions of successive superimposed square windows, one small closely adjacent the stair tower, one larger. both appear to have been blocked up before or shortly after their completion. The wall is quite thick (c.70cm). halfway along the elevation at the base of the wall, and approximately in line with the junction between the sections of the upper storey timber wall, is a quoin of Kent ragstone (Fig. 3), similar to one used in the corner of the tower. Archaeological examination revealed that the wall had originally returned across the building at this point, incorporating a substantial section of an earlier fint wall
173 HOWARD AUSTIN JONES ond range bey late C18th stable 10 metres eet 30 f 24 ON, KENT 18 5 4 12 /mid C17th 3 early extension Archaeological Group NONINGT 2 6 T, 1 0 0 to doors 1998 for the Dover later C19th lean-to C19th later plinth with flat top ION (as in 1998) windows & later C19th window line of end jetty late C16th first late C16th floor extension Nicholas Blake LBANS COUR AT Jones January by to A A late C16th extension ragstone quoin on wall inside line of C15th flint replacing line of end jetty floor first garderobe mens et del H on a base survey OLD ST ELEV NE position of brackets window supporting mid C16th oriel ond s bey
plinth with chamfered top 2 mid C16th chimney 1 timber first floor queen closers to to closers queen corner & abutment to only
mid C16th rear wing blocked during building C16th windows windows C16th reused medieval ragstone quoins with chamfered corner queen closers to to closers queen abutment with chimney mid C16th stair tower replacing earlier ?C17th chimney Fig. 9 OldAlban’s Court,St north-east elevation (1998). ond s bey remodelling of remodelling of medieval hall later C19th late C18th mid C16th chimney
mid C16th bay C16th mid window
mid C16th gable queen closers at crow-stepped abutment to earlier jettied first floor late C16th/early C17th garden wall 174 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY
Fig. 10 Old St Alban’s Court from the north-east: archaeology in progress on the foundations of the 1665 wing demolished in the late 1870s. within the house that had originally formed one side of a garderobe shaft (see below). it contained reused yellow medieval bricks of c.1300, and it is probable therefore that these and the ragstone had been reused from an earlier building, perhaps from the site of the earlier manor house some distance to the west. it is suggestive that silt from the disused garderobe shaft yielded what appeared to be a fragment from an angled jamb of Kent ragstone, socketed to receive a ferramanta. beyond this joint, on the face of the wall continuing to the north-west, the plinth has a fat rather than canted top, and when inspected inside the building, the brick bond is shown to be more irregular. it is apparent there are two separate phases of building work. the junction of the mid sixteenth-century brickwork with the timber-framed upper storey is crudely done, and its projection somewhat from the latter initially suggested it is a later substitution for an earlier timber wall. despite this, the appearance of the timber framing to the south-east part, close studded with a centre rail and concealed half-lapped curved braces, demonstrate it is in fact coeval with the brickwork. Scars on its timbers indicate the position of a central oriel window (Fig. 11). the presence and position of a dovetail joint inside the building (see below) indicates that the frst foor of this north-east part was originally jettied, with the timber ground foor being replaced by brick sometime later. An inverted brace at the junction with the timber wall to the south-east suggested a date late in the sixteenth century or early in the seventeenth; the slightly projecting ten-light timber window, mostly original, has mouldings suggesting the former date. the
175 HOWARD AUSTIN JONES
line of end jetty to mid C16th late C16th first doorcases floor extension opening into stair tower
late C16th position mid window C16th oriel window
late C16th mid C16th rear reconstructed extension wing outline of C15/C16th hall
0 1 2 3 4 5 10 metres
0 6 12 18 24 30 feet OLD ST ALBANS COURT, NONINGTON, KENT SECTION THRO' NW WING
mens et del H A Jones January 1998 for the Dover Archaeological Group on a base survey by Nicholas Blake
Fig. 11 Old St Alban’s Court, section through north-west wing (1998). framing is again close studded vertical timbers with a centre rail, and shows signs of settlement, which are also refected in the brickwork below. Further to the north-west the two rooms forming the Kitchen has bricks of similar size, a slightly darker hue, with an irregular bond. this is particularly conspicuous on the north-west end gable wall, and is very similar to the construction of the kitchen garden walls. Given the return of the plinth at the ragstone quoin (see above), the abutment of the kitchen garden walls to the mid sixteenth-century brickwork to the south-east (end) wall, and their lesser thickness (c.50cm), this wall can probably be assigned a date to the later sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries – probably the latter as it had replaced a timber ground foor of c.1600. the whole formed a single storey annexe with a large attic space to the residential wing.
