TQ 55 SE PLAXTOL TONBRIDGE ROAD 3/14 (east side) 1.8.52 Fairlawne I Country house. Earlier building rebuilt for Sir Henry Vane 1630-55, additions by Lord Barnard 1680, completed for Lord Vane 1723, in part by James Gibbs. Victorian additions and interior decoration by William Burn before 1840 and J MacVicar Anderson 1872. Most Victorian additions removed 1954. West front. 1680. Dressed and coursed Kentish ragstone on ragstone plinth with painted stone pilaster-strip quoins, plat-band at architrave window surrounds. Modillion cornice and parapet hiding slate roofs. Two-stage cupola off-centre to left, square, with canted corner pilasters and entablature on lower stage and lead cupola, 3 brick stacks, 2 either side of centre, one at left-hand end. Two-storeys; 9 bays, the central 4 spaced slightly further apart, glazing bar sashes. Three-bay Roman Doric 'porte cochere' with paired columns, added in 1872 by J MacVicar Anderson. Slightly recessed northern extension, possibly hiding part of the earlier house with facade probably by Gibbs in 1723. Dressed and coursed rubble with painted stone pilaster-strip quoin and keystones to windows. Cornice, parapet and left and stack. Three storeys; 4 bays, glazing bar sashes. South front quoins and dressings. Plat-band, modillion cornice and parapet hiding slate roofs. Central 2 bays project slightly with pediment in parapet area. Two storeys; 6 bays, glazing bar plinth with stone pilaster-strip quoins and dressing. Plat band, modillion cornice and parapet hiding slate roof. Two storeys, 5 bays, glazing bar sashes. Central glazed door with rectangular over-light and segment pediment hood. Taller 2-storey block to north-east with attic pediments facing south and east. Two bays to south, with glazing bar sashes; 3 bays to east, sashes without glazing bar sashes. Seven-bay conservatory of 1872 to east, with Roman Doric colonnaded loggia and glazed internal barrel-vault. Interior. Entrance hall. Panelled with 1872 plaster ceiling and single C18 black marble fireplace. Study. Two-storey fireplace, topped by broken swan-neck pediment and door surround with carved and pierced frieze. Great Room. Wood panelled with carved ornament. Door surround with fluted Ionic half-columns and triangular pediment. Marble fireplace with half-columned and pedimented sedicular overmantel. Drawings for this room survive in the Gibbs Collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. See Country Life, 30 October and 6 November 1958. Also 27 November 1958 for correspondence on the attribution to Gibbs of the Great Room. Listing NGR: TQ5933754660