Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST THE WALKS, OLD GROOMBRIDGE

16/599 Nos 7, 8 and 9 (formerly listed
as Nos 2, 3 and 4)
20.10.54

GV II*

3 cottages, probably built as one house originally. Late C17/early C18 with
C19 alterations. Flemish bond brick with decorative burnt headers on the
front, rear wall is coursed sandstone up to first floor level and brick above.
Brick stacks and chimneyshafts. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: Row of 3 cottages facing south and numbering 7-9 from left to right.
No 9 is now incorporated into The Crown (q.v.) adjoining to right. All are
one-room plan cottages but there is a fourth room between Nos 8 and 9 divided
by an axial wall, the front room belonging to No 8 and the rear part now
belonging to No 9. An axial stack between Nos 7 and 8 serves back-to-back
fireplaces. The end stack of No 9 appears to be a secondary insertion and the
ground floor is divided by an axial wall.

Inconsistencies in the layout such as flying freeholds suggest that the
building was originally a single house. The proposed layout of the late
C17/early C18 house is a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. No 7 occupies the
putative parlour, No 8 the putative hall/kitchen, the shared room the putative
passage and No 9 the putative service end room. In the later C18 or C19 the
house was divided up into cottages. The rear outshots may date from this
time.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace with lean-to outshots to rear of Nos 7
and 8.

Exterior: Regular 4-window front. Ground floor window right of centre is a
C20 canted bay window with glazing bars. Other ground floor windows have low
segmental brick arches over. All the front windows are probably late C18 or
C19 casements, those on the ground floor contain rectangular panes of leaded
glass while those on the first floor and the dormers contain diamond panes of
leaded glass. All 3 front doorways contain C19 4-panel doors under shallow
flat hoods on shaped timber brackets. Above the right ground floor window (No
9) there is a sandstone sundial plaque with Roman numerals (it has no arm).
Roof is gable-ended.

To rear of Nos 7 and 8 the roof is carried down over the outshots and contains
2 relatively large hip-roofed dormers. These, like most of the rear windows
are late C18 or C19 casements containing diamond panes of leaded glass.
Outshot walls of coursed stone ashlar. The back wall of No 9 is coursed stone
ashlar up to first floor level and tile-hung timber framing above. The 2
first floor windows are late C17/early C18 2-light windows containing diamond
panes of old glass, some green-tinged. The left one has an iron casement with
ornamental wrought iron catch.

Interior: Mostly plain carpentry detail where exposed. Most ground floor
rooms have plain axial beams except for the joists of the putative passage
which are chamfered with step stops. First floor rooms have chamfered axial
beams, a couple of them with step stops. Roof where it can be seen of tie-
beam trusses with staggered butt purlins. Both fireplaces of the axial stack
have been somewhat altered. Old, possibly original, winder stair in front of
the axial stack (now used by No 8). Old plain joinery including plank doors
in all 3 cottages.

Nos 7, 8 and 9 The Walks appear to have been built as a single house in the
late C17/early C18. There seems to have been only large houses round
Groombridge Green and all built in the C17 and early C18. It is an
interesting development associated with nearby Groombridge Place (q.v.),
itself rebuilt circa 1660-1670. More than that the cottages form part of what
is probably the most unspoilt group of listed buildings in Kent.

Listing NGR: TQ5302337722

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547507

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)