Belvedere Chapel

Jan 27th, 2021

This small chapel, surrounded by railings near the Tenterden Drive layby was originally a dovecote. It is the last surviving remnant of the grand house Hales Place, named after the Hales family who bought the land in 1675. Hales Place was built in the 1760's north of the road now called The Terrace. The Terrace was named because it commanded "a most beautiful view of the metropolitan city of Kent". Hales Place replaced an older house owned by the Manwood Family. Sir Roger Manwood (15251592) was an English jurist and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer to Elizabeth 1st. He was a philanthropist and founded Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, Kent in 1563 and the Almshouses in Hales Place which cost Manwood 500 in 1573. He died in 1592, under house arrest on corruption charges, still trying to bribe the Queens chief minister. His tomb in St. Stephen's Church in Hales Place is the work of Colt, who also designed Elizabeth Is tomb. The Hales family owned the house until 1880, when it was sold to exiled Jesuits from Lyon and turned into a college. The French nobility sent their sons there to escape political persecution in France. In 1928 the house was demolished. Its chapel.and the nearby burial ground are the only remnants.
Nov 1st, 2018