Stonar and the Wantsum Channel Part III: (Conclusion) - The site of the Town of Stonar
“ Stonard ys yn Thanet sumtyme a prety town not far
from Sandwich I Now appereth alonly the mine of
the chirch. Sum people cawle yt Old Sandwiche.”
Thus Leland’s Itinerary of 1549. No survey of the site of this once famous town, originally built presumably more or less round the church on the 12 acres “ of stone bache,”[fn1] has been made but the shingle bank, which seems from the historic period to have been above the level of" storm and tide, is now being proved to have been chosen for permanent settlement. The records of destruction by the sea probably relate to the spread of the town on to the flood plain, and towards the ferry across the Stour. In 1127 (A.C., LIV, 49, and Boys, 553) it was complained at Sandwich that some persons have begun to build small' houses on the opposite side of the haven at the place called Stonore where ships went in fine weather so that they might stop there, and toll and custom taken . . . “ which should have been collected by the officers of Sandwich.” The excavations which have been carried on for the last few years on sites on the shingle show no evidence of destructive flooding, although there is no doubt, as mentioned later, that changes of level have and are constantly taking place.
The shingle bank, which evidently acted as a breakwater for the shipping landing cargoes at wharves on its landward side at an earlier date than 1127, must have shown a scene of desolation when the town was derelict. William Somner (Boman Ports and Forts in Kent, 1693, 96) describes Stonar as “ being a low and flat level apt to inundations.” He probably was looking at the place from Sandwich while Dr. Richard Pocock (Travels through England) noticed in his journey south from Ramsgate on September 12th, 1754, that he had a “ broad gravelly beach to the left most part of the way, and consequently the sea must sometime overflow in some degree.” Barren shingle would suggest this last sentence to the passing traveller.
On destruction wrought by the sea in this area it is worth quoting what William Dugdale[fn2] records for us : [pg38]Tn 39 Ed. UI (1365-6) the King being informed that the Sea had more than formerly overflowed the Lands, Marshes, and other Tenements, extending from a certain place called the divesende, within the Isle of Tanet, unto the Town of Stonore, which contained in compasse two miles ; whereby in a short time the hurt and damage done thereto, was such, as that was almost destroyed: And that within a few dayes, except some help were had to resist those violent over-flowings, all the low grounds adjoyning to the Sea and Arms thereof within the Hundreds of Ryvesko, Wyngham, Prestone, and Downhamford, to an inestimable damage, would be overwhelmed ; he assigned Raphe Spigurnell, then Constable of Dover Castle, John Cobham, Robert Belknap and others, to enquire and determine thereof according to the Law and Custome of this his Realm.
The excavations by the second author, with the help of Mr. B. W. Pearce and other friends, give us the following section as exposed by the steam navvy. Above the clean shingle, which is dredged from below water level (see Pt. I, in A.G., LUI, 70) is about 5 ft. 8 in. of shingle with non-continuous seams of sand. Where the top of the shingle has not been disturbed, the parting between it and the occupation deposit is a buff sandy loam with scattered pebbles. Where disturbed, it shows an infiltration of muddy material from the early occupation. The whole of this top shingle with its overburden is being dug and dumped into the older of the two artificial lakes. In this way the face of the medieval layer is exposed, and is brought down as the excavation proceeds,
The occupation deposits can in many places be divided up into two beds, both from the contents and from a slight difference in composition. In one place this bedding was shown by a discontinuous course of blocks of chalk and finer chalk, while at another occurred a course of a few broken pale-buff haven-mud bricks of a late fifteenth or early sixteenth century type, measuring in width and thickness 4J in. by 2 in. A section at the latter spot showed the medieval layer to be 13 in. thick, while the thickness from the base of the bricks to the bottom of the concrete foundations of the 1914-18 war sheds was 17 in. The height of the concrete floor of the sheds nearest the present excavations is 13 -93 ft. above O.D. at Liverpool, and the top of the shingle on which the medieval layer rests is on the average 3 ft. below this.
The lower (medieval) occupation deposit lies on the fairly level surface of the shingle but in places, where there had been hearths, it lies in shallow hollows, or in one case in a definite trench-like hollow. This last (A.C., XLV, 257, and XLIX, 278-9) ran for some feet nearly north and south, and contained much pottery. On its northern side was a well, steened with rubble stonework, the longer pieces shaped to the curve of the face, and large flints. This was cleared down to water level and in its filling was found one of the timber crutches for the rope drum.
