Stansted and Fairseat Footpath Guide local information

I found a copy of the Stansted and Fairseat Footpath Guide, produced by the Stansted and Fairseat Society, in NAG Oxfam shop the other day, a snip at .49p! Listed below is the historical information contained within, plus a few photographs.

I don't know when this booklet was produced, but it was when the rector still lived in Fairseat, at the well known landmark white shiplap clad house which is now known as The Old Rectory. I am guessing that house became a private dwelling some time in the early 80s, when the church sold off a lot of its rather valuable property and bought cheaper housing. The picture shows the house before the right hand side was extended upwards, which I can remember happening in approximately 2003. You can also just see the the rather lovely, large Cedar tree which used to be in the garden. It was in the conservation area so in Dec 2007 permission had to be granted for the tree to be trimmed back. Then I think high winds caused part of it to come down. There is an item in the Parish Council report of April 2009 stating: Mrs Rodway has commissioned a report on the condition of the Cedar in their front garden...the conclusions recommend that the tree should be felled withing three months. (There is no form of tree surgery that would allow the tree to remain in any reasonable form).

Personally, I am very sad when the old trees come down in the area, and I was very upset when winds blew down some fantastic beeches along the part of Fairseat Lane which goes down to the A227. Driving along that road was like driving through a wooded tunnel, with dappled sunlight shining through the leaves. It is still not bad, and give it another couple of hundred years it will be back to its former glory. I once found a big adder along that road, but that is another story, so for now, here below is the promised copy.

'Early documentary records relating to the parish are noted by Hasted and date from 1210.  However it is likely that the area was populated well before that date; indeed the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, in Stansted, although itself of uncertain age has a yew tree near the North entrance which is reputed to be at least a thousand years old.  Since it was once customary to plant a yew to the North side of a church, it seems likely that a church has existed on this site for a similar period.

The present church probably dates from the 14th century and certainly before 1312. It was restored in 1863.

In the 14th century it seems that the parish was a place of some importance as the residents had the right to hold a three day fair here.

The roads and paths of the parish are likely to have developed through usage over time. Wises Lane was at one time an important road from Dartford to Wrotham and was called Wrotham Road.  The present name  derives  from Wyse's  Farm which no  longer exists.

An ancient drove road passed through both villages, and parts of this can still be followed. Outside the parish,  at the bottom of Vigo Hill on the outskirts of Trottiscliffe, and by the Pilgrims Way stands Pilgrim House which was once an inn called the Kentish Drover.  At the top of Vigo Hill stands the Vigo Inn, built around 1471 and then named the Drovers Rest.  On the opposite corner there was once a toll house and toll gate on the Gravesend Road.

Proceeding through Fairseat and Stansted,  it is presumed that the herds were watered at the various ponds on this route, one of which was at the foot of  Stansted  Hill,  where  now  stands  Stansted's distinctive war memorial statue.

The oldest house in the parish is said to be Church Cottage in Stansted, which is probably late 13th or early 14th century,  it would have been used by the priest visiting from Wrotham, to which Stansted was then a subordinate parish.

In Fairseat the house known as Soranks Manor stands on the foundations of  a much earlier,  medieval manor house.  The manor land was held during the reign of Henry III by Ralph de Sandwich.  It was passed to Edmund Sorank whose name is recorded in the assize roll of 1313 as a juror for Stansted. Around 1700 the land was bought by one John Cox who built a facade onto the house opposite Fairseat pond and called the house 'Fairseat'.  This seems to be the first time in history that the name Fairseat appears, the area having previously been known as Farsee.

Nearby, the Chapel of Holy Innocents, designed by the architect Waterhouse, was built in 1930 by the Waterlow family.

The Old Rectory in Stansted was built in 1847 and housed rectors until 1969 when it was sold and became a private house. Nearby, in the rectory meadow, to the right of the drive entrance  in Plaxdale Green Road stood the brick and timber framed Tithe Barn until its demolition in 1920. The present rectory is in Fairseat and is illustrated in the pages of this booklet.

The Vigo Inn has already been mentioned in the context of the ancient drove road. Its present name was given by its owner in the early 18th century who fought under Admiral Rooke at Vigo Bay (Spain) in 1702.  The other inns in the parish are: the Anchor and Hope at the northern end of Wises Lane, built around 1537; the Horse and Groom on the A20 near the  end of Plaxdale Green Road built in 1770/5; and the Black Horse in Tumblefield Road, which in the 18th century was a dwelling named 'Palmers' until it was licensed by its owner, one Joseph Fremlln, between 1833 and 1847, whereupon its name was changed to the Black Horse.'

The Old Rectory, Fairseat, when it was still The Rectory!

Church Cottage, Stansted, reputedly the oldest in the parish

14th century three-day fair in Stansted!

