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Richard Hewlings, ‘The School and Almshouses at Sevenoaks’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XI, 2001, pp. 220–249 TEXT © THE AUTHORS 2001 THE SCHOOL AND ALMSHOUSES AT SEVENOAKS RICHARD HEWLINGS he architectural history of Sevenoaks School The origin of Lord Burlington’s design remains Tand Almshouses has never been written. The unexplained, for the documentation of the buildings institutional histories of the school agree in attributing does not include any reference to him. But it does its design to Lord Burlington, doubtless on the basis reveal that a design of some sort had been proposed of an illustration in William Kent’s Designs of Inigo by ; that buildings were begun on the site in Jones of , captioned “A Design for a School and – to the designs of John James; that James’s Alms-Houses by the Earl of Burlington, for Sevenoak buildings collapsed half-built in ; that they were in Kent” (Fig. ). Burlington’s drawings for this design replaced by buildings designed by Roger Morris and are among his drawings at Chatsworth, undated, but Lord Herbert, whose execution Morris supervised obviously no later than (Figs. and ). In fact an between and ; that in – they were agreement of to execute carpentry in the thirty two completed by James Stedman, who had acted in a almshouses which were eventually built suggests that subordinate capacity to James and Morris since ; Burlington’s design had been superseded by that date. and that an infirmary was also proposed and was only Burlington’s design and the existing building dismissed by a decree of the Lord Chancellor in . have a general disposition in common – a tall school The school and almshouses were established block in the centre (five storeys in Burlington’s under the terms of the will of William Sevenoak, version) with a pyramidal roof, and two long two- Mayor of London, proved in . Among other storey ranges either side (twenty bays each in property, he bequeathed them a wharf and Burlington’s design), housing the alms people. But warehouses just west of the Tower of London. To even in general disposition one distinctive feature, the their west stood Wren’s Custom House, short of recession of the school house from the street line, space and damaged by an explosion in . The does not occur in Burlington’s proposal; and the Commissioners of Customs treated to acquire part of forty separate doors from the street proposed by the Sevenoaks property in order to rebuild their own. Burlington were actually realised as two arches Between September and September leading into rear courtyards, onto which the Sevenoaks Corporation made “several journeys to almshouses open. As built, the school house had London in order to the Letting the Wharf and three storeys over a high basement, with lower wings Warehouses belonging to the free School and which were not allowed for by Burlington (Fig. ). Almshouses of Sevenoaks to the Comrs. of the Differences of detail are numerous. These are more Customes”. In August their surveyor, James than “modifications ... introduced [by] ... local Stedman, accompanied by the bricklayer William masons ... as work went on”, but evidently the Tufnell, viewed and reported on the property. The product of a different design, with different intent. date proposed for transfer was Michaelmas. By June This design is illustrated on an undated plan which both parties had agreed a price of £ , with a must have been made before (Fig. ). perpetual rent of £ per annum, payable THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XI THE SCHOOL AND ALMSHOUSES AT SEVENOAKS Fig. “A Design for a School and Alms-Houses by the Earl of Burlington, for Sevenoak in Kent”, from William Kent, The Designs of Inigo Jones , . Fig. Lord Burlington, west elevation of proposed school house and part of almshouses. RIBA. THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XI THE SCHOOL AND ALMSHOUSES AT SEVENOAKS Fig. Lord Burlington, plan of proposed school house. RIBA. Fig. Sevenoaks School House, west side, before . English Heritage. THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XI THE SCHOOL AND ALMSHOUSES AT SEVENOAKS retrospectively from Michaelmas . Sevenoaks’s Some time before September the Attorney- annual receipts jumped from a figure around £ in General (Sir Philip Yorke ) brought a bill into the period to , to £ in , £ in , Chancery against the Corporation, on behalf of a £, in , and £ , in . £ , of the latter group of parishioners, led by Dr. Thomas Fuller. were invested in the South Sea Company, but Yorke was later to engage Flitcroft to re-model subsequent income remained high, if not stable. Wimpole; Fuller, a famous physician, lived at The The transaction was enshrined in an Act of Parliament Red House, an imposing house of in Sevenoaks in , requiring the Wardens and Assistants of High Street. The bill alleged, among numerous Sevenoaks Corporation to rebuild, enlarge or repair the failures to maintain