History of Oxney Court

It would appear that the Oxney area was never an actual manor in the historic sense, although it was owned by some notable families throughout history. It is possible that there were some houses in the area of the Church of St. Nicholas, forming a small village, possibly of workers and other estate employees. Although the woods around Oxney appear to be of great age, it is possible that this was once arable land and the small village and large house would have formed a community with its own surrounding farmlands. In much the same way that the village disappeared, the land may have been left to become fallow until only the great house and church were left, surrounded by encroaching woodland. The parish of Oxney comprises 319 acres, which makes it one of the smallest in Kent.
A charter of 1038 makes a reference to Oxney, but it is not until the twelfth century that it is mentioned with any detail. At this time it was owned by the Auberville family of Westenhanger; a family of Norman descent that traces its ancestry back to Charlemagne. The great grand-daughter of Sir William de Auberville and only heir to the estate, Joan de Auberville (b:~1242 : d:~1270 ) married Sir Nicholas I de Criol and the ownership passed into the Criol family. Joan de Criol (b: ~1271: d: ~1302) married Richard de Rokesley in 1295 and it was the marriage of their daughter Agnes de Rokesley (b:1299 d:1346) to Thomas de Poynings that saw the property pass to the Poynings family. Their son Michael de Poynings married his cousin Joan de Rokesley around 1350 and at the time of his death in 1369 held extensive landholdings including some 20 manors. At the beginning of the fifteenth century Oxney was sold to one Robert Tame.
The Sidley, or Sedley family of Southfleet acquired the estate in the late fifteenth century and John Sidley, auditor to the exchequer of Henry VII and lord of the manor of Southfleet, made several improvements and enlarged what was quite a small dwelling in the early sixteenth century. The Canterbury Archaeological Trust (Rupert Austin) reports that fragments of Sidley's house, including the base of a chimney stack were to be found among the ruins of Oxney Court in a 1998 survey prior to the reconstruction of the house.

The late seventeenth century saw the demolition of most of the original timber framed building and the construction of the core of today's Oxney Court. This building was built of red brick laid in Flemish Stretcher bond and the frontage was almost 80 feet in length with two floors and a central two storey porch. In 1764 the Jeken family were the first to introduce the gothic style to Oxney Court. Rose Fuller of Sussex later bought the property, he shows up in various documents relating to the West Indies, where he was a doctor and plantation owner. At the age of 29, he married Ithamar Mill in 1737 in St Katherine's parish, Jamaica. She was only 16 and died one year later. The Fullers started the transformation of the rather Kentish looking Oxney Court into the classic gothic style with its crenellations and towers. These and future nineteenth century embellishments transformed the structure and actually made the rear of the building into the front facade. Rose Fuller left his Sussex estates and plantations to his nephew John (Mad Jack) Fuller who was an M.P. and renowned character of his day. At this time the estate is described by Hasted as being bleak and much exposed with unenclosed corn fields growing in poor chalky soil.

John May of Deal, a solicitor and banker purchased the house in 1812 and spent vast sums enhancing the property. An impressive new driveway was added from the north-east complete with a lodge that is most likely the present day kennels. He added a stable block and repaired the existing out-buildings. May engaged the renowned architect R. Lugar and actually never did execute the lavish plans of his designer to the full extent. May and his architect added the large octagonal gothic tower with its entrance porch to the east end of the building and created large formal and reception rooms along with interior lavatories and bathrooms. The old seventeenth century structure was gutted and windows were relocated, added and removed to make the old structure conform to the new design.

This engraving from J.P.Neale's book 'Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland' published in 1831 shows Oxney Court, or 'Oxney Park, the seat of John May, Esq.' as he called it at that time. He gives a wonderful account of the estate, as follows:

"THE entrance to this Park from Ringwold, five miles from Dover, is formed by an avenue of Scottish firs; it is finely diversified with plantations, and consists, including the surrounding Grounds, of above five hundred acres. On the high grounds between Deal and Dover, a vast improvement has been recently made in the disposition of the Pleasure Grounds, and many new clumps have been planted, which appear to be in a thriving state. The Park comprises the whole Manor and Parish of Oxney within its boundary. The Church, belonging to the Parish, is now a ruin, about a quarter of a mile distant, only an arch or two of its walls are standing; no other house, except the Residence of the Proprietor, is within the Parish; even the Lodge, at the Park entrance, a neat rustic edifice, is without the bounds, and stands in the Parish of East Langdon. Mr. May is a great agriculturist, and is also possessed of considerable property in the Town of Deal.
The Mansion at Oxney is the ancient Manor House, which has undergone alterations, under the direction of its present owner, from designs by R. Lugar, Esq. Architect, in the castellated style, with considerable additions and improvements in the interior, suited to the convenience, and adapted to the taste of modern times. The elevation consists of an octangular Tower, having on one side a small turret, surmounted by a vane; this Tower, in which is the entrance, is connected on the north front by a range of embattled building, with a square Tower on the west. The view represented in our plate is taken from the Lawn, and shews the entire front; in a dell, near this spot, planted with evergreens and hardy shrubs, is a small aviary.
Over the principal entrance in the octangular Tower is a shield, bearing the arms of the family sculptured; a fess between eight billets, and impaling a fess between three swans; surmounted by the crest, in a ducal coronet, an ounce's head.
Two small cylindrical Turrets are upon the outer angles of the Porch, which opens upon a small Hall of entrance, paved with marble, having the crest displayed in the centre, in the patent inlaid pavement. The floors of several of the apartments are of varnished oak. The House is well sheltered from the winds by fine clusters of oak and elm trees, and from the upper windows is a most beautiful view of the ocean; Walmer, Walmer Castle, Deal, and the Isle of Thanet, are visible."