Climbing out of Wrotham, northwards, the traveller comes to Stansted, which reaches thickly wooded heights of up to 700 feet. Today's village retains little enough to remind visitors or residents either that it was a borough and a place of some importance as long ago as the fourteenth century, when residents had the right to hold a three-day fair there. There is a yew tree in the churchyard which is said to be more than 1,000 years old and Soranks Manor at nearby Fairseat was built on the foundations of an old medieval manor house.

Kent Villages by Alan Bigness
Published by Robert Hale, 1975

Stansted in The Companion Guide to Kent and Sussex by Keith Spence

High up on the other side of the Gravesend road is Stansted, the perfect downland hamlet, built on a switchback of hills, with a large village green in the valley, and an impeccable flint church, complete with giant yew tree outside the door. At the edge of the churchyard an art nouveau black granite memorial, surmounted by scroll-carrying angels, commemorates Sir Sydney Hedley Waterlow, one of the founders of the great Waterlow printing firm, who lived at Trosley Towers near by. Waterlow's was a typical Victorian success story. Born in 1822, he began printing in 1844 in partnership with his brothers, starting with £120 from their father. They made their fortunes from cornering the market in railway printing and stationery. Waterlow was a philanthropist as well as a businessman. As Lord Mayor of London in 1872, he was responsible for opening the Guildhall Library to the public. He held. many offices in the City, and found time to be Liberal M.P. for Maidsione and then Gravesend.

Taken from The Companion Guide to Kent and Sussex by Keith Spence
1973 Collins. This book is in Longfield library.

Stansted in The King's England, Kent by Arthur Mee

Stansted. It stands with smiling hills all round, with an exceptional war memorial, a splendid nude youth, in bronze, at the meeting of the roads. Two bells ring out from the old church tower, one of them among the oldest in Kent. "His name is John", it says.

The church is a rare little place- The porch has two tiny slot windows, the chancel has a dainty timbered roof, and there is a small quatrefoil window in the west wall. Two curious glazed tiles, probably from the Wrotham pottery, let into the walls are in memory of the son and daughter of Edward Wooden, both of whom died in 1638, and a brass of c. 1510 is to John Skudder,whose name is kept green by the beautiful house of that name at Fawkham nearby. Laid to rest here not long, ago was a chorister who sang in this choir for 67 years.

In the churchyard is the grave of Sir Sydney Waterlow, with angels over it. At one end of the monument is a medallion of Sir Sydney looking across to the grave of a devoted servant, and there are two lead medallions expressive of great sorrow. One shows a workman with his bag of tools thrown down and two delightful children hailing him, with a shadowy figure of one lost, and the other shows the parents mourning the lost one.

But it is by the old yew near the tower that the imagination is stirred in this churchyard, for here lies a heap of broken masonry, flint rubble overgrown with grass. There was a church here soon after the Conqueror came, and 600 or 700 years ago they pulled it down to build this one. They built it well, for nowhere are flints squared up and shaped and set more neatly. But these workmen left their rubbish heap behind them; these masses of flint are from the church they pulled down, and they have lain where they left them while the old yew has grown from a sapling and the centuries have come and gone. Such at any rate is the story.

A little more than a mile on the road to Ash stands an old house with wattle and daub in its walls, the primitive form of building with hazel twigs interlaced and filled in with mud and straw. The Old Malt House, which all may see, has still this reinforced mud in its walls, and had been made beautiful with a new thatch when we called, a sturdy place again after its 500 years.

Taken from The King's England, Kent by Arthur Mee. First published 1939. The copy in the library in Longfield is the 1974 edition.

Ordnance Survey Historical maps of area

I copied these two maps from a book in Longfield Library published in 1988 called Ordnance Survey Historical Guides: Kent. The one above shows Wises Lane, (highlighted) these days a rough Byway, as big as all the other roads in the area!

The other (below) shows Fairseat marked as Facy Street (highlighted).

A little history behind Fairseat Nursery

This information was gathered from their website. I hope they don't mind me reproducing it, and the picture.

In 1923 Mr Fielden and Mr Stan Chapman decided to uproot and move their very established Alpine growing nursery in Exeter to the better location of Fairseat, considering it to be a ideal 
location for frosting the plants they specialised in growing. This took a tremendous amount of hard work and additional assistance from Mr Fred Hills, who left school at the age of 15 to help work the nursery and stayed there until his retirement in the 80's.

With this niche market Fairseat Nursey was a regular at the Chelsea Flower Show winning many Banksian Medals (the highest of which was the Silver Guilt) along with many others which are proudly displayed at the Nursery today.

Both Mr Fred Hills and Mr Stan Chapmans family still live local to the nursery.

Link to information on Stansted at Aboutbritain.com

There is some information about the area here. I think the bit about Morris Dancers is a bit out of date as I've never seen any at the pub, but maybe I've just missed them!