AYLESHAM RATLING TR 25 SW 2/5 Ratling Court 11.10.63 GV I House. Circa 1320, extended late C15 and 1637 and clad C18. Timber framed and part exposed ( especially to rear and to right return) close studded with plaster infill, largely clad with painted brick with plain tiled roof. Aisled hall with cross wing plan. Two storey wings flank central 1 storey and attic range, with jetty to right on dragon posts, hipped roofs with stacks at end left and to centre and 2 central hipped semi-dormers. Two glazing bar slashes on first floors and 1 tripartite and 3 single glazing bar sashes on ground floor. Central door of 6 raised and fielded panels in segmentally headed surround. Catslide outshot and hipped wing to rear. Interior; at least 1 aisle post survives intact and visible upstairs supporting the western (rear) aisle plate; the other aisle plate also clearly survives. King post roof over central hall (one of the very few such roofs in Kent), the base of one post truncated, with doubled lapped collars with short stemmed crown posts supporting central bays with moulded bases and capitals. North wing (C15) with octagonal moulded crown post on hollow chamfered knee braced tie beam and plain section crown post downbraced to tie beam to rear. Smoke blackened roof timbers throughout in hall and cross wing. Mid C17 wing with clasped purlin roof. Plain dado panelling with cornice to ceiling with fillet and ovolo moulded ceiling joists with small mid C18 room to rear with raised and fielded panelled dado and moulded wooden fire surround. Quirk and tongue stop chamfered beams elsewhere. Stair landing with mid C18 rail with turned balusters. William Cowper (Bart, 1642) for long lived at Ratling and is said to have planned additions and the ceiling in of the hall, the southern wing was dated 1637 but the date is now lost. The house, originally built for the de Ratling family long remained a possession of the Earls Cowper.(See B.O.E. Kent II, 1983, 127; see also H.B.A.C. report August 1985;see also Hasted,X,252;see also E.W.Parkin, AC ,XCII, 1976) Listing NGR: TR2397953691