The Farmhouse and attached former cart store, Stuppington Court Farm, Lower Hardres, Kent

Description

MERTON LANE
The Farmhouse and attached former cart store, Stuppington Court Farm

GV
II
Formerly two farm cottages with attached cart store which was later adapted to piggeries, currently house with attached garaging. The Farmhouse is C18 with an internal brick dated 177(1?). The former cart store is of late C17 or early C18 date. Both were restored in 1983.

MATERIALS: The Farmhouse is in red brick, mainly in Flemish bond, with hipped tiled roof with two brick chimneystacks with moulded caps. The attached former cart store is also in red brick, open fronted supported on wooden piers with a tiled roof.

PLAN: The Farmhouse comprises two former farm cottages, both of two-storeys, the eastern one with a single-storey projection to the rear with three hips, the western one set at an angle to the eastern one, with an adjoining single-storey farm building, the eastern part incorporated into The Farmhouse, the western part an eight bay former cart store. The irregular fenestration is mainly casement windows, with cambered heads to the ground floor.

EXTERIOR: The south or entrance front to The Farmhouse has five casement windows to the two storey section, mainly tripartite except for the penultimate window to the first floor east. The two western first floor windows and two western ground floor windows were inserted circa 1983. The doorcase to the east retains its cambered arch but has a late C20 plank door flanked by sidelights. There is a similar cambered arch to the penultimate window to the west. Attached to the west is a single-storey section of The Farmhouse with two casement windows and a flat-arched opening now blocked by weatherboarding. Further west is the former open fronted cart store of eight bays, also of brick but supported on wooden posts. The east side of The Farmhouse has a tall external brick chimneystack with tumbling-in, a casement to the first and ground floors at the south end and a further cambered headed doorcase and casement window in a lower hipped projection at the north end. On the north elevation, part of a rendered first floor is visible at the eastern end with a small casement window, otherwise obscured by a single-storey C18 section of three bays with roof in three hips with two brick chimneystacks and three casement windows. The western three bays of the two-storey section have three casement windows, with two cambered headed windows to the ground floor and a cambered headed entrance with C20 double doors. The western end of the first floor was rebuilt in 1983. The remainder of this elevation, comprising part of The Farmhouse and the former cart store, has a further casement window and entrance of circa 1983 and six stepped buttresses.

INTERIOR: A dated brick near the skirting board in the south-eastern room is of 177(1?) and the roof structure to the two-storey section (apart from the western bay) is original with staggered purlins, collar beams and pegged rafters. Original tie beams were retained but the ceiling heights of both ground and first floor rooms were raised. The ground floor sitting room has axial beams and some old floor joists. The dining room incorporates a reused wallplate and the major timbers are old although the floor joists are C20. The adjoining room has a spine beam not in line with that of the dining room and there is a blocked-in cambered brick arch. On the first floor the exposed rafters project a foot or two below the inserted ceiling which is supported on pitch pine inserted beams. Staircase, internal partitions and doors are late C20. The attached cart store to the west has a roof structure of reused oak joists and its clasped side-purlin construction suggests a late C17 or early C18 date and the majority of the arcade posts are original.

HISTORY: From the evidence of surviving fabric, buildings at Stuppington Farm date from at least the late C17 or early C18. On the 1874 Ordnance Survey map the farmstead comprised seven significant buildings. The Farmhouse with attached farm building is shown with its current footprint but at that date was two farm cottages with an attached farm building, built as a cart store, to the west. It is probable that by this date the cart store had already been converted into pigsties as three rectangular enclosures are shown in front of it. Two large barns are shown to the southwest and the actual farmhouse at this time was situated to the southeast, is also shown on the 1897 OS map but has been demolished by the 1907 edition. Also shown on the 1874 map but missing by 1897 is a large building between the barns and farmhouse with a curved north wall. An oasthouse, part of the farm group but set on the corner of Stuppington Lane and Merton Lane is also shown on the 1874 map.

An aerial photograph of September 1964 shows the farm cottages with a paired entrance and by this date part of the western farm cottage roof had collapsed and been capped by a flat corrugated sheet roof. At this date the open front to the cart store had been closed-in leaving the arcade posts visible. In 1983 the farm complex was converted into a small residential estate. The farm cottages were restored by raising part of the flat roofed extension to two storeys and the remainder re-roofed at the height of the single-storey cart store and the latter restored and converted to provide covered parking. At the same time the two barns were converted into residential accommodation and three new houses built on the eastern side of the site.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
*Despite extensive restoration following dereliction in circa 1983 both The Farmhouse and the attached former cart store to the west retain a significant proportion of late C17 and C18 fabric including external walls, the major part of the roof structure and some main timbers;

*The plan form of two agricultural cottages built not entirely in line and with a single-storey rear section with three hips to the eastern cottage is unusual and the attached cart store unusually large. Despite some re-ordering of rooms the essential layout remains;

*The Farmhouse and attached former cart store form part of a group with two contemporary grade II listed barns which comprise the surviving parts of the Stuppington farmstead.

LMS entry UID: 166142
LBS entry UID: 439767
Listing NGR: TR1571957759

External Links

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