Description

HORSMONDEN SPELMONDEN ROAD
TQ 73 NW
4/108 Spelmonden with walls
attached
20.10.54
GV II*

House. C15 or earlier in at least two phases, altered C17 - C19. Timber
framed and tile hung on sandstone ground floor, part repaired with red
brick, with plain tiled roof. Hall house, possibly an early Wealden plan,
re-clad and extended with rebuilt cross wing. Two storeys with garret to
cross wing, on plinth, with eaves on large brackets to central hall bays, suggesting possible Wealden plan origin, and eaves line stepped up to right
end bay and wing at break in sandstone coursing. Roof half-hipped to left
and with gable projecting at right, with clustered polygonal stacks to
right, and stacks to left and rear centre right. Two light leaded wooden
casement in gable to right, and two 2 light casements to left on first
floor, 5 light casement to centre with 2 light to right and 4 light in
cross wing. C15 stone windows with paired arched lights and labels on
ground floor to end left and to right and 2, 5 and 4 light C19 arched
wooden casements to centre left, centre right and cross wing. Two storey
porch to centre left. the upper storey timbered and gabled with restored bresummer and pendants and with coved oriel wih 3 light leaded casement,
the lower storey of sandstone with four centred wave moulded arched outer
doorway with label and R and P inscribed in the spandrels. Benched
passage and rib and stud inner door. C19 rear wings. Walled forecourt and
rear garden walls of red brick on average about 3 feet in height, ramped
up to front gateway, and ramped up again to north wall to about 8 feet in
height and including a boarded door.
Interior: main range with full frame and hall roof with heavily moulded
cambered tie beam with massive knee bracing supported on corbel brackets
and enriched with foliage/tree carving with birds, carrying a moulded
octagonal crown post with capital and base. The roof of the cross wing
with staggered purlins and arched wind braces. The cross wing with stop
chamfered beams, evidence of jettying on ground floor and a wave moulded
arched door in the rear, stone built, wall. Resited four centred arched
door in main range with moulded surround and spandrels enriched with
carved swan; moulded cross-panelled ceiling in upper room. Late C17
bolection moulded surround to very large inglenook in rear wall of hall,
and raised and fielded panelled stair well. Full range of domestic
service rooms attached to rear, and cellars. Spelmonden was the principal
manor of Horsmonden; the parish church was built on the manor's lands. The
Lord of the Manor, Richard Lord Poynings, married Isabel, heiress of Lord Fitzpayn c.1380. This marriage was celebrated by the building of the west
tower at Horsmonden church, and the letters R P in the spandrel of the
similarly detailed porch at Spelmonden say refer to this member of the
Poynings family (but see B.O.E. Kent, vol.1, p.334, which suggests a late
C15 date for the porch). Vestiges of a piscina or sacrarium were observed
in the house in 1838 (C.Greenwood, An Epitomy of County History - Kent,
1838; quoted in Cronk, St.Margaret's Church, Horsmonden).

Listing NGR: TQ7024637168

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547770

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)