Along with millions of other viewers I recently enjoyed watching the BBC’s series “Wolf Hall” which, according to the BBC iPlayer, follows “The irresistible rise of Thomas Cromwell – who defied and defined an era. Mark Rylance leads the acclaimed adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s tales from the dark heart of Tudor history”. Thomas Cromwell’s “irresistible […]
Category: Farms and manors
The lost manor of Shrynkelyng’ in Nonington & Eastry
The north-eastern corner of the parish of Nonington is separated from the parish of Eastry by Thornton Road and across the road just inside the parish of Eastry is Shingleton Farm. Just to the north of the farm house is an area of woodland known as Shingleton Wood which contains the remains of the ancient […]
1863 & 1873: Diversion of footpaths at St. Alban’s Court in Nonington
Parish vestries were the predecessors of parish councils but had much more authority over parish affairs and finances. Nonington Parish Council held its inaugural meeting on 4th December, 1894.At a Nonington Vestry meeting in early 1863 Mr William Oxenden Hammond of St. Alban’s Court in the parish of Nonington requested: “to divert a certain footpath […]
THE VILL’ OF ESSESOLE:-HOUSE PLOTS AND LAND HOLDINGS AS RECORDED IN THE 1501 MANOR OF ESSESOLE RENTAL ROLL.
House plots and land holdings in the Vill’ of Essesole as recorded in the 1501 Manor of Essesole rental roll.The Lord of the Manor at this time was the Abbot of St. Alban’s, who also held the adjoining manor recorded as Eswalt in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was around this time that the Abbey’s two […]
Anglo- Saxon Nuns and Nonington by Peter Hobbs
Peter Hobbs is the present owner of the old St. Alban’s Court manor house in Nonington. Peter has published numerous articles concerning the extensive, and still ongoing, archaeological investigations he has undertaken over the past twenty or more years in and around the old St. Alban’s Court manor house and on the nearby site of […]
Nonington, Kent : a Contribution to its Early History By Dr. Frederick William Hardman, LL.D., F.S.A. with notes by Peter Hobbs of Old St. Alban’s Court, Nonington.
A verbatim copy of the draught manuscript of an unpublished history of Nonington written by Dr. F. W. Hardman in the early 1930’s. The page numbers shown are those of the copy, not the original manuscript. Following the manuscript copy is a personal note by Peter Hobbs of Old St. Alban’s Court on Dr. Hardman’s […]
Nonington: settlement before the Anglo-Saxons
Aerial photographs of the old parish of Nonington taken in the last half of the 20th century clearly indicate the sites of several early settlements dating back to the Iron Age [circa 500 BC onwards] and beyond. Accidental finds over the last couple of centuries of worked flints, pottery sherds and pot boilers in fields […]
Ralph Colkyn of Esol in Nonington: the massacre of the Jews of Canterbury and the Second Barons War (1264–1267)
When Henry III succeeded to the English throne after the death of his father, King John, in 1216. He initially had the support of the powerful English barons. However, over the years support for the King ebbed away as he became increasingly unpopular with many of the barons believing Henry to be an ineffective […]
The Fredville “Step Tree” and other chestnuts. Updated 24.4.20
In the 1930’s Dr. Hardman, a noted East Kent historian recorded the memories of Richard Jarvis Arnold of of life in Nonington in the 1880’s & 90’s. Mr. Arnold, a blacksmith born in Nonington but who later lived and worked in Walmer, recollected: “The trees of Fredville Park were well known. In addition to the old oak […]
Holt Street Farm in Nonington: the Slave Trade, Caribbean Pirates, and the founding of the British Museum.
It is now difficult to believe that the pleasant hamlet of Holt Street, more especially the present Holt Street Farm, had connections to the Atlantic Slave Trade between West Africa and the Caribbean. This was one of the darkest periods in British history which, whilst bringing incredible riches to a few European plantation owners, brought […]