wall curves in to form the south wall of the manor-house suggests that here it left the original line.* (Plan No.1)  The inner moat along the north cuts through this wall in two places, as already described, and would seem, therefore, to be of later date; but the gate-house contains a place for a drawbridge which seems to belong to the manor-house work and points to the existence of some sort of inner moat previous to Penchester’s restoration of the castle.
   The only reference to Allington during its manor-house days that I have yet found is in the Liber Rubeus de Scaccario, 12 and 13 John, where amongst the "Milites tenentes de Archiepiscopatu Cantuarensi" in Kent is entered :— 
   Avelina de Longo campo tenet dimidium feodum in Alintone.†
   How it came to pass that the owner of Allington at this time and henceforward held of the archbishop I cannot say. Allington was not one of the manors recovered by Lanfranc from Odo and others at the famous assembly at

Penenden Heath. Warenne did not hold it, so far as I can discover, of the archbishop. I cannot find out when it was granted to him.
   I find a note in Philipot that in Darell's MSS., which I have not been able to trace, it is stated that there exists in the Tower records, therefore now in the Record Office, a list of castles of the eighth year of Henry III. (1223-4), where Allington is said to belong still to one of the Columbers family. Of this list I can bear nothing. Besides, in 1223 Allington was not a castle. Nor do I know anything more about Avelina de Longo campo. For convenience and clearness of reference I always refer to the twelfth-century manor-house as the ‘Avelina’ house.
   We now come to the purchase of Allington by Stephen of Penchester or Penshurst, a man about whom much might be said, for he was a remarkable person, but I have to economise space and must leave an account of him for another occasion. Darell’s MSS., I believe, are again the
 * See the "Map."
  † H. Hall: The Red book of the Exchequer, vol. ii., pp. 469, 472.