The Medieval Houses of the Marsh: the Missing Evidence
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Romney Marsh: the Debatable Ground (ed. J. Eddison), OUCA Monograph 41, 1995 The Medieval Houses of the Marsh: the Missing Evidence Sarah Pearson The image of Kent as a county with a multitude of identified in any of the three rural parishes. However, at medieval houses is a common one, and in many areas it The Woolpack Inn in Brookland, as in several late 16th or has a firm foundation. One may, for example, cite Charing, early 17th-centuryhouses in Lydd, smoke-blackened rafters, which runs from the southern edge of the Downs, across which must have come originally from open-hall houses, the Vale of Holmesdale and into the sand and ragstone of were reused as part of the later structures, indicating the the Chart Hills, where 24 medieval houses have been former presence of sizeable and sturdy medieval buildings identified; or Smarden, lying in the low Weald, where at which were rebuilt in the early modern period. If one looks least 21 medieval dwellings are known. Although these beyond the parishes surveyed by the Commission a similar large parishes have more houses remaining than most, the picture emerges. In New Romney two or three early stone density of survivors is not unusually high, and it results buildings, which survive to a greater or lesser extent, have in three, or even four or more, medieval houses occurring been recorded (Parkin 1973, 124-7; Harris 1992), and a per 1000 acres. But densities of this sort are not universal, number of later timber-framed medieval houses have been and among the regions where few early dwellings remain identified (Parkin 1973, 120-4). In the countryside three today is Romney Marsh. medieval houses have been reported, one in each of the Work on the buildings of the Marsh formed part of a parishes of Burmarsh, Ivychurch and Old Rornney (DOE project on rural medieval houses in Kent which the Royal List 1985). But that is all. On the fringes of the Marsh the Commission on the Historical Monuments of England has Commission found only two medieval dwellings in recently completed, the results of which have been published Appledore, one of which is the splendid and atypical in three volumes (RCHME 1994). In terms of the project Hornes Place, home of the knightly Horne family who 'medieval' houses are those which were centred upon an supplied a number of Justices of the Peace, sheriffs and open hall heated by an open hearth; and the time span knights of the shire, during the 14th and 15th centuries. On covered begins in the late 13th century, when the first the other hand, in Aldington, seven early buildings survive dwellings start to survive, and continues into the early or in addition to the remains of the archbishop's palace, but all mid 16th century, when open halls were replaced by fully of them are located at some distance from the Marsh, up on two-storeyed buildings heated by enclosed fireplaces. the greensand of the Chart Hills. Three-quarters of the open-hall houses recorded were built Since timber-framed remains can lie hidden in later after 1450, and if one excludes large and early stone brick buildings, and since it was impossible to go into dwellings, then around 80% date from after the mid 15th every later house on the off-chance of discovering an century. Thus the vast majority of what we term medieval earlier core, it is possible that the odd example has been houses were built during a relatively short period at the missed. But such problems of identification are universal very end of the Middle Ages. throughout Kent, and it is inconceivable that the number On Romney Marsh the Commission surveyed four of medieval buildings remaining on the Marsh bears any modern civil parishes: the rural parishes of Brenzett, correspondence to the number surviving in the parishes of Brookland and Newchurch, and the town and parish of central Kent. Lydd. In addition, work was done in Aldington and Habitation reached its greatest density on the Marsh Appledore, both of which lie off the Marsh, but are earlier in the Middle Ages. Field walking has produced contiguous to it along one boundary. Within the Marsh evidence for far more pottery sherds dating between the itself medieval houses were only found in any number in Conquest and the early 15th century than from the periods Lydd, where eight early buildings remain, or remained either before or after (Reeves this volume, Table 5.l), with until recently, in or on the edge of the town. They are all a greater number dating to the first than to the second half timber-framed and likely to date from the middle of the of that relatively long span of time. In the 14th