Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST GROOMBRIDGE HILL (east side),
OLD GROOMBRIDGE
16/512 Crown Cottage
20.10.54
GV II*

Cottage. Probably C17 or early C18 with C19 extension. Weatherboarded
timber-framing on brick footings, west end wall (possibly rebuilt) of Flemish
bond red brick. Brick stacks (older one maybe has a sandstone base) and brick
chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: L-plan house. Main block built across the hillslope facing south south
west, say south, overlooking the churchyard. 3-room plan. An axial stack
between the centre and right (east) rooms maybe only serving the centre room.
Left end room is a crosswing projecting a little to rear and has rear gable-
end stack. It seems that the left end crosswing is a C19 addition to the
original 2-room plan house. Without an internal inspection it is not possible
to describe the plan in detail or determine the structural development of the
house.

2 storeys with lean-to outshot rear centre.

Exterior: Irregular 3-window front. Some of the frames maybe earlier but all
contain C20 casements with lattice patterns of leaded glass. The right 2
first floor windows are hip-roofed dormers and the left one in the front end
of the wing. Front doorway (into the centre room) left of centre and up a
couple of stone steps. It contains a probably C19 plank door under a shallow
timber hood on shaped brackets. Roof is gable-ended to right. Crosswing roof
is half-hipped to front, gable-ended to rear. The left (west) end has a one-
window front; ground floor one with a low segmental brick arch over and has
panelled shutters, and first floor has a flat-roofed half dormer. Both glazed
in same manner as the front ones.

Interior: Was not available for inspection at the time of this survey but if
the other houses of Old Groombridge are anything to go by its original
carpentry detail and other early features should be well-preserved.

In the late C19 and early C20 Crown Cottage was the home of successive butlers
to the Saint family of Groombridge Place. It is a very attractive cottage on
an important site in this very important group of listed buildings associated
with Groombridge Place (q.v.) which make up the village of Old Groombridge.

Source. Barbara Lee. Groombridge Old and New (1978) p.23.

Listing NGR: TQ5307037715

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547482

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

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)