Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST GROOMBRIDGE HILL (off east side), OLD GROOMBRIDGE 16/505 Groombridge Place moat, walls and bridge including the west 20.10.54 gateway and cottage on the north bridge GV I

Moat walls, bridges, west gateway and north bridge cottage.

The moat walls. Medieval origins, renovated and probably much rebuilt circa 1660 when Groombridge Place (q.v.) was rebuilt. English bond brick on coursed sandstone blocks. Walls rise a short distance as a parapet and have weathered sandstone coping.

West Bridge and Gateway. Circa 1660. Bridge is red brick with sandstone ashlar voussoirs and parapet. Sandstone ashlar gate piers. This is the main entrance across the moat. Single span bridge with a segmental arch. Ashlar parapet walls broken by a series of piers giving a panelled effect. Projecting coping. Gate piers on inside (eastern) end. Tall square section piers with soffit-moulded caps and pineapple vase finials. Double gates are probably original; timber frame with iron spear headed rails. Small attachments onto the bridge containing niche-like seats.

East Bridge. Circa 1660. Sandstone ashlar bridge giving access across the moat to the service courtyard. Single span elliptical arch. Plain parapet with weathered coping rising in a ramp from the outer retaining wall.

North Bridge and Cottage. Second half of C17. Red brick bridge of 3 uneven arches. The cottage of English bond red brick with similar stack and chimneyshaft and peg-tile roof is built over the inner (southern) 2 arches. The bridge outer elliptical arch is the widest. The other 2 are low pitch pointed arches. The centre one is the smallest and is blind; appears only on the west side.

2-room cottage on the eastern side of the bridge. Outer room is parallel to the bridge with an outer lateral stack and inner room has gabled crossroof. It is 2 storeys. Doorway roughly central and into outer room. It has a stone lintel and contains plain plank door (another door in southern end). Single window to first floor right in gable of crossroof and one each floor in left (north) gable end; original 2-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and containing diamond panes of old leaded glass. Interior has plain carpentry detail.

These features play a pivotal role in the setting of Groombridge Place (q.v.).

Listing NGR: TQ5322837626

External Links

• Wikidata Q96179713

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)