In an earlier post I showed how trial trenching that was meant to locate and evaluate the condition of Sayes Court Manor House actually seems to have been placed in the building’s exterior yard area.
A second stage of excavation has now been underway on the site since the summer, and last week the Museum of London archaeologists acting on behalf of the developers of Convoys Wharf stated on the MOL website that they had “unearthed the remains of Sayes Court, a building with rich historical associations”, and “identified the plan of Sayes Court, as modified in the course of its history”. Note the slightly ambiguous wording of the latter phrase, to which I’ll return in a moment.
Given these claims, those who attended the long-overdue site visit on Saturday hoping to actually see any evidence of Sayes Court will have been, as I was, very disappointed. Both of the trenches have been completely backfilled. Indeed, had a group of concerned visitors not spontaneously gathered on top of the nearby spoil heap to discuss Sayes Court after the end of the official tour, it would have received not a single mention.
Why was no real opportunity given to the public to visit the site during the course of the actual excavations that supposedly uncovered the Manor House? I say “real” opportunity, because I’ve since found out that one lucky person somehow heard of a chance to visit, and got to see the exposed building, in the company of Lewisham’s Archaeology officer. Hardly a turn-out that reflects the level of concern and interest in the site.
Sketch of Sayes Court Manor House by John Evelyn.
Detail from 1753 plan of Deptford Dockyard.
To the right is a detail from Thomas Milton’s 1753 plan of the dockyard, which fortuitously also includes the footprint of the manor house, proving that it must still have survived at that date, even though it was already being used as a poor house, as it was for almost a century afterwards.
Pension Office in 1869
Almshouses about 1900
Now take a look at this etching and photograph of the building that succeeded Sayes Court Manor House, used as the Pension Office, and then in 1869 after the dockyard closed and W J Evelyn managed to buy back the site, turned into almshouses. This is obviously a completely different building, with a plan in no way resembling the original Manor House.
We know where this pension office was located, because it appears on maps, including this 1938 one. When this map is overlaid on Evelyn’s 1653 one, it is immediately obvious that the pension office does not occupy the same site as the earlier Sayes Court Manor House.
Manor house (shaded in pink) located north of pension offices. Click to view larger version.
Site of Sayes Court Manor House looking NE from spoil heap
Yet this is the building that the MOL website has implied (hence the odd wording referred to above) is what remains of the Manor House. On what grounds? The answer forthcoming on the site visit was that its foundations or cellars contain in-situ seventeenth century brickwork. If so, two other explanations (or a combination of both) are possible for the presence of these bricks. They could be part of the ten foot high brick wall which ran through this area, between the Manor’s forecourt and the parterre to the west. Alternatively, they could be re-used bricks from the demolition of the original manor house, which I believe lay slightly to the north, and remains unexcavated under the modern concrete.
Sayes Court manor house is due to be “preserved in situ”, that is, covered over but not disturbed, in the current development proposals. If what I fear is true, it is the nineteenth century pension office that will receive this barely charitable treatment, while who knows-what-damage will be wreaked on the unprotected and unexplored mediaeval, Tudor and Jacobean manor house.
As for the gardens, historically unmatched in their importance, they are not even worthy, it seems, of a mention, let alone the careful programme of excavation and restoration for which more and more people are now pressing.
To check the locations of the two buildings for yourself, with Google Earth.
If you don’t have Google Earth, you will need to install it first. You can download this for free from earth.google.co.uk
Get the .kmz file of John Evelyn’s 1653 plan from bbs.keyhole.com/Plan_of_Sayes_Court_House_and_Garden.kmz. Open this in Google Earth; it will be overlaid onto the modern satellite view of the area.
Also get the 1938 War Department plan from bbs.keyhole.com/War Department plan detail 1938.kmz and open it too in Google Earth.
Tick the boxes to select both “Plan of Sayes Court House and Garden” and “War Department plan detail 1938? from the menu on the left. By dragging the slider on the left you can view the 1938 War Department plan superimposed on Evelyn’s 1653 plan, both together over the modern landscape, and all degrees of transparency in between.