century both 15th century or later. Not one medieval dwelling was the lay subsidy of 1334 (Hanley and Chalklin 1964,67-70; The Medieval Houses of the Marsh: the Missing Evidence 93 Glasscock 1965, 64) and the 1377 poll tax' (Smith 1988, in many parts of Kent large numbers of sturdy and sizeable 199) show the region as still being reasonably wealthy and late 15th and early 16th-century houses still remain. well-populated; and in Ivychurch at least work continued This lacuna raises the question of what the medieval throughout the century on the parish church (Tatton-Brown houses of the Marsh were like, and whether they resembled 1989, 259-61). But by the 16th century the number of the buildings which survive in Charing, Smarden and inhabitants had declined (Harpsfield 1557) and the wealth elsewhere. The houses which remain in Lydd fall into two of the area was considerably less pronounced (Sheail 1972, categories. In the first place there are half a dozen high- Figs. 14;Smith 1988,200-01). In addition the amount of walled buildings of 'wealden' or 'end-jetty' type. Two pottery dating between 140011450 and 1500/1550 found wealdens, at 16 and 18 High Street, and at 4 and 5 Park from field walking was less than half that found from the Street, were found. Considerable alterations, including period between 1250 and the early 15th century (Reeves later brick and tile cladding, have disguised the this volume, Table 5.1). characteristic wealden form, with its appearance of a That no medieval houses, except for one or two stone recessed open hall and storeyed end bays overhanging to buildings in New Romney, date from before the late 14th the front; but large parts of both houses survive, including century, is hardly surprising. Early timber-framed their crown-post roofs (Fig. 6.1). It is likely that several buildings are rare anywhere, and in Kent they are largely of the New Romney houses are also of this form (Parkin confined to the region north of the Downs, where they 1973, 123). Other buildings had flush-walled fronts, seem to represent the homes of men of knightly rank. In possibly with overhanging jetties at the ends, although general, the houses of men below this social level are not examples such as 5 New Street and Poplar House, Poplar found before the late 14th century at the earliest. Whatever Lane are too altered for certainty on this point. The four the reasons for this may be - whether the structures were houses mentioned so far were probably normal dwellings, too early to survive in any circumstances, whether they with central open halls separating units of storeyed were insubstantial, or whether they were simply accommodation which contained the private rooms and demolished because attitudes as to what formed an service areas. But the building which now forms 13, 15 acceptable dwelling changed - a lack of early houses on and 17 New Street is highly unusual, for it appears to the Marsh, at a time when inhabitants were numerous and have had two, two-bay, open halls lying end-to-end in the some of them were wealthy, is not remarkable, since the centre of a long range, with single units of two-storeyed same situation prevails in most parts of the county. The accommodation at either extremity (Figs. 6.2,6.3). It lies oddity concerns what happened later, for even though the along one side of the churchyard. It might have formed population declined, it did not disappear altogether, and two semi-detached dwellings, as has been found elsewhere Fig. 6.1. Crown-po -0of at 4, 5 Park Street, dd. A Lopen hallABLopen hallL A1 OF--'- 5 30 Ft scale for sections B r B1 0 2 10 M Fig. 6.2. 13-1 7 New Strtzrr, Lydd. Two open halls, each with a two-storeyed bay at the end. Fig. 6.3. 13-17 New Street, Iqdd. Viewfrom the south. The Medieval Houses of the Marsh: the Missing Evidence 95 (Moran 1992, 12), but, given the large size of the 'halls' hearth between C and D, the use of a single aisle only, and and the small amount of subsidiary accommodation, it the style of details and joints, suggest a date late in the was possibly not a house, serving instead some special 15th or early in the 16th century. As well as the open hall and as yet undetermined function connected with the the house had subsidiary bays at each end. That to the church or the town. Its nearest parallel occupies a similar north, between A and B, has evidence for a very low situation near the church at Chiddingstone in west Kent ceiling dividing the ground-floor room from a loft above. (Gray 1988). It may be significant that the Old Court That to the south, between D and E, has been largely Hall, another building with an apparently non-domestic rebuilt and may at first have been open to the roof.