Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1300 to 1839. C14th timber-framed hall-house

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1344 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TQ 84 SE 13:
(TQ 89184078) Hamden Grange (NAT) (1) 5272 Hamden Grange (formerly listed as Hamden), Bethersden Road, Smarden. TQ 84 SE 13/80 17.9.52 Grade 2* A medieval timber-framed building of C14, with the beams visible below the eaves but otherwise refaced with red brick and grey headers in 1839. Tiled roof. Casement winds with small square leaded panes. The north-west half has 2 storeys, 2 windows, a hipped roof and a brick chimney brest on the north-west wall. The south-east half has one storey and attic, 2 gabled dormers and a gabled porch. Base cruck, aisle post and crown post. (2)

Hamden, an almost complete 14th century hall-house of a rare type hidden by stone behind and 19th century brick (there is a date 1839) in front. Outside only the entrance to the porch suggest that the house has timber framing; and only the very long sweep of tiled roof on the right half suggest the construction of the hall, with vestigal aisles. Within there is the whole of the hall-truss, which manages tospan the full width by means of base crucks and arched braces carryinga steeply cambered tiebeam, and a short crown post. (3) TQ 891407, Hampden, now completely and harmoniously cased in brick at the front and sides and in stone at the rear and presents a hip-roofedhall-block, with low walls, and a two-storied end-block, two bays wide, with brick-mullioned windows and also hip-roofed; the porch indicates the screens passage. The block is composed of two parallel ranges, both formerly fettied and gabled - the early cross-wing against the hall and a 17th c addition. (See illustration card). Almost no timber-work of the hall survives below headroom level and little is visible in the ground floor of the wing. Above that level the frame is virtually complete. The Hall is divided into two nearly equal bays by the base-cruck truss, of which the feet are cut off just below the present ground-floor ceiling of the hall, but which is absolutely intact from there upwards. (4)

A dendrochronology dating for timbers from the building produced a felling date of 1344/5 and indicated that the cross-wing and the hall were built at the same time. A date from the hall fireplace indicated that this was added between 1541 and 1573. (5)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5272 SMARDEN BETHERSDEN ROAD Hamden Grange TQ 84 SE 13/80 (formerly listed as Hamden) II*
2. A mediaeval timber-framed building of C14, with the beams visible below the eaves but otherwise refaced with red brick and grey headers in 1839. Tiled roof. Casement windows with small square leaded panes. The north-west half has 2 storeys, 2 windows, a hipped roof and a brick chimney breast on the north-west wall. The south-east half has one storey and attic. 2 gabled dormers and a gabled porch. Base cruck, aisle post and crown post. Listing NGR: TQ8908040790 Formerly TQ 84 SE 106 (6)

HE archive material: RCH01/048/03/043 Sheet of drawings of Hamden Grange, Smarden, with a plan, sections AA and BB, and a long section This is figure thirty-two in the book. It is derived from a 1967 drawing by S.E.Rigold.

<1> OS 1:2500 1971 (OS Card Reference). SKE48213.

<2> DOE(HHR)Boro of Ashford Kent Oct 1980 208 (OS Card Reference). SKE41228.

<3> Bldgs of Eng 1980 W Kent & the Weald 533-4 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37715.

<4> Arch Cant 82 1967 248-54 plates figs (SE Rigold) (OS Card Reference). SKE35743.

<5> Tree-Ring Services, 2006, Dendrochronological Analysis of Oak Timbers from Hamden, Smarden, Kent, England (Unpublished document). SKE17181.

<6> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading