Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1200 to 1973 Salmestone, Margate was a Grange of St. Augustine's Canterbury, with a chapel dated to 1326 The Chapel was consecrated in 1326. Built of knapped flint and rubble, it has a crown post roof, with moulded tie beams, a 2 bay nave, piscina and corbels.

Monument Types

• BENEDICTINE GRANGE (Medieval to Modern - 1100 AD to 1973 AD)
• FARM (GRANGE, Post Medieval to Modern - 1600 AD (between) to 2050 AD (between))

Associated Finds

• LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Undated)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
NASH ROAD 1. 1380 Salmestone Grange including chapel TR 36 NE 12/71 10.4.51.
II*
2. A monastic grange which once belonged to St Augustine's Canterbury. The North East end of the building was converted into a farmhouse in the C17. This was the Refectory built about 1320. It has 2 storeys and attic, 4 windows and 1 dormer. The walls are of rubble and flints with long and short stone quoins. Brick window dressings. Casements or sliding sashes. A curved bay of brown brick containing 2 sash windows and with a tiled roof over it has been built out over the ground floor. Porch added with 6 panel moulded door. This section of the grange retains the original Refectory fireplace and a king post roof. The centre portion is of 2 storeys flint faced with tiled roof and stone quoins. Double lancet on 1st floor. 2 on ground floor. Crypt with 2 bay simple vaulting. The kitchens retain a bread oven by the side of the fireplace. The South West end of the buildings fell into ruin and was restored before the Second World War. The east front of this end of the building, which projects beyond the Refectory building, has gables, the North East one C13 with lancet windows, the centre one largely modern restoration, the South West one C14. Walls of flint and rubble. This part contained the Dormitory and the 1st floor has double lancet windows with trefoil heads and stone seats. On this side there is a wall of 2 storeys with stone base and flint top. Stone surrounds. Blocked lancets and 1 Tudor arch. Through the cloisters, of flint with brick arches the chapel is reached. It was consecrated in 1326 and is of knapped flint and rubble and has a crown post roof, with moulded tie beams, a 2 bay nave, piscina and corbels.
Listing NGR: TR3529469567

Description from record TR 36 NE 1:
[TR 35306956] Salmstone Grange [NR] (1)

Selmstone, Margate was a grange of St. Augustine's Canterbury, with a chapel dated 1326. (See TR 36 NE 65). Other buildings have Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular work while a small vaulted chamber may be 12th c. [See plan after 1936-47 renovations - Archives No.2017, folio 24] (2,3)

Salmestone Grange (name plate ) is an L-shaped, two storeyed building of flint with stone dressings: it has been heavily restored, and is now divided into flats, but it contains many original details. See GP/AO/63/121/5. (4)

Salmestone Grange including chapel (TR 36 NE 65), Nash Road. Grade II*. A monastic grange which once belonged to St Augustine's Canterbury. The north east end of the building was converted into a farmhouse in the C17. This was the Refectory built about 1320. (For full description see list). (5)

Salmestone Grange, Nash Road. Salmestone was one of the most important granges of St Augustine's Abbey. The medieval buildings remain almost complete, if much altered and restored. The only firm date is 1326, the year in which the chapel was consecrated. (See TR 36 NE 65). The hipped roofed building east of the chapel appears to be older as the flints are unknapped; it must have been the hall. The outlines of its large traceried side windows partly remain. Blocked perpendicular doorway at the south end of the west wall. But the structure must be basically early 14th century, and cannot be the new hall, built by Thomas Ickham, Sacristan of St Augustine' Abbey in the 1380s. Of the latter no trace seems to be left. The gabled building that adjoins this cross-ways to the south is the hardest of all to interpret. All the windows have been renewed. The west wall is probably rebuilt and in pale yellow brick. The coping of red tiles here and on all the east gables may not be earlier than the 16th century. Equally enigmatic is the purpose of this building. Beneath its west half, but not extending the full width, is an undercroft with a pointed stone tunnel vault, formed into three bays by transverse ribs. A pointed-headed recess in the two east bays of its south wall - may have been a storage cellar, and the whole building's buttery and pantry? Open to the building through a doorway was the kitchen. The fireplace remains and an oven. The buildings that lay south of the kitchen are ruinous. Remains of a Tudor brick fireplace here. South west of the kitchen is a two storeyed, almost free standing building probably of 13th century date. (6)

Salmstone was a grange and manor, with a chapel and buildings for monks staying there; income as under St Augustines, Canterbury. (7)

TR 353696 Salmstone, Kent, Benedictine. The hall at Salmstone Grange is 14th century. To the east of the hall are the ruins of a chamber or a kitchen. Two useful drawings by Edward Blore (1787-1879) show the chapel and domestic buildings form the north west, the chapel and hall from the south west. To the south-east of the mansion was sited a large thatched tithe barn now totally destroyed (a). (8)

Additional bibliography. (9,10)

[See also TR 36 NE 65 and 100] TR 353696. Medieval building at Salmestone Grange. Site no 48. (11)

Excavation of foundations in the grounds of the range may represent a west wall contemporary with the undercroft and kitchen, ie. 12th century. (12)

While the Grange itself is medieval, a dig to the south east of the main building revealed foundations, perhaps dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period. See illustration card. (13, 13a)

Isle of Thanet Archaeolgy Unit references [14, 15, 16].

