Great Mongeham may
have been a settlement as long ago as the Bronze Age. When the site for
the new primary school was being dug in February 1949 the body of a man
and two fragments of food vessels were found. The man was in the
crouched burial position used in the Bronze Age and one of the fragments
was dated to about 1000 BC.
Great Mongeham is close to the Roman road which ran from Dover to
Richborough Castle. Archaeologists have discovered Roman pottery and
evidence of cremation but we do not know of there was a permanent
settlement here at that time.
There certainly was a settlement here in AD761. In that year Jing
Eadbert of Kent gave some land to St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.
This included the village, which was then called Mundelingeham. The
names means "settlement of Mundel's people". By 1195 is was written as
Munigeham. It had become Mongeham by 1610.
Being close to the sea and to the rest of Europe has affected Mongeham's
history. In 1415 Henry V granted the Fogge family of Mongeham the
exclusive rights to brew and ship beer to the English soldiers in
Calais. Chalk and lime used in the building of Deal Castle in 1538 was
quarried from a pit called Pope's Hall. At the time of the Armada in
1588 Mongeham had a signal beacon which would have been lit to raise the
alarm if the Spanish landed. Later, the smugglers hid their spoils near
the village.
A number of buildings in Mongeham have shaped gable ends. This was a
Dutch fashion which is found in several places along the east coast of
Kent. The church porch, which was demolished in 1851, had fine gable
ends.
The village church has a complicated history. The original building
probably dates from Saxon times but there are claims that it goes back
to AD 470. In the sixteenth century the interior was brightly coloured
by by 1665 the church as in a state of disrepair. One third of the
parishioners belonged to religious sects and did not attend service. The
church as restored in 1851.
Inside the church there is a helmet which may have been worn at the
Battle of Hastings in 1066. There is also a poem by Robert Bridges, a
former Poet Laureate, written as a tribute to his nurse, Catherine
Ashby. She came from Mongeham and spent much of her life in service with
the Bridges family who lived at St Nicholas-at-Wade in Thanet, where
Robert himself is buried.
Also in the church is the fine sculpted monument to Edward Crayford,
whose father-in-law was three times Lord Mayor of London. They Crayfords
were once a prominent local family but Stone Hall, their house by the
church, was demolished long ago. William Crayford led a contingent of
Kent men in the War of the Roses on the Yorkist side. He fought in the
Earl of Warwick's division at the battle of Northampton in 1460 and was
knighted by Edward IV for his services.
I am a local historian mainly concentrating on Dover and it's military defences.
My main interest and involvement is with the Western Heights Preservation Society where I am treasurer and an active commitee member. We aim to promote the forgotten cousin of Dover Castle, the Napoleonic Defences, to the public and to open them up where possible. We concentrate our efforts on the Drop Redoubt and Grand Shaft.
Having lived in Thanet for most of my life, I have lived in Deal for nearly 10 years, the last 5 on the edge of the village, Great Mongeham.
Looking at photograph websites and around the internet there is quite a lack of information on the village so I hope with this site to fill a gap and show you some interesting pictures.
Paul