To Rainham Mark, West Rainham, Lower Rainham,
East Rainham and back to Rainham proper
We continue with our account of a tour of the Rainhams in which we were trying to trace what is left of buildings shown in two maps some 70 and 110 years old.
We trundled east along the Lower Rainham Road and soon came, on the edge of East Rainham, to an attractive barn of yellow brick walls and slate roof and with a pair of massive doors. At the front of the barn there stood the remains of an elegant cast iron fence and gate made on the Isle of Sheppey. On each side of the doors there was a stone, one inscribed "G Martin Esq Owner 7879" and the other inscribed "G Edmonds Occuper 1879". We noticed that the land-owner was entitled "Esq" whilst the tenant was not. Later we looked up the dictionary definition of "esquire". "Title of a person regarded as a gentleman by birth, position or education", it recorded. "That's odd", mused Kemsley, "My Tax Inspector addresses me as 'esquire'."
"We're all esquires now," I retorted.
We looked in through the windows of the "village" shop with its rows of sweet jars and crossed Motney Hill Road to the chapel described on the earlier map as "Providence Chapel, Wesleyan Methodist". It was being converted into a private house. Almost adjacent, and opposite the bottom of Berengrave Lane, was Frances Place Terrace. A plaque records it’s building in 1852. The eastern end of the terrace now incorporates the "Army and Navy" pub.
We next dismounted when we reached "The Three Sisters" on the Otterham Quay Lane. The 1864/65 map showed a tramway (presumably used to carry bricks) which ran from near a row of houses called Caroline Terrace to Otterham Quay. The terrace is now demolished. It stood on what is currently waste ground near "The Three Sisters". A near-by house called "Amelia Cottages", dated 1865 and which may have been built by the brickyard owners as a house for a manager, does however survive. We found no trace of the tramway, although pieces of what must have been similar tramways exist in various places along the Medway, particularly where the rails were embedded in concrete quaysides.
A quick ride up Otterham Quay Lane then brought us to the "Men of Kent" where we turned right into that part of the A2 once known as Broad Walk. Elizabeth Cottages (1863) and William's Cottages (1860) passed by on our right. Just before Mardale Garage (Amoco) we came to another terrace shown on the 1864/65 map - Mardale Terrace. It is now truncated at both ends but what remains shows that it must have been an attractive building.
Mardale House, also shown on the maps, stood on the site of Mardale Garage. Indeed the house itself may well have been converted into the existing garage buildings, the garden having been concreted over into the garage forecourt.
At the bottom of Mierscourt Road we came to a row of Cottages named "Chapel Row" and built in 1854. Our 1864/65 map showed that what appears to have been Rainham's first independent chapel stood at the Mierscourt end of the row.
The Post Office shown on the 19c map was in a building opposite what is now Scott Avenue (at one time known as Council School Road) and on the spot now occupied by the new Longland House old peoples' flats.
On the opposite side of the road to the fine old Dorland House (Bells the Hauliers) once stood one of Rainham's two farms. In 1864/65 it was described as "Russell Farm" and in 1906 as "Russells"' The site is now occupied by new maisonettes. The earlier map showed a "Tasmania Cottage" at the rear of the farm. A house still stands on or near the same spot - at the end of the drive leading off Pudding Lane - but it was not clear to us whether this is the original"Tasmania Cottage". Rainham's other farm was situated on land now owned by the Post Office, between lvy Street and the Old Parsonage.
Across the road from the Old Parsonage we watched workmen removing the tiles from the roof of what was until recently Ward’s (ironmongers) shop, adjacent to the “Green Lion”. From what we could see the house had originally been a smaller cottage which had been enlarged. Underneath relatively new rafters we identified a crown post and tie beam similar to the ones which can be seen in the nave supporting the roof of the Parish Church.
We had now almost come to the end of our tour of the Rainhams. But before turning for home we doubled back to the entrance to Hidson's Garage and had another look at the rear of the (15c?) timber framed house which has been revealed under an over-coat of (Georgian?) brick. (For those unsure of the location the house retains a shop front painted purple.) The timber frame seemed in poor shape but we were pleased to see that much of the wattle and daub between the upper parts of the frame has survived. Some of the daub is made of a yellowish mud and chopped straw whilst the rest is of chalk and animal hair. Two mullion windows also survive - one of three lights and one of four (see sketch). They presumably contained no glass but were closed by means of an internal sliding shutter. (But what were the purpose of the holes in the horizontal frames we wondered?) Both the wattle and daub and the windows had been preserved because the upper wall in which they are contained became part of an attic when the rear of the building was extended outwards.
As we remounted our cycles I gazed at the building's undistinguished front and then turned to look at the open roof of Ward's old shop. I was reminded of the words of my old "friend" Professor W.G. Hoskins. After a lifetime's study he reached a conclusion about certain types of English landscape, "Everything", he wrote, "is older than you think”.
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