136 High Street

As is the case with many of the High Street’s properties, a 19th century facade, added in response to the fashions of the time, hides a much older building behind it. If you are fortunate enough to see inside this property, you will find numerous exposed beams that reveal Tudor House was originally a hall house – timber framed with a traditional Tudor overhang at its front. The main part of the building would have consisted of a single large room featuring a hearth in the middle of the floor that was used for cooking and to keep the occupants warm. Because of their elevated status to other smaller buildings at the time, hall houses are generally acknowledged to have been the residence of the lord of the manor but the whole community would eat and sleep there. Tudor House is slightly different to the norm in that it has an adjoining building to the hall that appears to have been used as a living area with separate rooms.

Most hall houses will naturally have been altered significantly over time so it is difficult to be certain whether this was the original configuration of the building but the timbers used throughout appear to support that thinking. Due to the number of alterations that have been made to the building over time, including considerable modifications during the Victorian era, the house is now a wonderful maze of rooms, many of which have slightly different characters – beautiful flagstones that were once an outdoor path now form an internal corridor, the rooms in the Victorian extension are tall with elegant windows allowing the light to flood in and frame the views of the garden whilst the bedrooms upstairs retain much of the character of earlier architecture with original features still in place including, much to the frustration of the current occupier, a number of low door frames and beams.

A full description of many of the house’s most prominent features can be found on the Historic Buildings of England website but it would be remiss to not take the time to also highlight a number of features that, although regarded as less significant from an architectural standpoint, should still be celebrated because they provide tangible insights into the people who have lived and worked in the building over time.

Bee Boles

Bee keeping has been a common activity throughout history, primarily because it provided an affordable and accessible sweetener before sugar became plentiful. With demand for beeswax also being high for the purpose of making candles, it is understandable why hives, and their occupants, were valuable assets that required protection. For this reason cavities or alcoves called bee boles, or bee boxes in Kent, were built into garden, or house, walls in order to provide protection for the hives, which unlike the modern wooden variants were traditionally round and made of straw or dried grass.

Many examples of bee boles are found in external spaces, in garden walls for example where they would shelter the bees from inclement weather and for security could be kept in view of a house, some would also be protected by locked metal bars to deter thieves. Tudor House is unusual in that the bee boles are in the cellar space so would probably have been used to keep the hives stored over winter – on first glance they could easily be mistaken for the regular storage alcoves that you would find in many a Victorian cellar but very similar structures that have recently been unearthed at one of London’s most important Tudor sites, beneath the Painted Hall in Greenwich, almost certainly confirm the purpose of these unusual structures at Tudor House.

Excavations carried out beneath the Painted Hall in 2017 revealed a small part of one of England’s most important royal palaces, Greenwich Palace. Built by Henry VII, it would become the preferred residence of his son, Henry VIII, during his reign. The palace fell into disrepair in the 1600s and was eventually demolished to make way for the building we see today, known as the Painted Hall, which was designed by Christopher Wren. The photos below show an underground area that was excavated recently and is thought to be part of a cellar constructed during the reign of Henry VIII and used by the friary. This excavated area has been left open for public view and is described as follows…‘The larger brick niches in the Tudor cellar are distinctive, resembling other examples known to have been used for storing bee hives (or ‘skeps’). These niches, or bee ‘boles’, protected the hibernating bee colonies during the winter months, helping to ensure their health and survival.’ 

Bee boles in the Greenwich Palace above – there are 2 types, the larger ground level alcoves and the smaller variants set in the walls to the right of the photo. The bee boles found at Tudor House are shown below – the same 2 types can be seen in the cellar. The floor level variants have had vertical brick pillars added at a later date but would have formed a single arch when originally constructed – the cellar features 3 of the floor level alcoves and 3 set in to the walls.

There are many interior details that make this property special, from a number of Victorian cast iron bread ovens to a Tudor window shutter that has survived the test of time, despite now being redundant but there are two that feel particularly significant, not because of any value or even because they are that noticeable, but because they immediately transport you back to another time when you see them. In an area close to the roof structure of the original hall house there is a non structural timber that has been added to the main building frame but appears to be of a similar age. Curious as to the purpose of this seemingly unnecessary addition, the current owner spent time contemplating it in more detail and discovered a finely cut channel along one edge which continued along the surrounding timbers and it became obvious that this subtle but fine carpentry served a purpose. Running along the line of the channel you can see numerous small hand-made nail heads so we can assume that something had been fixed in place within the recess – something that was quite fine and significant enough that this careful carpentry work had been preferred as opposed to just nailing it in place directly onto the structural timbers. It is impossible to be sure but current thinking is that this was where a tapestry would have been hung – at the top of the hall’s roof frame and if so, would have created a wonderful decorative feature.

