Old St. Alban’s Court picture gallery

Colonel Francis Hammond, born 1584. He reputedly fought 14 single combats during his service in the German Wars [The Thirty Years War] & and commanded the forlorn hope at the English Civil War battle of Edgehill
Colonel Robert Hammond. Served with the Royalist forces in the English Civil War and was shot on the order of Oliver Cromwell while fighting in Ireland The portrait hangs in the old Beaney Institute, now the Canterbury Royal Museum and Art Gallery.
William Oxenden Hammond, born in 1817, died in 1903. A land-owner, banker and magistrate. This 1883 portrait hangs in the Beaney Institute, Canterbury.
The Canterbury Bank
Plumtre, Hammond & Co., the Canterbury Bank building, now Lloyd’s Bank on the corner of St. Margaret’s Street and the High Street, Canterbury
1895 Hammond to Plumptre School letter
1895 A letter from the bank to Mr. Plumptre concerning Nonington School.
The north-east side of old St. Alban’s Court house, from a print made circa 1790
A similar view of the old house from “The Epitomy of the History of Kent”, 1838
A photo of the old St. Alban’s Court house taken in the 1870’s.
Old St. Alban’s House painted in 1893 by W.O. Hammond, the owner, who was a talented amateur water-colourist.
A photograph of the South-West side of the old house taken in the 1870’s. The 1869 stable yard and buildings are off to the right
The NE side of the house viewed from the terrace of the new house, circa 1938.
A closer viw of the NE side taken some 25 years earlier.
The NE side and gardens, 1930’s
The Duke of Kent and Miss Wright entering the old house gardens, during his visit to Nonington College in June, 1939
The north side and gardens with the arch through to the court-yard
A close up of the house and bell-tower
The arch leading from the court-yard to the gardens
The sun dial
The house viewed from the court-yard
In 1869 W.O. Hammond commissioned George Devey to build a new stable block and yard for the house
The Duke of Kent in the court-yard of the old house, June, 1939
Students of Nonington College wave goodbye to the Duke of Kent in the stable-yard

Additional information:
1-Plumtre, Hammond & Co.,Canterbury Bank.
As well as being land-owners, the Hammonds of St. Alban’s Court  and the Plumptres of Fredville were partners in Plumtre, Hammond & Co., a Canterbury bank, from at least 1824. By 1830 the bank had become Hammond & Co., the  partners then being: William Osmond Hammond, John Plumptree, Deane John Parker and John Furley ……Glyn & Co.
In 1845- The Bankers Magazine recorded that  Hammond & Company’s partners were:-William Osmund Hammond, of St. Alban’s Court,Nonington,Kent;  John Pemberton Plumptre, of Fredville, Nonington, and M.P. for Kent; John Furley, of Canterbury, who had replaced the late William Foord Hinton; and William Henry Furley, of ,Canterbury.
A decade later in 1850 the banks partners were listed as: William Osmond Hammond, St. Alban’s Court,Nonington,Kent, Esquire; John Pemberton Plumptre, Fredville, Nonington, Esquire; William Henry Furley, Canterbury, Esquire; Thomas Hilton, Nackington House, near Canterbury, Esquire; and John Furley, Jun.,Canterbury, Esquire.
By the late 1880′s Hammond & Co’s Canterbury Bank had premises at 51, High Street with George Furley and McMaster as managers. These premises are the present Lloyds Bank building on the corner of the High Street and St. Margaret’s Street.
The 1901 census records both Charles J. Plumptre of Fredville and William Oxenden Hammond of St. Alban’s Court as being a “partner in  bank”. William Hammond, then aged 86, was recorded in the same census as residing at St. Alban’s Court with seven “live in” servants.
The 1903 Kelly’s Directory for Kent, the Canterbury section reports: ”There are three banks , viz.: the Canterbury bank, carried on under the firm of Hammond, Plumptre, Hilton, McMaster & Furley, and branches of the London and County Banking Company and Lloyds Bank.” By 1904 the bank had become the Capital and Counties Bank.