The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5282 MURSTON Meres Court, with cottage attached TQ 96 SW 9/58 10.9.51. II 2. A timber-framed house with plastered front and 1st floor oversailing on a bressumer. Hipped tiled roof. 3 sashes with glazing bars intact. Attached to the house at the West end is a cottage of 1 window bay, faced with roughcast and having a hipped tiled roof.
Listing NGR: TQ9239164608

Description from record TQ 96 SW 218:
The Department of Environment listing information is very basic and has been superseded by the historic building assessment carried out in 2001 (which also examines East Hall Farm TQ 96 SW 219). This reports that the house is of two main phases. The earliest phase consists of a weatherboarded ‘service’ range to the east. This element of the house was originally a two bay open hall, built in c. 1400. The deciding feature of this hall is the crown post and clasped collar purlin roof truss with associated framing elements, which suggest the 1400 date.

The second phase involved the possible rebuilding of a solar range on the west side of the house. This extension or rebuild has been dated to c. 1550. Inspection of the roof of this part of the building revealed it to be a plain crown-post-and-clasped-collar purlin type. Its detailing and lack of blackening suggest this extension was built with a floor, as a four-bay lobby entry house. At this time the open hall of the old house was floored over, the detailing of which is judged to be contemporary with the 16th century extensions. The crown post truss tie beam was cut to give sufficient headroom at first floor level. The old hall became the service area of the house and was used for farm storage.

A later victorian kitchen extension was added to the rear/north of the house.

Internally a moulded brick Tudor-style fireplace survives in the western extension, along with a number of later Georgian and Victorian partitions.

A survey of the outer farm buildings arranged around a distinctive triangular farmyard that appears on older maps, observed no buildings earlier than 1900 (although the layout may be of 17th or 18th century date).

The report concludes with a discussion of the conservation issues affecting the property [1].

See also [2-3].

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<1> Alan Baxter & Associates, 2002, Mere Court and East Hall Farm, Murston, near Sittingbourne, Kent. An Historic Buildings and Conservation Issues Assessment (Unpublished document). SKE12510.

<2> Symonds Group, 2002, Land at NE Sittingbourne East Hall Farm Environmental Statement (Unpublished document). SKE12511.

<3> CgMs Consulting, 2003, Archaeological Desk Based Assessment East Hall Farm Sittingbourne Kent (Unpublished document). SKE12512.