Listed Building record TQ 54 SE 35 - LOWER CHURCH FARMHOUSE

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1567 to 1899

Location

Grid reference TQ 5542 4166 (point)
Map sheet TQ54SE
District TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT
Civil Parish SPELDHURST, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 54 41 SPELDHURST SPELDHURST HILL (north side), SPELDHURST 12/583 Lower Church Farmhouse
GV II
Former farmhouse, row of 2 houses. Late C16/early C17, enlarged in the late C18/early C19, small late C19 extension, some circa 1980 modernisation. Timber-framed. Ground floor level is underbuilt with Flemish bond red brick. Framing above is hung with peg-tile. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts. Peg- tile roof.
Plan: House faces south west. It is 2 rooms wide and 2 rooms deep with central front staircase. Left frot room has a projecting gable-end stack. Axial stack between rear rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces. Present entrance through late C19 entrance porch on left end, possibly replacing an earlier one on the front. However the front rooms were added in the late C18/early C19 in front of a late C16/early C17 2-room lobby entrance plan farmhouse, probably with integral rear outshots. Right front and back rooms are now divided off from rest as a separate house.
2 storeys with attics in roofspace of the older part and probably late C16/early C17 lean-to outshots to rear. Cellars below.
Exterior: Regular but not symmetrical 3-window front. The right 2-window section is of late C18/early C19 16-pane sashes, the ground floor ones with low segmental brick arches over. Left first floor window is a contemporary -timber casement containing an iron-framed casement and rectangular panes of leaded glass. 2 left ground floor windows are C20 csements with glazing bars. Present main entrance through late C19 porch on left end contains a 4-panel door with a small sash window alongside. 2 parallel roofs. Front roof is gable-ended. Rear roof is steeply pitched and taller than the front one. It is gable-ended to left and half-hipped to right and rear pitch continues down over the outshots.
Interior: Only the left section was available for inspection at the time of this survey. Late C16/early C17 work is confined to the rear. Rear left room and chamber above have chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beams. Firepalces rebuilt in the C20. Cellar below has walls of coursed sandstone (brick-walled cellar under front). Attic floor is carried on a crossbeam below tie beam level. Roof of rear block of 3 uneven bays; tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and queen struts.
Listing NGR: TQ5542541663


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

Sources/Archives (1)

  • --- Map: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.

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Record last edited

Feb 19 2008 12:26PM