Off the North
Downs Way track at the parish border between
Halling and Luddesdown (just before the path drops down to Great Buckland Farm)
is a clearing in the woodland...
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| Woodland clearing - once the site of Pomphery Cottages... |
On the corner of the crossroads can be seen three large blocks
of masonry, sitting on top of some old chalky concrete foundations...
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| Old masonry blocks at site of Pomphery Cottages... |
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| Masonry blocks as above - the foundations can be seen below them... |
This is all that remains of Pomphery Cottages, a small group
of dwellings that once stood there and were home to the farm workers who once
served Buckland Farm at the turn of the twentieth century and before. The 1844 census tells us there were three cottages at “Pomphery
Castle”, as the area was also called, all inhabited by agricultural workers and
their families…
The OS Map for 1869 shows the three cottages and what
appears to be the track to the well that served them…
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| 1869 OS map, with the three Pomphery Cottages indicated at upper right... |
By 1908, the OS map suggests that the cottages appeared to
have been sub-divided into seven dwellings…
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| 1908 OS map showing seven cottages... |
By 1938 however, the OS map shows no trace of the cottages,
and it appears they had been demolished in the intervening time...
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| 1938 OS map of the Pomphery Cottage area.. |
All that
remains are the clearing and some masonry blocks and scattered foundations as
described. I looked for the remains of
the old well as shown on the 1869 map, but the area is rather overgrown. I did find a weed and bramble-choked depression
in the ground that is in the right place, and may possibly be the remains of a
filled-in well.
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| The Pomphery Cottages well...? |
Reference:
p9. Snodland and ‘Cementopolis” 1841-1881