Interior The two ground foor living rooms (i.e. Dining room and, further south-east with the bay window, the Drawing room) each has a freplace on their south west (Kitchen garden) elevation. in the drawing room this has a lintel and side supports of Kent ragstone or reigate stone with a brick relieving arch over, concealed by the plaster. the supports are plain, the lintel in two halves, comprising three
176 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY carvings of a rose surrounded by a large circle alternating with two lozenges each with a lozenge-shaped centrepiece, and a four-centred arch under with a carved shield and ?chain in the spandrels. the initials there were originally eh (edmund hammond, ob.1616). the two timber beams to the ceiling were added c.1997, and the panelled partition to the hall to the north-east a replacement c.2000 of a nineteenth-century wall. The freplace in the Dining room is less ornate: the simple wooden lintel was inserted as part of the c.1997 building works. Separating these two rooms is a late nineteenth-century partition in yellow brick, plastered. this abuts a sixteenth- century window in the south-west wall, blocked when the partition was added. no evidence for any earlier dividing wall on this line was found when the foor was lifted. The stair turret contains a fnely formed oak spiral stair with an octagonal central pillar, more probably of seventeenth- than sixteenth-century date. each storey – including the roof-space – has a substantial oak door-frame, comprising a lintel pegged to uprights and forming part of the upper storey framework to the courtyard. these have a double roll moulding set in a cavetto on the staircase side only – the side fronting the room being plain, although the ogee architraves in softwood were evidently a nineteenth-century addition. the timber frame is built into the brick interior of the stair tower, which had been lime-washed rather than plastered. the doorframe at the second storey suggests that perhaps further accommodation was planned at this level. if so, it was never carried out. Each bedroom upstairs has a stone freplace, though smaller than that in the drawing room. that in the rear (north-west) bedroom is plain. A curious feature of the principal posts to the north-east section of this wing is that they lack jowls to support transverse tie beams. instead they sit on the wall-plate, indicative that an upper (second) storey had been intended (see note above on door cases to stair). the underside of the second phase (c.1600) of the surviving timber frst-foor structure to this wing is visible. the principal transverse beam, running north- east by south-west, has a dovetail set into its underside at the north-east end, well back from the present brick wall; this indicates a previous connection into a wall- plate below and very probably, a supporting post under that. this indicated the line of an earlier (timber framed) wall, and proved that the existing second-phase wall above was originally jettied. tenoned into the principal transverse beam is a lesser central longitudinal beam either side, with transverse foor joists tenoned into them. Their undersides are fush, plain, and intended to be concealed by a lath and plaster ceiling. remnants of a victorian one survived. On the south-west side, across a twentieth-century opening into a peculiarly long early eighteenth-century outbuilding, is visible a frst foor sole-plate associated with the original timber framed structure of the second phase.
Roof The roof over the main range is of nineteenth-century date, though as it fts easily behind the crow-stepped gable, it in all probability retains the profle of the original. the position of the surviving sixteenth-century transverse beam under the existing gable at frst foor wall-plate level indicates that the north-west
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(end) gable of the c.1600 part of this wing had been jettied over a frst-foor wall which is itself jettied. the roof over the south-west/north-east (front) rooms is eighteenth-century, reusing some sixteenth-century timbers, despite the presence of nineteenth-century walls below.
Outbuildings On the south-western side of the Kitchen, and behind the kitchen garden wall, running north-east by south-west is a series of outbuildings. backing onto the kitchen garden wall, and indeed with its south-west wall forming a later insertion on the line of that wall, is a long narrow building (the long room) with a pentice style slate roof. the brickwork is soft, orange, of english bond laid in white lime mortar, and all reminiscent of the early eighteenth century. the presence of sockets in the wall high up inside, with the remains of horsehair and lime plaster, imply there was formerly a frst-foor storey. The use to which such a peculiar structure was originally put remains unclear. Sometime between c.1790 and the early Victorian period its foor was lowered, a fue added, and the whole converted into a boiler room to serve adjacent green-houses. Probably at about this time also small a rectangular sunken room was butted onto the south-western end of the building. this was apparently demolished in the 1960s but its surviving wall tops were exposed in 1999. it is reported by the former College groundsman that this structure was the stoke-hole for another boiler heating the adjacent green-houses. The excavated flling, containing much coal ash, would be consistent with such a use. In the south-eastern (fower garden) elevation of the Long Room a set of three triangular-headed bee boles were unblocked in 1999 (Fig. 4), with a further three discovered more recently further to the south-west. each is about 32cm (12in.) high by 25cm (9in.) wide. the exterior of the south-west end wall shows evidence for a small, high level blocked window or niche, with chamfered edging. the whole structure has a marked lean to the south-east, which must explain the presence of two sloping buttresses, probably of eighteenth-century brick, added to the outside of the south-east wall. Further north-west and parallel to the above structure is a mid to late eighteenth- century building with a hipped tiled roof of which much of the brickwork, in Flemish bond, is a rebuild of the late nineteenth century. documentary evidence indicates its form had not changed: now a garage, it was probably originally a cart shed, projecting from the south-west wall of the Kitchen. below it is some sort of water catchment pit of considerable volume, with a substantial brick vaulted drain of c.1790 running under its south corner and leading to a large cistern in the far corner of the quarry that is now identifed as the Pulham garden (see below). Further north-west again is a low eighteenth-century boundary wall to the garden, which was raised sometime during the later eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries to support a range of outbuildings set along the far side of a long narrow courtyard beyond the walled garden. these now have slate pentice roofs, but it is reported that they were formerly covered by pantiles and that there were three small dormer windows.
178 OLD ST ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON: AN ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY acknowledgements grateful thanks are due to Peter hobbs, the owner of Old St Alban’s Court, Keith Parftt of the Dover Archaeological Group and Sarah Pearson, formerly of the rChMe, for their ready help and assistance in the preparation of this article. endnotes
1 P. hobbs, 2005, ‘Old St Albans Court, nonington’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxv, 273-90; g. daws and P. hobbs, ‘the variety of brick types and sizes used at Old St Albans Court, nonington’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxxvi, 281-93; P. hobbs, 2017, ‘A Pulham garden rediscovered at nonington, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxxviii, 291-98. 2 J. newman, 2013, North East and East Kent, Yale University Press, pp. 471-72.
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