Vol. 94 1978 page 084

until its demolition towards the end of the eighteenth century. The view is taken from the north, and on the right can be clearly recognized the Tudor pigeon house still remaining - though sadly now in ruins - ably described by the late John E. L. Caiger in Arch. Cant., lxxxix (1974), 36-41. Surrounding the house are shown gardens and plantations within walled enclosures, the whole being a very complete bird's-eye view of the establishment when occupied by the Meredith family in the early eighteenth century. One would expect to observe some recognizable features of the main building to coincide with the medieval layout as revealed by the recent excavations, but after careful study I am forced to conclude that this cannot be done with any certainty. The façade of the house faced north and was very similar in style to Charlton Court, East Sutton, dated 1612 and illustrated in The Buildings of England -West Kent and the Weald (1969). Behind it appears a series of buildings with pitched dormered roofs, apparently ranged round a small court. This suggests continuity with the claustral plan, but details of the buildings themselves show no obvious medieval characteristics and the enclosed area is much less than that of the monastic cloister garth. In the foreground, projecting west from the main structure, appears a building with buttresses on its north side, and this might possibly be a survival of the wing shown by excavation to have been attached to the north end of the medieval west		range. If this identification is correct, the Jacobean front would have stood just south of the destroyed nave. Excavation revealed evidence of post-Dissolution alteration in the area of the south transept, where a concentration of domestic rubbish was uncovered, including pottery of c. 1700. The chapter house showed clear evidence of having been used as a coal store and walls to its east were of a constructional character quite dissimilar to the adjoining medieval work. A rectangular compartment in this area (the smaller of the two shown on the plan covering the site of the eastern limit of the destroyed apse) was lined with brickwork, the inner face of the walls having internal projections one brick thick, forming small stalls, about 10 in. wide, each with a pottery bowl mortared into the floor. [Pictures] Their purpose is a mystery, although it has been suggested that they were nesting places for poultry, and the pottery, with patchy green glaze on the interior, suggests a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century date. In the south range, the brick oven inserted in the back of the medieval fireplace is evidence of continued use of this part of the Priory after the Dissolution and, as previously stated, both constructional evidence and associated pottery leads to a similar conclusion regarding the kitchen. A short distance south of the Priory site there stands a detached rectangular building shown on the O.S. Sheet at TQ 82345295. Most
Page 84 (This page prepared for the Website by Ted Connell)

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs. Any errors noticed by other researchers will be to gratefully received so
that we can amend our pages to give an accurate record as possible. Please send details too research@kentarchaeology.org.uk