Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BURRSWOOD, OLD GROOMBRIDGE

16/469 St Michaels (formerly listed as
18.1.77 St Michael's Wing)

GV II

House, in use as a healing centre. 1831-38, built to the designs of Decimus
Burton for Alderman David Salomons, who later became High Sheriff for Kent and
Sussex (Lee, p.24); C20 alterations associated with the present use of the
building, including additions. Local sandstone ashlar; slate roofs with lead
rolls; stacks with stone shafts. Although described as Tudor in the Old List
Description, the fanciful detail is closer to C18 Gothick.

Plan: Long, irregular, approximately rectangular range with a garden
elevation facing south south east, say south, entrance on the north side. The
principal rooms face south, services to the east. The internal plan has been
altered, including the removal of the principal stair. 1950s chapel addition
at the west end.

Exterior: 2 and 3 storeys. Coped gables with kneelers and moulded
stringcourses to the verges, some of the gables false but windowed to give an
impression of an extra storey. Various Gothick window forms: some with Tudor
arched heads, some square-headed, some with triangular hoodmoulds, some
lancets. The original glazing, which survives in some windows, was small-pane
casements. Some unfortunate C20 replacement. Hipped and gabled slate roofs;
stacks with very tall grouped shafts with moulded bases and corbelled caps,
some of the stacks octagonal. Asymmetrical 9-window entrance (north)
elevation made up of various blocks of different heights. 2-bay entrance
block to right of centre with a projecting coped gabled porch with kneelers
and a Tudor arched doorway. 2 gabled dormers with Tudor arched windows with
original glazing and hoodmoulds. Square-headed 2-light window to the left of
the porch with a high transomed small-pane casement with a hoodmould. To the
right of the entrance block a rather altered 4-bay block has a parapet and
projecting lateral stack, the chimneyshafts unfortunately rebuilt. 3 first
floor small-pane 2-light casements with hoodmoulds, ground floor windows
altered in the C20. 2 attic dormers with segmental arched roofs. To the left
of the entrance block 3 gabled bays, each with symmetrically-arranged windows
of various different designs and false gables, the 2 left hand gables with
respectively, a bullseye window and a 2-light Tudor arched window with a
hoodmould, glazed with stained glass. The service wing, set back to the left,
continues in the same style. The garden (south) elevation of the main block
is more regular. A projecting 4-bay block to the right (east) has 4 gables to
the front, and a moulded string at sill level of the first floor windows,
which have square-headed hoodmoulds except the left hand window, which is
Tudor arched. 4 tall ground floor windows, the 2 centre windows paired, all
with hoodmoulds. The left and right returns of the projecting block have
canted bays with end stacks, the flues apparently divided on the ground floor
on either side of a ground floor window with a hoodmould and carved label
stops. To the left the range is set back: 2 bays with 2-light first floor
windows with hoodmoulds, attic dormers with segmental arched roofs, C20 flat-
roofed single-storey addition on the front. Gabled block set back at the
right end with a Tudor arched first floor window with a hoodmould.

Interior: Considerably re-arranged in the c20. The entrance hall has a fine
cantilevered winder stair with stick balusters and a ramped handrail, said not to be the original stair. Principal rooms retain C18 style panelling and
chimney-pieces. Considerable C20 refurbishment, including a small oratory.

Sources Colvin, H., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840
(1978 end.), p.173.
Lee, Barbara. Groombridge Old and New (1978), p.24.

Listing NGR: TQ5209037732

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26533292

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)