|
Although not
actually in Nonington parish this pre-Roman settlement played a
vital part in the origins of Soles as many
Anglo-Saxon settlements were founded on or near previous
settlements and barrows, and which appears to be the case here.
There are at least two other similar sites in Nonington, one
near Kittington and another at the top of the hill behind
Nonington Church.
The name Soles derives from the O.E. sol: meaning mud or mire, and in
Kentish dialect meant a pond or pool of muddy water. The suffix
“sole” is very common in Kentish place names, near to Soles
Court are Nethersole and Ropersole.
Originally a manor in its own right dating back to pre-Conquest
times Soles Court was recorded in the Doomsday Book as follows:
"Ansfrid holds Soles
(Court) from the bishop (Odo, Bishop of Dover and Bayeaux and
Earl of Kent, half brother of William I with whom he later fell
out with and who stripped Odo of his lands and titles). It
answers for one sulung. Land for... In lordship 2 ploughs; 8
villagers with ½ plough. Value before 1066, 100 shillings; later
20 shillings;
now £ 6. Aelmer held it from King Edward".
An alternative more modern
translation from the original Latin is:
"Ansfrid holds of the bishop Soles. It is taxed at one sulung.
The arable land is...... On the demesne are two ploughs
(carucates), and eight villeins with half a plough (carucates).
In the time of Edward the Confessor it was worth one hundred
shillings, and afterwards twenty shillings, now six pounds.
Elmer held it of King Edward".
Soles
Court is so called because the manor held a Court Baron. Introduced into the post-Conquest
feudal system in the 1090's, the Court Baron was the principal
type of manorial court of the chief tenants of a manor and was
responsible for the internal regulation of local affairs of a
manor. It was attended by all those free tenants whose attendance at
court was a condition of their tenure and by customary tenants
who held land by an agreement made at the manor
court and entered on its roll with a copy of the entry regarded as proof of title.
The court dealt with such matters as the transfer of land, the
organisation of the common fields and meadows, the abatement of
nuisances' (defective hedges, blocking of paths, straying
beasts, etc) and anything concerning the occupations of the
inhabitants, which in most manors were connected with agriculture.
The Steward, who ran the court for the lord, kept a watchful eye
over the lord's rights, including rentals,
heriots and
boon
work.
Soles Butts, the shave (narrow strip of woodland) running across from
the Three Barrows site to join the wood above Soles Court (Upper
Soles Wood) forms part of the western boundary between Nonington and Womenswold
parishes, joining with the "Roman Road" (a pre-Roman
track way, adjacent to the Three Barrows Down burial mounds
which is part of the North Downs Way) which forms the southern boundary
of Nonington parish with Womenswold and Shepherdswell parishes.
Butts were boundaries where two properties "butted" against each
other, and Soles Butts may originally have been a man made
bank with ditches forming a manorial boundary with
adjoining Oxenden (which was centred
on the present Oxney Wood,) and Woollege manors. Soles Butts
separate Hogs Close on the Soles estate from Ruberry Downs on
the old Oxney manor, and are now part of Woollege Farm in
Womenswold parish.
Alternatively, a butt can be formed by the ancient
method of ploughing clockwise which resulted in a ridge or
‘butt’ being formed by the soil thrown up by the plough as the
furrows were going in opposite directions where pieces of plough
land adjoined. These ridges could grow to a considerable height and
width to form a sizeable ridge or ‘ butt.’ these are still
visible locally as these ridges often evolved into
‘listways’ (foot-ways and horse-ways).
Listways Cottages near Aylesham take their name from this type
of track way which still goes from the junction of Old Court
Hill , past Old Court Farm to Ratling Street, part of Nonington
Parish until it was divided into the separate Aylesham and
Nonington parishes in the early 1950’s.
General information
1250. 38th Henry III. (from Arch Cant. Vol 12, p 210).
"Hundred of Eastry.
Hamo de Soles tenet dimid feod in Soles de Ricardo Rokesle -
nota bene Johanes de Soles tenet dimid in eodem de eodem".
which translates as: "[H de Soles holds half …..
from Richard Rokesle (Richard de Rokestle)- note well, Johanes
de Soles holds half …..in the same place in the same conditions".
The Kent Hundred rolls of
1274-75 were a record of the rights and dues of Edward I, who
ordered their making on his return from crusade in 1274.
Under the Hundred of Eastry the entry for Soles reads: "Then
they say that John de Soles holds one fee in Soles of John
de Rokeste and the same John of Robert de Crevequer and the same
Robert of the king in chief and he owes 20s. each year at Dover
Castle".
The Manor, later College of Wingham had a small holding in the manorial
land at Soles, Archbishop Pecham's 1283-85 survey of the
College's lands records for Soles that:
William Adgar and Stephen son of Henry hold 22 acres for
which they provide 3 stackers, undertake 1 averagium & make 1 seam of
malt. (They also held land at
Bonnington).
Payments the Archbishop.
The same for his land at Soles, 1 hen.
1528. 19th Henry VIII.) Thomas Norton sold to John Boyes, ¼ of
the manor of Soles, with 200 acres of land, 200 acres of pasture
and 60 acres of woodland in Nonington & Barfrestone for £40.
1637. Manor, messuage, farm and lands called Soles, about 140
acres. Land occupied by Nich. Creake.
1664. First mention of Soles barn as separate entity, approx 6
score (120) acres.
1660’s. Sold by John Boys to Sir
Anthony Percival of Dover. Manor of Soles, barnes, messuages,
lands, tenements, meadows, pastures, woods, grounds and
hereditaments.
1698. Mentioned : manor or lordship of Soles and said barne,
mess lands, tenements and hereditaments thereunto.
1700. Soles manor and Soles barne, approx. Six score acres,
arable, pasture, woods and downs.
1704 Occ Laurence Austen (also at the White Horse, Church St.,
Nonington.), late Wm. Sharpe. Soles Field abuttg to the S.W. 12
acres occ Thos. Osbourne.
1760. One messuage, two barns, two stables, one orchard, one
hundred and fifty acres of land, ten acres of meadow, ten acres
of pasture and thirty acres of wood.
William Hasted in his ‘History and Topographical Survey of
the County of Kent’ vol. IX, published in 1800 records that
“Soles is a manor
at the boundary of this parish, next to Barfreston, which at the
taking of the survey of Doomesday, in 1080, was part of the
possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux.
Four years after which the King seized upon this estate among
the rest of his possessions. After which it was granted to the
family of Crevequer, and made a part of that barony, being held
of it by the tenure of performing ward to Dover Castle. Of Hamo
de Crevequer it was held by knight’s service in King Edward Is
reign, by Richard de Rokestle, and of him again by Hamo and John
de Soles, who certainly took their name from it, but this name
was extinct here in the beginning of King Henry IV’s reign, for
in the 4th year of it Thomas Newbregge, of Fordwich, was become
possessed of it, whose descendant sold it to Rutter, from which
name it passed, about the beginning of King Edward IV, to
Litchfield, whose descendant Gregory Litchfield alienated it in
King Henry VIII’s reign to John Boys, esq., of Nonington, in
whose descendants it continued down to John Boys, esq., of
Hode-court, who in Charles I’s reign alienated it to Sir Anthony
Percival, of Dover, comptroller of the customs there; in whose
descendants it remained till, not many years since, it was by
one of them passed away to Major Richard Harvey, who sold it to
Thompson, of Ramsgate , after whose death it came by marriage to
Mr. Stephen Read, of Canterbury, who afterwards alienated it to
John Plumptree, esq., of Fredville, (in 1800) the present owner
of it. A court baron is held for this manor”.
|
