Shepherd's Cottage has deeds of the 1840s and was built as a shepherd's cottage to Mote Park, probably by the second Earl of Romney (d1845). The building is not shown on the Ordnance Survey drawing of 1797 but does appear on the Tithe Map of 1843.
On the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1868 the building appears as an isolated structure near the western edge of the park. It is shown to its current extent with a vertical division and it is positioned along the northern edge of a triangular pinfold. There is no change in the outline on the 1897 or 1908 maps, but by 1897 a cricket pavilion is shown to the south-east at the edge of a roughly circular cricket ground. By 1908 a private pavilion called The Tabernacle is shown further south. By the 1937 map the triangular pinfold shape has disappeared and the building has been separated from Mote Park within the boundaries of The Mote
Cricket Club grounds.

Details
Mid C19 shepherd's cottage built for the Mote Park estate. Re-fenestrated in early C20.

MATERIALS: squared Kentish ragstone with ragstone galleting but the attached sheep pen is timber-framed, clad in weatherboarding on a ragstone and brick plinth. Gabled slate roof with central rendered chimneystack.

PLAN: probably originally two single-storey cottages with an attached animal pen to the west, later adapted into a single cottage with storage.

EXTERIOR: the front or south side has five triple early-C20 mullioned and transomed casements and two doorcases; the western one a C19 plank door with an iron footscraper, the eastern one later-C20 and multi-pane. The former sheep pen is open fronted with sockets remaining for attaching a barrier. The eastern gable end has no openings. The north side has three early-C20 triple mullioned and transomed casement windows and the former animal pen to the west is clad in weatherboarding with some studs of thin scantling visible. The west gable end is clad in weatherboarding.

INTERIOR: the cottage retains exposed brickwork and a cambered arch to the chimneystack and some ledged plank doors. Some C20 internal partitions have been inserted. The animal pen has exposed pole rafters with a ridge-piece.(1)

<1> English Heritage, 2013, English Heritage (Listing) Advice Report for The Mote Cricket Club Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE25973.