‘Big Fredville’ House was used as a girls boarding school from the mid-1920′s after the Plumptre family moved to the nearby newly built “Little Fredville” house. Actress Georgette “Googie” Withers was a pupil there around 1929 to 1930 just prior to beginning her long career. She was educated first at Fredville Park School, and after […]
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The lost Holestrete or Holt Street windmill in Nonington
The windmill appears to have been located just to the north of the site of the old Snowdown Collier pit baths and car park on the brow of the hill on the west side of the road up from Holt Street. The site would have been well served by roads to Ackholt, Holt Street in […]
Gavelkind, a Kent custom-free socage tenure of land
Gavelkind as a form of free socage tenure and of inheritance is an example of ancient customary law in England. Before gavelkind tenure was abolished by the passing of the Administration of Estates Act of 1925, all land in Kent was presumed to be held by gavelkind until the contrary was proved. Some ancient legal […]
Eswalt, later St. Alban’s Court: before the Domesday Survey of 1086
Eswalt and the neighbouring manor of Essewelle had once been part of of the manor of Oesewalum, also Oeswalum and Oseuualun, which had belonged to Christ Church Cathedral Priory in Canterbury and then came into the possession of the Crown, probably during the latter part of the 10th century. The Domesday Survey of 1086 records that during the reign […]
The Royal Oak in The Drove in Lower Holt Street-revised 2.3.2018
The last of Nonington’s alehouses to be licenced was The Royal Oak in The Drove, Lower Holt Street, Nonington, which was also the last of the old alehouses to carry on business. The pub is sadly closed at present and leaves Nonington without a pub. Hopefully it will re-open in the very near future. William Wanstall junior […]
A PULHAM GARDEN REDISCOVERED IN NONINGTON, KENT by Peter Hobbs.
An edited version of this article by Peter Hobbs, the present owner of Old St. Alban’s Court, was previously published in Archaeologia Cantiana Vol: 138-pages 291-299. Since 1519, the Hammond family had lived at what appears to have always been known locally as St Albans, substantially adding to and changing the original fourteenth century hall […]
The Esole dovecote
For centuries domestic pigeons were kept in dovecotes, also known as a columbaria; pigeonnaire; or pigeon house. They were easy to breed and provided a meat considered to be a delicacy by the wealthy and their manure was considered to be the best fertilizer available. Pigeon dung has a very high nitrogen content and has […]
Hammond, Plumptre, & Co., the Canterbury bank
William Osmund Hammond As well as being land-owners, the Hammonds of St. Alban’s Court and the Plumptres of Fredville were also partners in a Canterbury bank. In 1818, the bank was called Hammond, Plumptre, Furley, Hilton & McMaster, but was more generally known as the Canterbury Bank. However, over the years the bank was also […]
Acol, or Ackholt, in the old parish of Nonington-revised 11.01.2018
Ackholt, Acholt or Acol, Nonington. Also:1283 Ackholt; 1469 Akholte; 1626 Acholt. Ackholt is now in the Parish of Aylesham and lies just the other side of the railway-line where the Nonington to Womenswold bridle way crosses the Snowdown to Aylesham road on the southern boundary of the old parish of Nonington. Pronouced Acol (Aye-kul) with a long […]
Sir John Harleston at Esol and Freydvill’-revised 2.1.2017
The 1377 St. Alban’s Abbey manorial rental rolls for Esol record that the house, buildings and land previously held by Sir John de Beauchamp was then owned Sir John Harleston, who also had a life interest in the Manor of Freydvill’. Sir John Harleston, sometimes spelt Harlestone or Herliston, had much in common with Sir […]