Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Former site of chapel of Scots Grove, Ash, near Ridley

Monument Types

• CHAPEL (CHAPEL, Medieval to Modern - 1320 AD? to 1901 AD?)

Full description

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(TQ 60296644) Chapel (NR) (Site of) (1) Chapel of Scots Grove, Ash, near Ridley. The dedication of this chapel is not mentioned in Hasted's Kent or any other book to may knowledge. It was probably a chapel attached to Scots Grove, since the latter was anciently accounted as a manor. Hasted speaking of it says 'there was once a chapel belonging to this estate, the foundations of which are still visible in a wood called Chapel Wood.' (2) There was once a chapel belonging to the Scot Grove estate "the foundations of which are still visible in a wood called Chapel Wood". (3) There is now no definite evidence of a building to be seen at this site. (4) TQ 60286633. The foundations of a rectangular building in Chapel Wood, traces of which are still visible, are reputed to have been the Chapel belonging to the medieval village of Scotgrove. The foundations of the Chapel together with traces of what may be other buildings are enclosed within a rectangular earthwork (see illus) which now shows as a low bank approximately 3 ft above the present ground level and some 12 ft wide at the base. (5) An instrumental survey of the c.8 acre site was made under the direction of J.E.L Caiger. (5,6) A complex of flinty banks forming small enclosures and sub-divisions within a larger bank with outer ditch which runs around the edges of Chapel Wood and extends beyond it eastwords into an area of private housing, and which is probably an old woodland boundary bank. Surveyed at 1:2500, earthworks centred at TQ 60226642. (7) TQ 602664. Excavations on the site of the medieval settlement site at Scotsgrove between 1972 and 1976 revealed several buildings. The ground plan of the structure located in 1972 consists of the flint-footings of what appears to have been a timbered hall-house with a timbered extension to the west and a mortared flint extension with an undercroft to the east. The stone threshold of an external doorway to the undercroft was exposed in 1975. Superimposed on a barn like structure to the east is a much later structure of loose flints which was presumably that interpreted as a chapel by Hasted in 1977. (9) A structure some 50 metres to the south west had a roughly circular plan; its use is not clear but an oxmill or dovecote seems possible. (9) Loose flint foundations of a second hall-house were found, 20 metres to the north of the first, overlying the spoil layer from the boundary ditch of the settlement. It contained a well-preserved tiled hearth. (11) Datable material has been sparse but pottery and worked ragstone recovered suggest a date range of from the 13th to the mid 14th centuries. (9) Bronze and iron artifacts plus pottery were obtained from a shallow pit outside the north-west corner. (10)
TQ 60286633. The site of the manorial buildings of Scotgrove is in an area of coppice woodland long known as Chapel Wood. Manorial history from the 13th century. The chantry must have been in existence for some time before 1320 but no record of its creation has been traced. (12)
Brief description of earthwork at Chapel Wood, Hartley. (13) Brief report on excavations since 1972. (14)

<1> OS 6' 1909 (OS Card Reference). SKE48295.

<2> Bygone Kent 1892 77-8 (G M Arnold) (OS Card Reference). SKE38444.

<3> Hist of Kent 1 284 (Hasted) (OS Card Reference). SKE43932.

<4> Arch Cant 29 1911 219 (A Hussey) (OS Card Reference). SKE34938.

<5> F1 CFW 19_AUG_59 (OS Card Reference). SKE42644.

<6> Arch Cant 82 1967 285-7 plan (J A Keen) (OS Card Reference). SKE35746.

<7> Md Arch 12 1968 175 (D M Wilson & D G Hurst) (OS Card Reference). SKE46576.

<8> F2 ASP 25-NOV-69 (OS Card Reference). SKE43168.

<9> Arch Cant 87 1972 237 (R A C Cockett) (OS Card Reference). SKE35907.

<10> Arch Cant 88 1973 220 (R A C Cockett) (OS Card Reference). SKE35950.

<11> Arch Cant 89 1974 218 (R A C Cockett) (OS Card Reference). SKE35983.

<12> Arch Cant 90 1976 249 (R A C Cockett) (OS Card Reference). SKE36024.

<13> Arch Cant 94 1978 7-26 (W F Proudfoot) (OS Card Reference). SKE36201.

<14> 'Excavations in W Kent 1960-1970' 1973 220,222-3 (B Philp) (OS Card Reference). SKE41693.

<15> Med Arch 28 1984 225 (S M Youngs, J Clark & T B Barry) (OS Card Reference). SKE46764.

<16> Field report for monument TQ 66 NW 12 - November, 1969 (Bibliographic reference). SKE3539.

Sources and further reading