| The dovecot at High House,
Purfleet is one of the best in Essex, according
to Donald Smith who wrote the definitive work in
Essex dove houses in 1931. The last sixty years
have not dealt kindly with the fifty-nine dove
houses which he listed. Of the four he refers to
in Thurrock, that at Hunts Farm, West Thurrock
has long disappeared and there remains only a
vestige of brickwork of the one at West Tilbury.
Fortunately the other two, at Arden Hall, Horndon-on-the-Hill
(repaired in 1991) and the one which is the
subject of this note, are both in good condition,
and I suspect that a 50% survival rate is better
than the average for the country as a whole. High House dovecot is owned and well maintained by Blue Circle Industries Plc and is under the friendly eye of Mr and Mrs Vellacott who live nearby. In 1990 the Society entered into an agreement with BCI which permitted the Society to show the dovecot to visitors and it is for this reason that the following notes on its construction and relevant history are given here. The building is octagonal with an external side of 2.95 metres and built of brick with an irregular bond. There is a rendered plinth and a prominent cornice originally apparently of lath and plaster, now in cement rendering. The roof is tiled with modern bonnet tiles on the ridges and rises to a square glover with a pyramidal roof and a weather vane. There is a north-facing dormer window. The door, or rather doors are most unusual. On opening the external wooden door a second iron door with a very substantial lock is revealed. The reason for this high security is uncertain but one possibility is the high price (up to two shillings each) offered in London during the nineteenth century for live pigeons for target practice, this being before clay pigeons were made. Inside a visitor immediately notices the central ‘potence’ or mobile ladder which is still in working order and which gives access to the 517 ‘L’ shaped nest boxes or pigeon holes, formed within the brickwork of the walls. Octagonal brick dovecots tend to be of 18th century date but the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historical Interest (it is a Grade II building) suggests late 17th century. The history of the manor throws some light on the date of the building. |
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The manor of Stonehouse,
West Thurrock, the manor house being on the south
side of the London road at Stonehouse corner, was
bought in 1548 by Robert Long (d. 1552) a mercer
of London and his wife Cecily (d. 1559). They had
two daughters, Martha and Magdalen and when
Robert died Cecily, in order to divide the manor
fairly between the two girls, decided that a
second manor house was needed so ‘The
Place’ or ‘New Place’, later to be
called ‘High House’, was built some 450
metres west of Stonehouse. The two manors passed
through several separate hands until Sir Robert
Clayton bought both in 1677 and rebuilt High
House in brick and this is the building that
stands today. A breach occurred in the river wall a few years later, flooding the marsh lands; although Sir Robert Clayton made strenuous efforts to repair the wall, his neighbouring landowners appear to have done little or nothing. The government, being convinced that navigation of the Thames was likely to be impeded if the breach was allowed to continue, employed a Dutchman, Cornelius Vandenanker, to repair the breach. It was standard practice in these circumstances for the Government to confiscate the recovered land and it seems that Vandenanker acquired the land in payment for his services. Vandenanker died soon after and it was left to his widow, Sarah, to buy High House itself from the now bankrupt Clayton in 1684. Sarah married Benjamin Desborough in the following year, and he in turn had to sell up to Caleb Grantham in 1697 due to a further breach in the river wall. Returning to the dating of the dovecot it seems likely that its construction took place in a period of comparative affluence of the manor soon after 1677 or possibly between 1684 and 1697. |
Source: Use has
been made of the Victoria County History of Essex as a
source for much of the historical information in this
note.
Note: This article first appeared in
Panorama No. 31 in 1990. Since then Bellway Homes have
bought the site and 19 new houses have been built, named
’Dovecote Barns‘, demolishing Mr and Mrs
Vellacott’s house in the process. High House is now
managed by the Royal Opera House and the following
information is from the Thurrock Thames Gateway
Deveopment Corporation ’s website:
In 2010, the gates opened on the brand new, state-of-the-art,
Royal Opera House Production Park on a 14-acre site at
High House Farm, Purfleet. This will be the UK’s
first ever national centre of excellence for technical
skills, crafts and production for the performing arts and
live music. It will house a world-class production
facility for the Royal Opera House and the new National
Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills, as
well as workspaces for creative enterprises. Community,
education, exhibition and meeting spaces will be located
in the restored, Grade II listed High House Farm
buildings that are at the heart of the development. This
unique combination will make the Production Park a magnet
for related companies, organisations and talented
individuals.
The Royal Opera House Production Park will act as a focus and catalyst for the skills that it hosts by providing training, education, business and community spaces for the local area. The neglected, Grade II listed farm buildings of High House will be restored to their former glory and returned to daily use. Features including a one acre walled garden and play space which will provide a fantastic environment for workers, visitors and local people to enjoy.
The Royal Opera House Production
Park is a unique partnership between the Thurrock Thames
Gateway Development Corporation, Arts Council England,
Creative & Cultural Skills, the East of England
Development Agency, Royal Opera House and Thurrock
Council.
In September 2010 it was announced that the Thurrock
Thames Gateway Development Corporation would be wound up
and its powers transferred to Thurrock Council in 2012.