The second detail can be found on an unassuming pane of glass, which forms part of a small dividing panel between two rooms. The glass is just a millimetre thick, hinting at its old age – it’s texture is beautiful in its own right but when you look closely there is more to the glass than first meets the eye. On the surface of one small pane, someone has finely scratched a few words – they are written in a hand that is obviously old but exactly how old is difficult to say. The writing is feint but when the light is at the right angle, the message remains clear…’If fortune torments  Hope shall content me’. Some may recognise this as being based on a quote from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, ‘If fortune torments me  Hope contents me.’

It is difficult to decipher who has signed this message as there appears to be two names, one written on top of the other – Jane and Ann Player. It is known that there was a Gabriel Player living in West Malling in the early 18 Century. He was a London Goldsmith who, along with his family, lived at Went House, Swan Street for some time. His first two daughters were called Anne (born 1706) and Jane (1707) so it is highly likely this was written by one or both of Gabriel’s daughters. If this is the case and we assume this was created when the daughters were reasonably young, this would have been written at around 1720 and must therefore be some of the oldest surviving graffiti in West Malling. Whether the Player family lived at Tudor House for a time or the daughters either visited or were educated there is not known.

John Noble Dudlow

The earliest census of 1841 lists John Noble Dudlow as head of  Tudor House at that time but the Dudlow family had been established in West malling prior to then so by the time the property finally fell out of the family’s ownership, following the death of John Noble’s daughter in 1907, the Dudlows of West Malling would have occupied a number of different properties in West Malling High Street for over 100 years.

John Noble Dudlow (JN) was the sone of John and Frances Dudlow. His father was a lawyer who served as coroner for West Kent and JN would closely follow in his professional footsteps, being articled to his father at the age of 16 and also going on to become coroner of West Kent. At the same time as JN was living at Tudor House, his father was living at the other end of the High Street, probably at Scott House. He was elected Deputy Sheriff of Kent in 1807 as is recorded in the official appointments that are still held in the Kent Archives (1).

JN was born in 1796 in West Malling and married Sophia Margaret Douce, third daughter of Thomas Augustus Douce of Douce’s Manor (then known as St Leonard’s), in 1823.

MARRIED – At West Malling, by the Rev. J. Tucker, J. N. Dudlow, Esq., of West Malling, to Miss S. M. Douce, third daughter of the late T. A. Douce, Esq. of St. Leonard’s, West Malling, one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for Kent.
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As a solicitor and coroner of West Kent, JN is mentioned in numerous newspaper articles of the time relating to his professional life, so much so that it is a surprise to come across any articles that refer to anything else about him but one interesting exception is the report of an accident that took place just outside Tudor House, on West Malling High Street, in August 1868 which resulted in a carriage being overturned and according to the newspaper, ‘being much broken’.

WEST MALLING
ACCIDENT – On Saturday evening last, just as it became dark, Hawkes, the Snodland carrier’s van, with a load of passengers returning from Tonbridge races, was overturned close to the house of J. N. Dudlow, Esq., the coroner of West Kent, in consequences of coming into collision with Voke’s pleasure van from Rochester, which was filled with a party of non-commissioned military officers from Chatham, also returning from Tonbridge races.The road where the collision took place is only eighteen feet wide, and within a few yards of a most awkward sharp corner. The accident, no doubt was owing to this double fact, and also to this that one or other of the drivers did not make sufficient allowance for Vokes’ being drawn by four-in-hand. Three females were severely injured, and consequently taken into the coroner’s house, where they were most kindly treated by Mr. Dudlow and his family, and medically attended by Dr. Pope. One poor woman, named Gower is enceinte was considered to be dangerously injured and had to be conveyed home in a prostrate position in a van.
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JN’s role as a Kent coroner gave him a certain amount of public celebrity which was obviously exploited at times, as can be seen from the following newspaper advertisement promoting a cure for corns and bunions!

