TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST GROOMBRIDGE HILL (east side), OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/512 Crown Cottage 20.10.54 GV II* Cottage. Probably C17 or early C18 with C19 extension. Weatherboarded timber-framing on brick footings, west end wall (possibly rebuilt) of Flemish bond red brick. Brick stacks (older one maybe has a sandstone base) and brick chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof. Plan: L-plan house. Main block built across the hillslope facing south south west, say south, overlooking the churchyard. 3-room plan. An axial stack between the centre and right (east) rooms maybe only serving the centre room. Left end room is a crosswing projecting a little to rear and has rear gable- end stack. It seems that the left end crosswing is a C19 addition to the original 2-room plan house. Without an internal inspection it is not possible to describe the plan in detail or determine the structural development of the house. 2 storeys with lean-to outshot rear centre. Exterior: Irregular 3-window front. Some of the frames maybe earlier but all contain C20 casements with lattice patterns of leaded glass. The right 2 first floor windows are hip-roofed dormers and the left one in the front end of the wing. Front doorway (into the centre room) left of centre and up a couple of stone steps. It contains a probably C19 plank door under a shallow timber hood on shaped brackets. Roof is gable-ended to right. Crosswing roof is half-hipped to front, gable-ended to rear. The left (west) end has a one- window front; ground floor one with a low segmental brick arch over and has panelled shutters, and first floor has a flat-roofed half dormer. Both glazed in same manner as the front ones. Interior: Was not available for inspection at the time of this survey but if the other houses of Old Groombridge are anything to go by its original carpentry detail and other early features should be well-preserved. In the late C19 and early C20 Crown Cottage was the home of successive butlers to the Saint family of Groombridge Place. It is a very attractive cottage on an important site in this very important group of listed buildings associated with Groombridge Place (q.v.) which make up the village of Old Groombridge. Source. Barbara Lee. Groombridge Old and New (1978) p.23. Listing NGR: TQ5307037715