Description

TQ 67 41 BRENCHLEY HIGH STREET, BRENCHLEY
(south side)
15/134 Bournes shop and house
adjoining at the west (formerly
20.10.54 listed as Central Stores)
GV II

Shop and adjoining house, forming one range with the Rose and Crown Public
house (q.v.). Probably C17 in origin, altered in the C19. Framed
construction, the front elevation painted white, brick on the ground floor,
the first floor tile-hung; peg-tile roof; brick stacks.

Plan: The house faces north, directly on to the High Street. The present
arrangement consists of a shop at the left (east) end, house to the right.
The entrance to the house is into a cross passage, with one room beyond the
passage to the right (west) with a right end stack shared with the Rose and
Crown. Various rear additions of different dates. The early core is a single
depth framed building, a narrow bay at the left end suggesting a smoke bay.
Variations in the floor level and a substantial framed crosswall immediately
Variations of the cross passage suggest that this may mark the end of the
original house. The crosswalls have all been altered in the C19. One in the
shop has been removed and the left hand (east) wall of the passage is C19.

Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Roof gabled at left end, left end stack.
Asymmetrical 4-window front. Circa mid C19 shop front at the left with
projecting left and right bays glazed with 8-pane fixed windows with 2 panes
to the outer and inner returns. Fascia board and moulded cornice above the
shop windows. C19 half-glazed shop door with a rectangular overlight. The
front door to the house, approximately in the centre, is C19, the upper panels
fielded with a rectangular overlight and a flat porch hood on moulded
brackets. Early C19 canted bay window to ground floor right with a flat roof,
16-pane sash to the centre, 8-pane sashes to the returns. The first floor
windows are well-preserved C18 2- and 3-light iron-framed casements, glazed
with square leaded panes, retaining particularly attractive window furniture
with handmade internal scrolled catches including one external quadrant catch.
2 attic dormers with hipped roofs, glazed with 2-light casements with square
leaded panes.

Interior: Irregular floor levels to the rear where the ground drops away to
the south. Carpentry on the ground floor is partly boxed in but includes
chamfered crossbeams. The shop ceiling is supported on a C19 column where an
earlier crosswall has been removed. The wall-framing of the main range
preserves jowled wallposts. Other interior features are largely C19,
including doors, an iron grate on the first floor. Late C19/early C20 stick
baluster stair.

Roof: Clasped purlin construction, probably C18 or later. No access to the
apex at time of survey (1989) but sooted rafters may survive in the putative
smoke bay at the left end.

In a crucial position in the High Street in Brenchley with a very attractive
exterior and a good C19 shop front.

Listing NGR: TQ6788041798

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26542144

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)