[pg39]The lower part of the above deposit is inclined to be clean and loose in composition but soon alters to a dark stiff earth which dries very hard. From the blocks of chalk, pieces of Folkestone Stone and broken tiles there is some evidence of buildings. A layer of tiles in one place seemed to indicate a paved floor, but no walling has as yet been exposed. The soil is full of decayed material, animal bones, shells of oyster, whelk, periwinkle, mussel and cockle (the first two far the most plentiful) although some handfuls of periwinkles at one spot showed the discarded remains of a feast. With these are wall plaster, ashes, charcoal and burnt flints, worn pot-sherds which had been lying about, and cleanly broken sherds of cooking pots and various coloured and decorated glazed wares. This material and other finds are referred to more fully later.
Proof of the Roman occupation of Stonor seems clear by the recovery of various fragments of brick and tile, Niedermendig-lava querns, a 4 in. section of a white marble shaft, 3 in. in dia., with a drilled hole, and a part of a turned Purbeck-marble bowl. It seems unlikely that these scraps were carted from the Roman site at Richborough, especially as the 6 in. Ordnance Survey marks site of Roman remains round and about Stonar House.
From the occurrence of the course of bricks, and of sherds of stoneware, the deposit which lies above the medieval layer, seems to be of sixteenth and early seventeenth century date, but with the little that has been found so far and the evidence that has been adduced the place must have been deserted. It was certainly not a profitable cure for a parson, few of whom from the fifteenth century are likely to have been resident.
From the high class of much of the pottery in use at Stonar (it has been considered that the polychrome ware was “ the finest of the period and acquired for the tables of the great ’’J[fn1] we may gather that people of some wealth dwelt there in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but like so many near sea-level settlements on the south-east and south coasts it suffered through the instability of the coast line (see Pt. II of this paper, LIV, 55). This was inclined to decrease its value as a port and in the Calendar of Miscellaneous Inquisitions, quoted by Miss Murray under the date 1280[fn2] it is declared “ that the King would lose nothing if Stonar were submerged or destroyed ; five ships were owned by the Barons of the Head Port of Sandwich, and they alone were responsible in case of default.” Rather later, apparently of the closing years of this century, we have a full rental of Stonar.[fn3] The list includes [pg40]about 120 tenants or heirs of tenants, among whom are seven women a priest, clerks, a skinner, a cobbler, and millers. They paid in reni 44s. 5d. (John the miller of Stonar paid 5s. twice a year for his mill The Black Book, 23.)
In 1359 Edward in lodged in Stonar from October 11th to 28th it the house which Robert Go vcrils had lately possessed, waiting to embarl at Sandwich for foreign parts (Boys’ Sandwich, 669). In the same yeai there was a great inundation ; and this was followed in 1365-6 by whai is recorded to have been a more destructive one (Boys, 669). In 1372 (Murray, op. cit. 56) Stonar refused to pay the subsidy assessed on ii as it had been decided in 1368 that their town lay in Kent without the Cinque Port liberty, but in 1384 the church was included in the Deanerj of Sandwich. The next year the French with eighteen ships descender on the town and having first laid it waste destroyed it with fire. The Abbot of St. Augustine’s at the time was at his manor of Northbourne and, as Thorne tells us,[fn1] would have saved it [Stonar] had he been able to find free passage from his manor to Sandwich. “ The Abbot being thus foiled by the French ships ” which, as Davis notes, must have occupied the Wantsum Channel far up from Sandwich, “ wishing witl God’s help to keep safe his own property and that of his tenants [and making a detour by Fordwich and Sturry, succeeded with great toi in reaching the island ” of Thanet. The whole story is a dramatie account of the treachery of Simon Burley, Constable of Dover Castle and of attempts of the French to get a footing in Thanet, Philipott’: observation on this destructive raid is that Stonar “ ever since hatl found a sepulchre in its own rubbish.”[fn2]
In the Index to the Cinque Ports White Book, edited by H. B Walker, 1905, 53, is the entry under the date 1520, Rob* Broke o: Sandwich to have 40/- of M[fn1] Worms “ for hurts received at Stonar.”