I can strongly recommend Mr Rendall’s method of extracting corns without pain – JOHN DUDLOW.
From John Noble Dudlow, Esq., coroner.
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During his work as coroner JN gained the distinction of presiding over the inquest of the first executed prisoner following the abolition of public executions (2) and closer to home, managed the business affairs of the Nevill family (Malling House). He played an active part of the wider community with appointments including clerk to the Malling Union, an officer within the volunteer West Kent Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry and also managed to find the time for some leisure, a regular player for Town Malling Cricket Club and even noted for being selected to play county cricket on one occasion for a Kent v Nottingham match in 1841 (3). Rather disappointingly, he doesn’t appear to have either fielded or bowled during the match, and is recorded as having been absent hurt for both Kent innings! Kent were victorious on the day, however, so at least he had the pleasure of being on the winning side.

John Noble died in 1879…

We regret to hear of the death of Mr. John Noble Dudlow who for a great number of years has officiated as one of the coroners for the County of Kent. The deceased gentleman, who resided at Town Malling, was upwards of 80 years of age, and during his lengthy career he had filled the office of clerk to the magistrates, and he held other public appointments. His removal will be regretted by a wide circle of friends, amongst whom he was sincerely respected and beloved.
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Tudor House remained in the ownership of the Dudlow family until the death of John Noble’s daughter, Fanny, following which the house was purchased by Rev. John Adolphus Boodle. The family monument is one of the most attractive in the churchyard.

Rev. John Adolphus Boodle

Son of solicitor John Boodle, John Adolphus was born in Pimlico in 1836. His father was a partner in the legal from Partington and Boodle, a firm that still operates today as Boodle Hatfield. He was the First Clerk of the Grosvenor Place Trustees and subsequently directly involved in the building programme which would transform London’s Pimlico and Belgravia districts (4). In the same year that John Adolphus was born, his father’s firm moved premises to Davies Street having sold their Brook Street offices to hotelier James Mivert – they would go on to become part of the hotel later known as Claridges. Away from his professional work, John Boodle was Deputy Chairman of both the London Homeopathic Hospital and the British Homeopathic Society.

Unlike his father and many from his wider family, John Adolphus would not enter the legal profession but took a theological path, his life and works being summarised perfectly in the Kent Messenger’s obituary that was published following his death in 1915…

THE LATE
REV. J. A. BOODLE
By the death of the Rev. J. A. Boodle on December 2nd, at his residence, Tudor House, West Malling, there passed away one of the best known and most highly esteemed clergy of the Dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester. John Adolphus Boodle was born in the year 1836 and was educated at Marlborough and St. John’s College, Cambridge. His University career was one of distinction, for he took honours in three Triposes, viz., 2nd Class Classical Tripos, Junior Optime Mathematical Tripos 1859, and 1st Class Theological Tripos 1860. He was ordained by the famous Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, of Oxford, in 1859 and was licensed to the Curacy of Buckingham, where he remained for two years. He then spent five years in Ireland as one of the tutors of St. Columba College, Dublin. In 1867 he became Curate of West Malling to the late Vicar, the Rev. J. H. Timins; a position he held for 20 years, combining it, as from 1874, with the office of Inspector of Schools for the Diocese of Canterbury. Mr. Boodle married in 1868 Alice Elizabeth, daughter of his Vicar. The union was one of deepest happiness, and lasted for well-nigh 40 years, until Mrs. Boodle’s lamented death in 1908.
In 1887 Archbishop Benson presented Mr. Boodle to the living of Boughton-under-Blean and here he remained doing excellent service for 21 years, resigning the benefice in 1908, shortly after the death of his wife. He then went back to West Malling, where he did much useful works as a public preacher in the Diocese of Rochester, doing duty up to within a few weeks of his death. Mr Boodle was appointed Rural Dean of Ospringe in 1897, a position he filled in such a manner as to command the highest esteem and respect of all the clergy in his Deanery. He was a keen advocate of the C.E.T.S.; his interest in the Society never flagged. He also did much excellent work in educational matters. Missionary work found in him an enthusiastic friend but his activities were too numerous to chronicle here. A man of sterling character, he was one of the truest of friends, an excellent parish priest, and one of the best of business men. No man was more active in good works, and no one did kindness more unobtrusively than he and his saintly wife. His thoughtfulness for others was remarkable; his determination to hear no hurtful word affecting others was equally so. The writer, who knows Mr. and Mrs. Boodle’s work at Boughton-under-Blean, can testify to its thoroughness, and its helpful and winning power. It struck deep, and it will be lasting.
A.C.
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