Description

GILLINGHAM

TQ86NW LOWER RAINHAM ROAD, Lower Rainham
686-1/8/75 (South West side)
24/02/50 Bloors Place

GV II*

Hall house, now house. 1470-1510, for Christopher Bloor, rear
wing early C16 truncated and rebuilt late C17, partly
destroyed by C18 fire.
MATERIALS: timber-frame, clad in red brick to ground floor and
tile-hung above, galleated limestone rubble rear wing extended
in English bond brick, and the right in Flemish bond brick,
brick rear external stacks, and a tall octagonal stack with
crenellated cap to the rear wing extension, and a hipped roof
with left-hand gable.
PLAN: Wealden-type 3-room hall house of which the left-hand
section destroyed in C18 fire, extended to rear C16.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic; 4-window range. Former hall
recessed at left-hand end has chamfered curved brackets from
sides and projecting lateral beam under the overhanging eaves,
a right-hand 4-centre arched moulded doorway with ribbed door
and a rectangular overlight with margin panes, and a late C19
left-hand casement and first-floor casement over the entrance.
Long right-hand bay refaced late C19 has C20 fenestration with
a left-hand canted bay and mullion, and mullion and transom
casements, with hipped dormers to the middle and left-hand
return. A deep C20 weatherboarded eaves band extends along the
front.
The rear of the hall and the rear wing have C16 Perpendicular
moulded stone mullion windows with shallow pointed heads and
small panes.
The hall has a rubble rear with a large external stack with a
C19 star-shaped shaft, and a wide 2-storey bay in the outer
corner with a hipped roof, 3 ground-floor and 5 first-floor
lights, the latter leaded casements, and to the inner side of
the stack are single 2-light windows to each floor; the
left-hand return a 1-window range with a C19 doorway with
4-pane overlight, C18 8/8-pane first-floor sash and a C20
attic casement.
Rear wing has a weathered stone plat band, with 5 irregularly
spaced windows to the E with an off-centre 4-centre-arched
door with moulded surround and boarded door, and arched lights
as the previous section; a C19 doorway as the end of the hall.
The W side has 2 paired windows, that to the left higher to a
possible stairwell, a single paired first-floor window, and a
hipped dormer, with a flat-headed door in the window-less rear

section. C20 lower porch and probable stair well in the SW
re-entrant.
INTERIOR: not inspected but recorded by RCHME as having much
evidence of timber-framing including heavy jowled posts in
front range; original C16 4-centre arched doorways at S end of
former screen passage and in first floor stair well, the
latter with enriched spandrels and moulded stops; crown post
collar purlin roof in front range with octagonal crown posts
with bases and capitals and arched braces. Rear wing
first-floor chamber has clustered roll-moulded ceiling beams.
C18 panelling in front right-hand drawing room.
HISTORY: an unusual plan in having a very long W service bay,
formerly jettied but the floor altered. The roof shows no
evidence of smoke blackening, and believed to be a rare
example of a hall with an original rear stack.
A fine and unusual complex with group value with the rear
walled garden walls and cart lodge and outbuildings (qv).
(Survey of Kent Buildings: 1991-: 40264).

Listing NGR: TQ8130267677

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17551376

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)