THE ROMNEY MARSH IRREGULAR the Newsletter of the Romney Marsh Research Trust
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Registered Charity No. 297736 THE ROMNEY MARSH IRREGULAR The Newsletter of the Romney Marsh Research Trust No. 24 October 2004 I should like to begin by thanking all who have made my task easier and enjoyable over the last six years. It has been a real privilege working with you and I hope to see you at future meetings, walks and other events. I was also very fortunate to have Dr Antony Long, and recently Dr Helen Clarke, to work with in their role as chairman. As you will see from the centre pages, Dr Long, soon to be Professor Long, has decided to retire from the Executive committee. He has for many years been a tireless worker on the Trust’s behalf, as well as conducting important research on the Romney Marsh region. He will be sorely missed and on your behalf I should like to thank him for all his hard work, but most of all for his enthusiasm and his desire to get things done for the benefit of the Trust and its members. Dr Jason Kirby has volunteered to take his place on the Executive. Many of you have already met Dr Kirby, he was at the Trust’s conference in 2000, and though he may not be able to attend the AGM in November, he hopes to meet many more of you in the future. His interest in Romney Marsh began in 1994 when he worked as an RA for Dr Andy Plater and since then he has worked on a project with Dr Antony Long and Dr John Evans looking at the depositional history of the Wainway. Recently appointed as a lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, he hopes to return soon to working on Romney Marsh. Of the other changes from November, Terry Burke will be taking over as secretary and Dr Alan Tyler will become editor of the ‘Irregular’. I wish them all the best on your behalf. Ray Huson is willing to stand again as the members’ representative but if anyone else would like to stand Terry Burke would like to hear from them at least 10 days before the AGM. Similarly, if anyone would like to help organise events, please contact him. There is an outline programme (see centre pages) but any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated. Finally, the Trust as recently received three very generous donations: £25,000 from the Colyer-Fergusson Charitable Trust in memory of Sir James, £5,000 from the W.H & A Hawkins Charitable Trust and £10,000 from fees waived by Drs A. Plater, M. Waller and A. Long from the Rye and Dungeness projects. The money will be used for the Trust’s flagship project: the history of Rye and its hinterlands. Sheila Sweetinburgh 1 Appledore Mills Groundhog has recently had a quixotic turn of mind and tilted the snout to higher things, namely windmills, but more specifically Appledore mills. Until the 12th century there is no record of windmills, the first undisputed evidence for windmills is 1191 in connection with Dean Herbert’s ‘illegal’ mill at Bury St Edmunds. This would have been a post mill because tower mills did not appear until the 16th century and smock mills in the 18th century. At various times there have been four windmills in Appledore: at Hornes Place, Court Lodge and two on the Heath, next to each other. Symonson’s map (1594) shows two mills at Appledore: Hornes Place and Court Lodge both, of course, post mills. The latter being taken down c.1790; about this time a group of farmers got together and in 1794 they built the ‘modern’ smock mill on the Heath known as the Union mill, the octagonal base of which remains, now a house, and with its commemorative stone still in place. Fig 1: Appledore Heath windmills According to the research of Mary Adams, there appears to have been a mill at Hornes Place in 1265. A new mill was built by order of Prior Eastry of Christchurch Priory, the holders of Appledore manor, in 1303, and further works were carried out there in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. However, the plague in 1348, French raids in the 1380s, difficulties on the agricultural estates of monastic houses like Christchurch, the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 when Hornes Place was wrecked, and then the great earthquake of 1382, seem to have brought about its demise. In particular, the latter event apparently damaged the mill and in 1384 some new mill parts were acquired from Folkestone. Sometime after this Christchurch built a new mill (c.1480) on its land at Court Lodge which was let to laymen, part of its policy of leasing out rather than direct farming its estates. Fig 2: The Union Mill on the Heath, built 1791, demolished 1877 Of these mill sites, the mound which supported the post and trestle of Hornes Mill can still be seen crowned with oaks on its solitary hill. The Observer Corps used the site in the 1939-45 war. Near