Description

WOULDHAM CP ROCHESTER ROAD
TQ 76 NW
(west side)
2/239
1.8.52 Starkey Castle
-

- I

Manor house, possibly at one time also hospice, now house. Circa 1360-1380,
C15 and early C19. Random rubble with dressed stone quoins and dressings.
Some galletting. Plain tiled roof, with coped parapeted gabled cross-wing to
left and tall stone and stack at extrance left. Central buttress to hall at
right. Hall-house plan with services to left and solar wing to right, probably
demolished in C17. 1 storey hall, floored in C16 and C17 and 2 storey cross-
to left with 2 storey out-blocks behind and to left. Wide pointed-arched 3-
light traceried window on cross-wing to left on first-floor above square-headed
early C19 Tudor-style window on ground-floor. 2-storey pointed-arched dais
window with early C19 wood and stone mullion and tracery in moulded surround
with drip-mould to right. Square-headed windows with drip-moulds and 2-light
Tudor-style glazing on ground and first-floors to right of centre. Doorway
to left of centre in moulded pointed-arched surround with drip-mould. Doubled
doors with 'Gothick'-glazed archlight. SOUTH FRONT: Projecting chimney-breast
against side of cross-wing. L-shaped block projecting to left with hipped roof.
Round-arched windows on 2 floors, on main block to left of chimney-breast and
facing south in angle of 'L'. WEST FRONT: Projecting wing to right, main block
to left with gabled cross-wing to right of centre. Hipped roofed stair-tower
at left of cross-wing with pointed arched moulded entrance and doubled doors
to left. Irregular fenestration of square- and round-headed windows. Mostly
C14 with one late C15 2-light window with original stone mullion above to left.
North front: Rendered with 2 corbels assymetrically placed on ground-floor and
C16 an early C17 red-brick infill to gable end. Interior: Double height 2-bay
open hall with arch-braced rafter roof with braces, trusses and ashlars, resting
on moulded cornices. Moulded arched braces resting on corbels decorated with
winged angels in centre and shields at ends. Remains of inserted stack and
walls in hall below. Opposing entrance doorway on scheme of screen's-passage
survive as well as Buttery and Pantry doorways and doorway to stairs. Large
room, formerly chapel, with remains of aumbry and piscina recesses, on first-
floor of cross-wing, reached by stone spiral staircase at south-west end of
hall. Rafter roof with moulded side-purlins and arched braces resting on shield-
moulded corbels. Stone roll-moulded fireplace of late C15 in chapel. Starkey
Castle is graded I as one of the most complete surviving stone-built medieval
hall-houses in Southern England. See Archeologia Cantiana, 81, 1966, pp 118;
RCHM Reports.

Listing NGR: TQ7138165592

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530301

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

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)