The New Black Book of Sandwich, which records matters fron 1608-42, contains a petition to the Lord Warden for leave to tak< stones from Stonar to mend its (Stonar’s) highways. Sir Henry Crispi as owner refused to give leave. The Lord Warden “ refers ye matte: and agrees that stone may be taken till ye Title can be tryed by Law.’ In 1650, two years after Sir Henry’s death, there was an order for thi work to be done as the inhabitants of the Isle of Thanet needed to pas that way to the Haven, and that “ there be a footway and posts o: beacons about ye horseway to direct the passengers when the watej shall overflow the ways . . . and that grippes or open places bi made to pass away the water that it annoy not the marshes.”
Sir Henry stood very much on his rights in any claims of Sandwiol over Stonar. In an early epitome of the Black Book “ a Ryot a [pg41]Stonnar ” was a cause of complaint by him and Peter Vanderflate to the Justices of Sandwich. A jury was empanelled to enquire thereof. Crispe during this period was distressed for Ship money on land in Stonar and Heneborg (Little Joy),[fn1] “ but pays before its driven.” The Stonar land had been assessed at £6 towards providing an 800 ton ship to cost £6,000. These squabbles arose from the owner’s claim “ that Stonnar is out of ye Liberty of ye Ports.”
[fn2]Villars Cantianum, 1659, p. 390.
Harris in his History of Kent (1719) quotes from a MS. diary of Dr. Robert Plot, dated about 1693, which says “ that the Ruins of the Town of Stonar did remain till the Memory of Man and took up many Acres of Ground; but were lately removed to render the Ground fit for Tillage, and so much of them as could not be put to any Use composed that Bank which remains between the Two Houses; whereof that House next the present creek [Stonar House] borders upon the old Town; the other which is more remote, being of a later erection ; but both are called Stonar.”
The Rev. John Lewis in 1736[fn2] wrote that “ the Town stood on a rising Ground. . . . Some of the Foundations were remaining not many Years ago, and the Traces are still visible among the Corn. At present there is only one Farm-house where Stonore anciently stood, about twenty roods from which, near the Road, on a little rising Ground, stood the Church, of which there are now no Remains left above Ground.” Seymour records in 1776 that Viscount Dudley and Ward rebuilt the farm-house in {sic} stone.
The Church.
n St. Augustine’s Abbey was granted by Canute the estates of the dissolved nunnery of Minster in 1027, and from about 1087 Stonar, as one of the Abbey’s possessions, begins to appear in the Charters (A.C., LIV, 48 and 49). We must suppose that the place possessed a church in pre-Conquest times as “ S Nicholas at Stanores ” appears in the eleventh century document copied into the White Book of St. Augustine of the year 1200. The site is shown on the thirteenth century map reproduced in the Rolls edition of the History.
In 1242 Abbot Robert freed the church of the small pension of 2s. up to then due to the Abbey.[fn3] In 1280-1 {A.O., LTV, 51) men of Sandwich assaulted the Abbot’s officials, burnt his mills and did much damage to his coast defences, and, to aggravate the offences, pursued the men to Stonar church and besieged them in it almost a day.[fn4] In
‘ Calendar of Patent Rolls, 9 Ed. I, Vols. 1272-81.
[pg42]the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV of 1291 the church was worth £5. The importance of the building as a meeting place both to the town and in the eyes of the barons of Sandwich is shown from the following extract relating to the liberties and privileges claimed by the barons in Stonar.[fn1] The Barons when they pass over to Stonore with the Mayor and jurats are to command by proclamation the commonalty to assemble before the Mayor and jurats in Stonore church. In 1384 the church of Stonar paid 5s. to the King, being the half of one-tenth of its assessment. This was little more than the least paid by the poorest of all those belonging to St. Augustines.[fn2]
The sad end of the church may be visaged in this final record.. On June 22nd, 1558, at the sale of Stonar with the patronage of the rectory (A.C., LIV (1941), 54) the church seems to have been disused and derelict as from the sale were excepted the bells, the lead on the tool and in the guttering, and the windows.
In A.O., VI (1864-5), 1, it is recorded that Mr. E. F. S. Reader had traced out the foundations of the church which, with adjacent buildings stood in the middle of a clump of trees. The latest note on the site comes from Captain C. F. Newington of Sandling who has recorded that in October 1911, men, supervised by the present Major Gwillyw Lloyd George, were excavating on the site of the church and had exposed foundations, a few tiles, and skeletons.