Field monument report [17].

Archaeological assessment report [18].

Appendices to the above assessment report, including a listed building statement for Salmestone Grange. This short architectural report on Salmestone Grange also considers its setting and any potential damage to it, from the proposed development to the south east. The report concludes that the setting will not be damaged by the proposals indicated in the Master Plan development. [19].

Description from record TR 36 NE 65:
[TR 35306956] Chap. (NAT) (1)

Salmestone, Margate, was a grange of St Augustine's Canterbury, with a chapel dated 1326. Other buildings may be 12th century. (See TR 36 NE1) (2,3)

The Catholic chapel is used regularly by the adjoining St Gregory's School; it is in good condition. See GP/AO/63/121/6. (4)

Salmestone Grange [TR 36 NE 1] including chapel, Nash Road. Grade II*. A monastic grange which once belonged to St Augustine's Canterbury. The Chapel was consecrated in 1326 and is of knapped flint and rubble and has a crown post roof, with moulded tie beams, a 2 bay nave, piscina and corbels. (5)

Salmestone Grange, Nash Road. The only firm date for the Grange is 1326, the year in which the chapel was consecrated. This is a small rectangular building of knapped flint. The three-light east window, its tracery formed into two cusped intersecting ogees, and the two two-light windows north and south, have been faithfully restored. Modern west window. Inside there is no structural division into nave and chancel. Fine crown-post roof, with moulded tie beams and moulded wall plates. (6)

Salmstone was a grange and manor, with a chapel and buildings for monks staying there; income as under St Augustines, Canterbury. (7)

TR 353696 Salmstone, Kent, Benedictine. The 11th century chapel is a free standing structure still maintained in good order as a chapel. Two useful drawings by Edward Blore (1787-1879) show the chapel and domestic buildings from the north west and the chapel and hall from the south west. (8)

Additional bibliography - not consulted. (9,10,11)

An archaeological assessment of land to the south-east of Salmestone Grange. The appendices to this report include a listed building statement for Salmestone Grange and the Chapel [12, 13].

From the National Heritage List for England:

Details
The monument includes a Benedictine monastic grange situated on the southern edge of modern Margate, around 1.5km inland from the north Thanet coast. The grange survives in the form of standing buildings and associated below ground remains. Historical records suggest that it was founded by the monks of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury during the 12th century. The grange operated as the administrative centre for part of their large, mainly arable, estate then covering most of the Isle of Thanet, and as a place of occasional quiet retreat for the monks.

Lying towards the centre of the monument, the standing buildings form an irregular group and include a mainly north east-south west aligned, gabled domestic range and a small, detached, east-west aligned chapel to the west. The domestic range is on two storeys and is faced with rubble, ragstone and flint, with ashlar dressings. Dated by its architectural features mainly to the 13th and early 14th centuries, the range incorporates the original refectory hall, an undercroft with ribbed vaulting, the kitchen and a dormitory wing projecting to the north west. There is also some evidence for earlier, timber-framed walls encased within the later masonry. The range has undergone several phases of alteration and repair, and its north eastern end was converted into a secular farmhouse during the 17th century. By the early 20th century the south western end of the building had fallen into ruin. Surviving in situ medieval features include some original windows and doorways.

The chapel was consecrated in 1326 and may have replaced an earlier, more temporary building. It is mainly faced with knapped flint, with limestone ashlar dressings, topped by a clay tiled, crown post roof. There has been some modern restoration. The modern stained glass windows were completed in 1952. The standing medieval buildings, Listed Grade II*, are in use as a dwelling and working chapel and are therefore excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath is included.

Investigations carried out in 1979 revealed evidence for possibly 12th century wall foundations beneath the ruined south western end of the domestic range. Wall footings representing later, now demolished post-medieval buildings were also found in the area immediately north of the main range. Further buried traces of buildings and associated features will survive in the areas between and around the standing buildings. Running within the north eastern edge of the monument is a line of earthworks shown by the 1979 investigations to represent the footings of a row of post-medieval barns and outbuildings. The lower flint courses of a ruined rectangular enclosure situated in the north western corner of the monument are thought to represent a post-medieval barn or animal pound.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Salmestone Grange passed into the ownership of the Crown. Between 1559-1886 it became part of the possessions of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Catherdral, before being sold into private ownership.

A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are the Grade II* Listed private dwelling and chapel, all associated outbuildings, modern garden features, structures and fences, and the modern surfaces of all paths, tracks, paving and hardstanding; the ground beneath all these features is, however, included.

