Snoad Farm
snoad farmhouse, otterden
About Snoad Farm
Julie and David Murray of Snoad Farm, Otterden, have been delving into the history of their home.
Julie says: "Since we have lived at Snoad Farm, we have discovered several old wall paintings, two being Coats of Arms. The lady who restored them was very knowledgeable (she helped to restore Windsor Castle) and seemed to think that Snoad Farm was once a Royalist 'safe house'."
Pat Winzar, the Charing historian, has also investigated the farmhouse. Following a visit in 1997, she offered her thoughts on the building and some known history of the surrounding area. She wrote: "I am only sorry that I cannot tell you the names of previous occupiers as a lead towards finding out who commissioned those unique wall paintings."
With the help of a colleague, Sarah Pearson, she was confident that the majority of the timbers in one downstairs room were 16th century. The rest of the house was some years later, possibly early 17th century.
She concluded from this that, if the wall painting upstairs could be said to depict the Royal Stuart Coat of Arms, it had to be painted between 1603, James I, and the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne in 1714. Her choice would be to "go for a date not later than Charles I."
"After that," suggests Pat Winzar, "with the Parliamentarians supposedly in charge of Kent, it would be a risky thing to have the Stuart Coat of Arms on the wall until Charles II came back as King".
Snoad Farm's name
Pat Winzar also carried out some research on Snoad Farm's rather unusual name. She says: "There are a number of 'snoad' names in Kent, most of which refer to properties or places on the edge of a large land holding or manor. 'Snadas' is an Anglo-Saxon word and 'snad' is classified as old English."
Other sources provide the following clues:
Anglo-Saxon Dictionary by Bosworth and Toller. This book is referred to in Archaeologia Cantiana Vol.31 p.204. In defining the word 'snaed' it is said it is "a piece of land within defined limits, but, without enclosures, a limited circumscribed woodland or pasturage (or) a clearing (in a wood?)".The Place Names of Kent by J.K. Wallenberg (1930s) offers: "Snoad -Old English 'snad" and "A piece of land cut off".The Place Names of Kent by Judith Glover (1976): "Snoad - A detached piece of land. Old English Snode."
Monkton and Boardfield
Snoad Farm's location on the edge of the Otterden Estate and so near that of Monkton, described as both a manor and parish by Edward Hasted in his The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (published c.1797), encouraged Pat Winzar to try find out whether Snoad Farm had ever belonged to Monkton parish. She discovered that both Monkton and Boardfield had been small manors and parishes, and had become absorbed in Otterden Manor but there seems to be no evidence to confirm a connection with Snoad.
Site of Monkton Church: TO 9435541. It would seem that around 1797 the church ruins were still above ground as Edward Hasted calls it 'delapidated'. If he is correct in saying the church served a manor and a parish, albeit a small one, then there must be evidence of other buildings, also now vanished, but still with below ground evidence.
For more on Snoad Farm and Julie and David Murray's flock of Romney sheep, go to: www.snoadfarm.com