The Rectors of St. Nicholas, Stonar
The following list, with some additions by the late Mr. Arthui Hussey, was compiled from the Registers of the Archbishops al Lambeth Palace Library by the late Rev. T. S. Frampton. His original notes are in the Canterbury Cathedral Library. He lists thirty-one rectors to the Reformation.
[fn1] The Chutumal of Sandwich, 14th 0. Cf. Boys, 1792, p. 647.
[fn2] Thome’s Chronicle, p. 635,
Plate I. JUG OF EARLY 14th C. TYPE FROM THE CARMELITE FRIARY,
SANDWICH. Found buried elose to the wall of the South
side of the Church. Restored.
[pg47]
The Pottery and Other Finds
Part II of this paper (AC*., LIV (1941)) included an appendix by Mr. G. C. Dunning, F.S.A., on Polychrome Pottery from Stonar. This dealt with a series of sherds of jugs whose provenance is S.W. France. Till the many other types of pottery can be submitted to a. detailed examination it is only necessary now to mention the main classes of wares that were in use on this maritime site in the thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.
As might be expected cooking pots of the stew-pan class with nearly flat bases up to 9 in. in internal dia., and, in the better potting,, of thin body, form the majority of the sherds. With these are deep dishes. Rims are usually broad and flat, sides spread and bulge slightly; and there is an angle at junction of sides and base. The interior in many cases has a thin hard brownish glaze which may also spot the outside. These very fragile wares seem to have been the commonest productions of the potteries on the London day of the Forest of the Blean, whence they could have been transported down to and by the Stour to Stonar. Preliminary notes on a recent exposure of a kiln site in the above area, and a report by Mr. Dunning appear later in this volume.
Handled jugs are many and various, and often full-bodied. They may be partly covered with a yellow, brown or olive green glaze, and they may also be glazed inside. The typical lips are thin with a pinched-out spout and with a moulding of two members. In coarse pottery an example of the tubular spout has been found. The simplest handles are wide with plain thickened edges, but these show an endless variety in shape, massiveness, ornamentation and glaze. Stabbing of handles and rims to allow for the shrinking of the clay in firing is general. The better class of flagon, probably imported from the Continent, has a hard cream or bluish-white body, and has a light mottled green glaze. The slightly moulded base is fiat and the spout, if parrot-beaked, is of the bridge type (ef. A.C., LIV, 57). This type of spout is also found in coarse heavy ware with greenish glaze. The common reddish or grey ware jug of the period has the foot pinched out into a number of supports which counteracted the sagging base (see Plate I). A characteristic article is a small, tall narrow beaker splayed out towards the top and drawn in near the base.
Decoration takes the form of belts made by engraved wooden wheels, by scale work, or by rosettes. These last are stamped on the clay which has been pushed up from the interior. The separately made rosette common on the Rye pottery is rare.
Among the glazes is a thick dark green one which was used on a red body, and which flakes off much as does the tin glaze on Delf ware.
Although fragmentary the most interesting object of this class [pg49]that has been found is a pottery aquamanile. These jugs were copied from those of bronze which date from the late twelfth to the fourteenth century.
Plate II. VARIOUS METAL OBJECTS AND A BONE TAG EROM STONAR.
The few other objects that have turned up include keys, knives, nails and rings, bronze strap ends, scraps of brass and copper, a mass of melted lead, and two well-made spindle whorls. Seven of the finds are illustrated on Plate II. The Tertiary sandstone was found an efficient material for the larger hones. One imported schist hone has been found. Broken tiles when chipped into rough disks came in useful as pieces for such a game as shovel-board. Their average diameter is from If ins. to 2} ins.
In Part I of this paper (A.C., LIII (1940), 70) an account was given of the composition of the Stonar shingle bank. Among the flint boulders and pebbles, its natural constituent, occur certain derived materials from the beds at and above the junction with the chalk to
the north. These are tabular and green-coated flint, indurated lime-cemented sandstone, silicified wood and cemented chalk breccia. But far more interesting than any of these are the erratics of quartz, quartzite, and igneous and altered rocks which are far travelled.
Their occurrence presupposes an antiquity for this isolated deposit far greater than the coastal beaches. The attached Report deals with certain of these foreigners and their composition; and suggests one stage in their origin.