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. a) with
Bostock property consisting of one 11 acre field and a number of small
strips distributed among land belonging to Mr. Kenon (fn. b) 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" (ref. 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. a)
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. (ref. 347) According to a deed
of 1699 in the Minet Library, the two closes were known as Great and Little
Dane Croft. (ref. 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 Esqr. 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.