It is sad to compare this view of the house with the empty shell in the 1999 photograph. (click the banner at the top of the page to see it)

May's finances dwindled during a depression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars and he sold the house to Richard John Roffey in 1827. In 1813 Roffey had married Mary Ann Banks, the daughter of Sir Edward Banks (b:1770 in Hutton Hang). Banks was of very humble parentage, and as a youth was engaged as a farm servant at Thornton Steward; following some youthful delinquency, he fled his service to avoid the consequences and found employment as a common labourer, he progressed quickly in his field and started his own construction company. In the 1790's he built the Manchester and Ulverston Canals under the direction of John Rennie. He moved to southern England around 1801 to build the Surrey Iron Railway, and partnered with W.J.Jolliffe. Their firm constructed the London, Southwark and Waterloo bridges, as well as several major projects including lighthouses, prisons and dockyards. His wife, Nancy J Franklin died in 1815 and he married Amelia Pytches in 1821. They had a London residence in Westminster on Adelphi Terrace and owned estates at Oxney and Sheppey Court in Kent. He was knighted in 1822. Records show that Sir Edward purchased the house from Richard Roffey in 1838 and yet other sources show that Sir Edward died in 1835 - the same year that marked the death of his eldest son John! (Any assistance from our readers to unravel this anomaly would be greatly appreciated.) William John Banks (b 1822) another son of Sir Edward was a renowned cricketer who played for Kent on several occasions during the 1850's. He was well liked, and known for his repertoire of cricket stories. He died on January 17, 1901 at Oxney Court. The Banks family made little structural change to Oxney Court during their ownership. Their main interest lay in landscaping the surroundings and grounds of the estate. It is likely that Oxney Court was more of a personal retreat for the family considering their great involvement in local affairs at their other residence in the Isle of Sheppey. Sir Edward's nephew, Joseph Banks introduced many new plants into England from exotic locations during his connection with Kew Gardens and some of these appear to have been planted at Oxney Court.

Sir Edward's great grand-daughter, Margaret Mary Ann Banks (b 1844, d 1904) married Charles Frederick LaCoste in 1877. The ruined Church of St Nicholas was taken over as a private chapel at this time by the residents of Oxney Court. The gravestones in the old church are mainly of the LaCoste family.
Later residents of the house include Thomas Winch and his wife Mary. He was born about 1868 and died January 5th, 1912. He made his fortune as a brewer in Chatham.

In the early nineteen hundreds the property was apparently used as a boys prep school for a time.

During the First World War Oxney Court was commandeered for military use, possibly as a headquarters and residence for officers, or as a place of recuperation for soldiers back from the horrors of the trenches across the channel. Oxney Court would have been a perfect site given its very central location to the massive defense systems that extended right along the coastline of Kent, both above and below the soft chalk ground. Tragically, the house was destroyed by mysterious fire during the time that it was occupied by the military. The blaze destroyed the roof and over eighty years of neglect and encroachment by nature reduced the beautiful house to a ruin. When I saw the building in 1967 there was no evidence of a fire, just of some sort of massive destruction. The sheer amount of undergrowth and decay certainly gave the impression that the house had been a ruin for well over forty years at that time, and any sign of a fire was long since gone. A child died here during the sixties by falling down a well in one of the outbuildings to the main house. A large 30" square cement block was cast in place to seal the pit and carried an inscription bearing the date it was made in addition to the word 'Well'.

Planning permission was denied for the location for several years, possibly because of fears of increasing the number of accidents on a stretch of road that was already notorious for fatalities. In the sixties there were plans to build accommodation for seniors in the form of a block of thirty flats. This proposal came from Doctor Simon Behrman of Harley Street who was using the attached dower house as a country retreat. Given the lamentable lack of respect for historic properties that abounded during the sixties it is probably fortunate that this proposal was rejected; Oxney Court could have ended up being a concrete monstrosity.

Finally,  Oxney Court has now been beautifully rebuilt to its former grandeur and is once again a fine private residence. It is surrounded by gardens that Sir Edward Banks and his family would have appreciated, considering the great effort it must have taken to reinstate them after nearly a century of neglect. Apparently some prize tree specimens survived the many years of abandonment and are said to include a giant Wellingtonia, Chile pine and cedar, the last echoes from an era when the gardens were a public showplace that reached well beyond the boundaries of today's estate.

Please note that Oxney Court and its estate, and St Nicholas' Chapel ruins are private property. The general public have no right of access and you will be liable to prosecution if you trespass.

My Experiences of Oxney

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