the smock mill base, in a corrugated shed, is the old brick round house of the post 3 mill which was transported from Playden, near Rye, not once but twice. Symondson’s map of Saltcote Street (Playden) shows two mills between there and Rye, but one seems disastrously near the cliff edge, so perhaps that one came to Appledore where it ended its days, being demolished in c.1900 by Mr G. Jarvis of Bethersden, ‘the mill smasher’, as was the smock mill in c.1908. The title was rather unjust to that gentleman because he also repaired mills. It seems that he kept the iron windshaft from the post mill and used it as a crane for his saw milling business. There is some confusion over the dating of the end of the Union mill, but according to Dr Cock in Finch’s Watermills and Windmills both mills were repaired by Messrs Hill, Ashford millwrights, in about 1876 and both were then in good working order with Mr Crux at the ‘Great Mill’ and Mr Turner at the post mill. Both mills are shown on the OS map of 1871 and are still there on the revised 1903 edition. This is a preliminary outline and comments/ideas are invited from those with knowledge of or interest in any of the Appledore mills. Ground hog Bibliography W.C. Finch, Watermills and Windmills J. West, The Windmills of Kent M. Watts, Water and Windpower Sir John Winnifrith, A History of Appledore. PS It is with regret that Ground hog wishes our delightful secretary, Sheila, farewell. Despite her many commitments, she has been a most efficient secretary and editor of the ‘Irregular’. For those who wonder what she has been up to ‘in her spare time’, her book The Role of the Hospital in Medieval England (Four Courts, Dublin), has recently been published, and an article on the medieval defences of Dover town is in Archaeologia Cantiana 2004. She, with Dr Helen Clarke, Sarah Pearson, Professor Mavis Mate and Keith Parfitt will shortly be involved in an English Heritage funded project on Sandwich. Ground hog is sure that everyone will thank her for her hard work and wish her all the best for the future. 4 Romney Marsh Visitor Centre. Fig 1: The Visitor Centre Many of you will have heard, and in Jill Eddison’s case at least, been involved in this long-standing project to create a facility where local people and visitors can find out about the history, landscape and wildlife of the Marsh. For several years an informal partnership of organisations including Shepway District Council, Romney Marsh Visitor Centre Charitable Trust, South Kent College, Kent Wildlife Trust, Romney Marsh Countryside Project and Kent County Council Social Services has been working to:- · Establish a training project for unemployed and disabled people · Landscape and manage for wildlife the Romney Warren · Build a Visitor Centre for the Romney Marsh With the training project well underway, and the appearance and wildlife value of the Warren much improved, the Centre itself is now open. Managed by Kent Wildlife Trust, the Centre tells the Marsh story through a dramatic exhibition covering the evolution of the landform; culture and heritage; landscape and wildlife, and promotes the care of the Marsh for the future. The displays also describe the background to the “Romney Warren Project” itself. We are very grateful to the Romney Marsh Research Trust for its help with this project over the years. 5 Designed by BBM Sustainable Designs to have a low impact on the environment the Centre has been built on ‘brown-field’ land, with straw-bale walls and a living roof. The straw-bales are locally sourced making good use of a ‘waste material’ and providing effective insulation. The bale building method also allowed unemployed and disabled students attached to the allied Romney Warren training project to take part in the construction, working alongside main contractors Eco-librium Solutions. The building has already received a ‘Commended’ in the Kent Design Awards and has been short-listed in the RIBA South East Design Awards. Fig 2: Inside the Visitor Centre The exhibition has also been built with the environment in mind. Wherever possible low environmental impact and recycled materials have been used, including, for example, waste wood, old pallets, donated fixtures and fittings, and plant stems, stones and gravel found on site. The project’s capital was approximately £240,000 and funding and in-kind contributions were offered by many organisations including:- · SAGA · SEEDA/Community Action South Kent (CASK) 6 · Shepway District Council · EPAC/British Nuclear Group · Environment Agency · Kent County Council Rural Revival · Kent Rural Development Area · Dungeness Trust · SEEBOARD & SEEBOARD ENERGY · New Romney Old School Trust · National Windpower The centre is currently open from Friday to Monday 11am to 4pm, and is available for group visits on other days.