TQ 65 NW WROTHAM C.P. FORD LANE 5/24 (east side) 1.8.52 Ford Place and wall to north GV II* Country house, of which only south wing survives. Dated 1582 and 1605 on stacks, but armorials C20 in style. Probably built about 1600. Red brick to north and west, with some stone dressings. The south side of brick and coursed rubble on ground-floor. Rendered on 1st floor. Stringcourse over ground-floor to north. Plain tiled roof, with 3 gables to north, decorative with steps, quarter-circles and lunettes surmounting. Large stepped gable to west. Three chimney-breasts with tall stacks on south side. 2 storeys; regular 3 window 1st floor to north, mullioned and transom windows of rubbed brick to resemble stone, under each north side gable. 2 blocked windows of similar type on 1st floor of west end. Irregular fenestration of ground-floor of north front and on south front. C20 boarded and rubbed door in moulded surround to right of west facade. Interior: collar-purlin roof with crown-posts, modified and re-used at east end of block. Linenfold panelling in one 1st floor room, a stone chimney-piece in another, its lintel covered with arabesques and 2 squirrels below blackbird in cherry. West drawing room; large fireplace with bressumer. Wall: attached at west end of north side. C16 in origin, but much patched later. Coursed rubble stone below, red and blue brick above, on probable site of courtyard screen wall. 6 ft high and 30 yds long. Remains of blocked gateway visible in centre. House probably built by William Clarke, to whom there is a brass dated 1611 in Wrotham Church. Forde passed to the Bartholomew and Geary families of West Peckham in the eighteenth century, at which time it was relegated to farmhouse status and sold. Restored, after semi-dereliction, in the 1920's, it is now divided into 2 properties. Listing NGR: TQ6076359294