| Summary : Salmestone Grange was a Benedictine monastic grange which is situated on the southern edge of modern Margate. 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, chapel to the west, (TR36NE65). 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 14th centuries, the range incorporates the original refectory hall, an undercroft with ribbed vaulting, the kitchen and a dormitory wing. There is also some evidence for earlier, timber framed-walls encased within the later masonry. The range, Listed Grade II*, was converted into a secular farmhouse in the 17th century and is now used as a dwelling. 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 post-medieval buildings were also found in the area to the north of the main range. 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. After the Dissolution the Grange passed into ownership of the Crown. Between 1559-1886 it became part of the possessions of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, before being sold into private ownership. Scheduled. |
More information : [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 ofits 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 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 from the north west, the 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 (a). (13)
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