Reasons for Designation
A monastic grange was a farm owned and run by a monastic community and independent of the secular manorial system of communal agriculture and servile labour. The function of granges was to provide food and raw materials for consumption within the parent monastic house itself, and also to provide surpluses for sale for profit. The first monastic granges appeared in the 12th century but they continued to be constructed and used until the Dissolution. This system of agriculture was pioneered by the Cistercian order but was soon imitated by other orders. Some granges were worked by resident lay-brothers (secular workers) of the order but others were staffed by non-resident labourers. The majority of granges practised a mixed economy but some were specialist in their function. Five types of grange are known: agrarian farms, bercaries (sheep farms), vaccaries (cattle ranches), horse studs and industrial complexes. A monastery might have more than one grange and the wealthiest houses had many. Frequently a grange was established on lands immediately adjacent to the monastery, this being known as the home grange. Other granges, however, could be found wherever the monastic site held lands. On occasion these could be located at some considerable distance from the parent monastery. Granges are broadly comparable with contemporary secular farms although the wealth of the parent house was frequently reflected in the size of the grange and the layout and architectural embellishment of the buildings. Additionally, because of their monastic connection, granges tend to be much better documented than their secular counterparts. No region was without monastic granges. The exact number of sites which originally existed is not precisely known but can be estimated, on the basis of numbers of monastic sites, at several thousand. Of these, however, only a small percentage can be accurately located on the ground today. Of this group of identifiable sites, continued intensive use of many has destroyed much of the evidence of archaeological remains. In view of the importance of granges to medieval rural and monastic life, all sites exhibiting good archaeological survival are identified as nationally important.

Salmestone monastic grange survives well, retaining standing buildings of high architectural quality. Part excavation has confirmed that the monument also contains important archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the original form, use and development of the grange. The monument is one of the best surviving examples of a group of contemporary Benedictine monastic granges which cluster on the Isle of Thanet, illustrating the control exercised over this part of Kent by St Augustine's Abbey at Canterbury during the medieval period. (20)

Historic England archive material (21)

<01> OS 6" 1962 (OS Card Reference). SKE48371.

<02> Md Rel Houses Eng and Wales 1953 16 (Knowles and Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46688.

<02> Med. Rel. Houses, Eng. & Wales 1953, 16 (Knowles & Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46832.

<03> Arch Cant 12 1978 360-6 (OS Card Reference). SKE34673.

<03> Arch. Cant. 12, 1878, 360-6 (OS Card Reference). SKE36969.

<04> F1 CFW 08-OCT-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42485.

<05> DOE (HHR) Dist. of Thanet, Borough of Margate 1973, 60 (OS Card Reference). SKE39789.

<05> DOE(HHR) Dist of Thanet Borough of Margate 1973 60 (OS Card Reference). SKE41079.

<06> B.O.E. North East and East Kent 1983, 384-385 (J. Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37448.

<06> The Bldgs of Eng NE and E Kent 1983 384-385 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE50119.

<07> Md Rel Houses Eng and Wales 198=71 56 75 (Knowles and Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46695.

<07> Med. Rel. Houses, Eng & Wales 1971, 56, 75 (Knowles & Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46831.

<08> The Monastic Grage in Md Eng 1969 231-2 (C Platt) (OS Card Reference). SKE50433.

<08> The Monastic Grange in Med. England 1969, 231-2 (C. Platt) (OS Card Reference). SKE50435.

<09> Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica Pl. XII, 171, (Nichols) (OS Card Reference). SKE37655.

<09> Dom Archit Eng Edw I to Richard II 1853 287 (OS Card Reference). SKE41465.

<10> Ant 39 1903 264-70 (OS Card Reference). SKE33113.

<10> Dom. Archit. Eng. Edward I to Richard II 1853, 287 (OS Card Reference). SKE41469.

<11> Antiquary 39, 1903, 264-70 (OS Card Reference). SKE33276.

<11> Field report for monument TR 36 NE 65 - October, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6200.

<12> John Samuels Archaeological Consultants, Thanet Local Plan. Archaeology Proof of Evidence, Nash Road, Margate (Unpublished document). SKE12714.

<12> Thanet. The Arch Heritage c.1982, 5 (Thanet Dist. Council & Isle of Thanet Arch. Unit) (OS Card Reference). SKE49906.

<13> KARU T33 (OS Card Reference). SKE45632.

<13> John Samuels Archaeological Consultants, 2004, Thanet Local Plan, Nash Road, Margate, Appendices to Archaeology Proof of Evidence by Daniel Slatcher BA, MA, MIFA (Unpublished document). SKE12715.

<14> Isle of Thanet Arch. Unit Report 1977-80, Site 7 (OS Card Reference). SKE44734.

<15> Isle of Thanet Arch. Unit, Sites and Mons. Archive 1988, Record no. 48 (OS Card Reference). SKE44761.

<16> Thanet Arch. Unit Excavation Report 1980. Not consulted (OS Card Reference). SKE49868.

<17> Field report for monument TR 36 NE 1 - October, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6144.

<18> John Samuels Archaeological Consultants, Thanet Local Plan. Archaeology Proof of Evidence, Nash Road, Margate (Unpublished document). SKE12714.

<19> John Samuels Archaeological Consultants, 2004, Thanet Local Plan, Nash Road, Margate, Appendices to Archaeology Proof of Evidence by Daniel Slatcher BA, MA, MIFA (Unpublished document). SKE12715.

<20> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<21> Historic England, Archive material associated with Salmestone Grange, Margate, Scheduled Monument (Archive). SKE55464.

Sources and further reading

Related records