Appendix I: Plan of Walworth Manor, 1681

APPENDIX I: PLAN OF WALWORTH MANOR BELONGING TO THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF CHRIST CHURCH, CANTERBURY, 1681 (PLATE 49)

This plan, from the archives of the Dean and Chapter at Canterbury, was reproduced by the London Topographical Society in 1932. The Canterbury plan is itself a copy of the original plan by Thomas Hill, which is in the possession of the Church Commissioners. Both copies are drawn in ink on vellum and show the fields which were in lease from the Dean and Chapter outlined with a green, yellow, or pink wash. The houses belonging to the church are topped in red.

The closes marked B, to signify that they were in lease to Thomas Bostock with the Manor House, were held by the Penton family throughout the 18th century. The Church Commissioners have a plan of this property made in 1805 by Kent, Pearce & Kent showing Manor Row, West Street, Penton Place, Canterbury Row, East Street, South Street, North Street, Apollo Buildings, etc., which by then had been built across several of the plots. It is evident from comparison with a modern map that this part of the 1681 plan was based on a reasonably accurate survey. Walworth Common and Lattam-mor (Lorrimore) Common are also approximately correct in shape and size. The common field is shown surrounded by a wall, (fn. n1) with Bostock property consisting of one 11 acre field and a number of small strips distributed among land belonging to Mr. Kenon (fn. n2) and Mr. Beesman. Brandon Street is now on the site of the west wall of the field which extended east to the parish boundary between Munton Road north and Trafalgar Street south.

The closes between Walworth Common and the Common Field marked as on lease to Mr. Joseph Hobson were referred to in 1649 as being in "Birding bushes field" (fn. 248) and were later known as the Twenty Two Acres. They were leased in 1772 to Thomas Clutton. They are now covered by St. Peter's, Walworth and the surrounding streets. Newington Street represents the present Newington Butts and the triangular piece of ground at the road junction is almost identical in shape with the island site still existing there. This tenement, called the Three Falcons, is marked with the letter R as belonging to Mr. Richards. Both the Three Falcon property and the ground opposite it on the corner of Newington Butts and Walworth Road were copyhold. The house with a sign hanging out, noted as being "upon ye Royalty," is on the site of the Elephant and Castle.

The small plot of ground with houses on it marked W for Mr. Walker, on the east side of Walworth Road immediately opposite the Elephant and Castle site, is the ground on which the playhouse at Newington stood. The playhouse was pulled down before 1599 and replaced by 13 tenements. The ground is stated to have been enclosed by a brick wall.

The five plots marked Hi, to indicate that they were in lease to Mr. Highlord, at the junction of what are now Walworth Road and Newington Butts opposite the Church, subsequently came into the hands of Francis Hurlbatt. They included the site of the Bell Inn. North of Newington Butts the road (now Newington Causeway and Borough High Street) is shown making too sweeping a curve, and both shape and size of the closes within the curve have been distorted to get them in. There has also been some confusion in the disposition of the plots of ground. The land belonging to Trinity House was in 1681, and is still, to the north of Horsemonger Lane (Harper Road), and the large close next the road, labelled "Trinitie Land" on the plan did not belong to Trinity House, but was known as Mill Field, and at that date was freehold property in the possession of James Reading. Horsemonger Lane Gaol was subsequently built at its northern end.

The closes indicated by the letter D as being in the tenure of Sir Fleetwood Darmer were referred to in the leases of the 17th and 18th centuries as the Thirty Five Acres. They were granted in 1768 to Thomas Brandon.

No details are given of the property round the church, which belonged to the rectory, or of the ground on the south-west side of what is now Walworth Road, which was freehold property in the possession of Mr. Bowyer. (fn. n3)

Esqe. Chute, who is shown in occupation of two large closes on "The Roade from Clapham to Newington" (Kennington Park Road), was George Chute, son of Sir George Chute, of the manor of Stockwell in Lambeth. George Chute died in 1684 and was buried in Lambeth Church; Anthony Bowyer was one of the executors of his will. (fn. 347) According to a deed of 1699 in the Minet Library, the two closes were known as Great and Little Dane Croft. (fn. 348) Justice Lee, who held the close opposite "The Roade to Faux Hall" (Kennington Lane) was Thomas Lee, who was for many years a churchwarden of Newington. He died in 1687 and was buried in Newington. He is described in the burial register as "Thos: Lee Esq^r. that truly worthy Gentleⁿ.

Two clay pits are marked on the plan and there is a "pitt acre" in the Common field, indicating that Walworth was a source of brick earth as early as the 17th century. Several 13th century deeds in the possession of the Dean and Chapter refer to a field in Walworth known as "Claylonde."

The conventional representation of buildings probably bears little relation to their actual appearance or number and merely serves as an indication of the location of dwelling houses along the roads.