The Manor of Mallingden
( Molland and Dean-Fee)
The Manor of Mallingden, once known as Molland and Dean-Fee or Moll-Land and Dean-Fee, together with Berrycourt and Prior’s Hall, is one of the oldest known manors in the parish of Cliffe, dating back to the era of Saxon rule.
According to Hasted: 'The Manor of Mallingden, is a small manor of which there has been no manor house for some considerable time'.
‘the court baron for it is held under a tree, there being no manor house remaining.’
Hasted Vol 3 1797
The exact location of the estate of Molland and Dean-Fee on today's landscape is not known altough it's known to be adjoing the present B2000 and some of the fields abutted the 'parsonage' and the estate of Cardon's Manor.
The Manor was in the ownership of the Priory of Christ Church Canterbury from 1069 until 1540 where it was taken over my Henry VIII. The land was then in the ownership of Queens Mary & Elizabeth but leased by Thomas Wotton. Thomas the sub-let to a number of tenants: Thomas Browne, Nicholas Munde, John Cocke & John Church and there was a survey completed in 1560 in the presence of these tenants.
In 1578 Queen Elizabeth granted the manor to William Ewens. He didn’t keep it for long it passed through a number of owners in quick succession: Brown, Sompner, Hills and eventually Blackford of Holnicote of Somerset.
Henrietta Blackford, who owned other lands in both Cliffe and Higham, had one quarter share in this manor. The manor was then passed onto her heirs, Elizabeth Dyke and her daughter Elizabeth. Edward, the son of Elizabeth Dyke then became the owner after his mother, Elizabeth Dyke, procured through an Act of Parliament for an exchange of lands that she held in Somerset & Devon for those in Oxfordshire & Kent: The Manor of Mallingden being part of the Kentish lands.
Edward died without issue and so the manor reverted to his niece, Elizabeth, who was then married to Sir Thomas Ackland.
The manor stayed in the ownership of the Ackland family until 1794 whence one quarter of the manor became the property of James Roper Head with the remaining three quarters being released to him in the following year.
The manor’s lands were put up for sale in 1810 and was purchased by the Earl of Darnley.