the Statutes and Ordinances, that school and almshouses “with all convenient speed”. the Corporation had “caused the school house to be Sevenoaks was a parish, not an incorporated pulled down, but neglected or delayed to rebuild it”. borough, and the “Corporation” was that of the schoo l The first of these was certainly true. During the and almshouses only. William Sevenoak’s foundation year preceding September John Simpson’s had been legally incorporated by Letters Patent of goods had been moved to “Day’s house”, while four , procured by Ralph Bosville, Clerk to the Court building tradesmen had been paid for “pulling down of Wards, who owned an estate at Bradbourne in the the Old School”. Between Michaelmas and north of the parish. Bosville’s Statutes and Lady Day Simpson rented a house from a Mr. Ordinances, agreed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Fane, except at Lady Day when half a year’s rent in , and confirmed by Act of Parliament in , was paid to a Henry Smith. Wherever these houses vested the government of the school in four were, Simpson later maintained that he had resided Assistants, one of whom was to be Bosville’s heir, the within the parish, about one furlong from the town, others to be chosen annually by the vestry. The while the rebuilding took place, and thus that he had Assistants were in turn to appoint two Wardens, and at all times been able to maintain a school. The old all six were to appoint a Master and Usher, and to almshouse, however, survived for another five years. allocate almshouses to the poor of their choosing. Its windows were still being repaired in – , its In the Assistants were William Bosville of tiling in – , and its pulling down was let no Bradbourne Hall, Sir Charles Farnaby of Kippington earlier than the end of , although before Hall in the west of the parish, Thomas Lambard of September . Park Place, not far south of the school, and Thomas The second allegation was more susceptible to Petley of Riverhead, north of the town. Petley died interpretation. The Corporation had certainly in and was replaced at the annual election in planned a new building of some kind long before. In September by his son, Ralph. In the election April , even before they had settled with the Ralph Petley was replaced by the Duke of Dorset, Commissioners of Customs, they had received a whose estate, Knole Park, bordered the Corporation proposal for masons’ work by Thomas Wigsell and property on the east. The Wardens were Robert Thomas Kipps, which included raising “Stonework Martin, a baker, elected in , and David Hills, to the height of ye Ground under the Base”, so it soon to be replaced by John Daines, a miller, elected clearly indicated a new building. Wigsell and Kipps in September on Hills’s death; in Thomas were actually bricklayers, but they tendered for both Everest, an innkeeper, replaced Robert Martin. The brick and stone work, as did all the bricklayers at Master was John Simpson, appointed in , and Sevenoaks. They proposed to use “Kentish Ragg removed (on petition of the parish) only in . Stone” and “garretting”; so the materials it was There had been no usher for several years. a eventually built of were established from at least , THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XI THE SCHOOL AND ALMSHOUSES AT SEVENOAKS Fig. Plan of Sevenoaks School and Almshouses before . Sevenoaks School. and were neither a revision, nor an ignorant realisation had been set out, and the surveyors had written of the ideal form. proposals for the bricklayers and carpenters. Before There is no indication, however, that anything the end of the year “the Sevl. Tradesmen” had was actually done for another four years. First, in returned their proposals. One, John Cross, agreed March , the Corporation agreed with Dr. Thorpe to execute carpentry of Rochester to purchase timber. Over the next two and a half years the Corporation spent further large in the Building a Free School and Almshouses now erecting or intended to be erected by the said Govrs. in sums assembling materials. Before September it the said Parish of Seven Oak ... according to a Plann had “Lett out the Carriage of Timber for the or upright thereof now show’d to the said John Cross. School”. Between then and September timber was turned, flayed, faggoted, cleaved, carried, hewn, So by Burlington’s design, with forty almshouses, knotted, measured and viewed. Boards were sawn. had evidently been superseded. Stone was drawn. Sand was fetched, lime was By September more stone, brick, sand and bought, and mortar was made. Brick earth was dug; a lime had been obtained, poles and deals for scaffolding kiln was built; moulds, tables and troughs were had been delivered from Deptford, a well had been made; turfs were carried to the clamp; straw, rakes, dug, and it would have been public knowledge that sand, rope, baskets, shovels, mats, and barrows were foundations had been laid, since s.

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