In 1349 the Abbot of St. Alban’s was the Lord of the Manor of Esol, and his manorial rent rolls for that year show that Sir John de Beauchamp held at Esole:-‘one messuage [now called Beauchamps-my note] with dovecot, 60a arable, 12a pasture at a total annual manorial rental of 52 s.6d payable to the […]
The Reverend Frederick Chalmers and his orphanage at the Nonington Vicarage
The Reverend Frederick Chalmers, 1860. Captain Frederick Chalmers, an Indian Army officer who had been born in Nova Scotia in what is now Canada, returned to England in 1842 after serving as Superintendent of Mysore in India to take Holy Orders. He was accompanied by his young son whose mother had died when he was […]
The Knight’s Fee of Essewelle: Wischards, Hotots, and Colkyns at the Manors of Esol and Freydevill’
New information and a re-interpretation of information already available has shed new light on the chain of ownership and occupation of Essewelle from around 1215 to the mid-1340’s. This article supersedes the previous one regarding the tenure of the Colkyns at Essewelle. The Wischards at Essewelle In 1166 King Henry II commanded that persons holding knights […]
The Knight’s Fee of Essewelle-from Domesday to the end of the First Barons War-revised 24.12.18
Bishop Odo holds Essewelle. The Domesday Survey of 1086 records the manors of Eswalt, Essewelle, and Soles as part of the holdings of Odo, Bishop of Bayeaux, who was the half-brother of King William I, the Conquerer. Odo was created Earl of Kent in 1067 as reward for his support during William’s invasion and subsequent […]
The Ancient Manor of Oesewalum. Revised and updated 26.11.2018
The origin of the name Oesewalum has been the subject of discussion for many years, J. K. Wallenberg in his “The place-names of Kent” published in 1934, believed the name to derive from ōs or ēs; a deity/deities or semi-deity/deities and walu; a bank or ridge, giving a literal meaning of the ridge or bank […]
The settlement and church at Oesewalum: the origins of Nonington.
St. Mary’s Church appears to have been built in the original manorial settlement that became Nonington proper and it is likely that a chapel had been founded there during the ownership of Oesewalum by at least two abbesses of the Benedictine Abbeys of Minster on the Isle of Thanet and Southminster at Lyminge from the […]
The Ancient Manor of Oesewalum-much revised. Also: Where was Oesewalum?
The origin of the name Oesewalum has been the subject of discussion for many years, J. K. Wallenberg in his “The place-names of Kent” published in 1934, believed the name to derive from ōs or ēs; a deity/deities or semi-deity/deities and walu; a bank or ridge, giving a literal meaning of the ridge or bank […]
The Boys family of Fredville and the English Civil War-updated
Some information was kindly forwarded to me by Victor Judge regarding Edward Boys, a younger son of Sir Edward Boys of Fredville, and the younger brother of Major John Boys, the last Boys of Fredville. Sir Edward Boys of Fredville served as Lieutenent of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was initially […]
Fredville House School in Nonington-revised and with additional new photographs.
‘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 […]
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 […]