Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

C15th timber-framed house Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1400 to 1499

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1400 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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(TQ 882644240) Chessenden House (NAT) (1) A 15th century, timber framed building with plaster infilling. It is of two storeys with a hipped tiled roof and the first floor oversails. (2-3) 5272 SMARDEN THE STREET (south side) Chessenden (formerly listed as Chessendenin) TQ 8642 29/15 17.9.52. II* GV 2. C15 timber-framed building with plaster infilling. The first floor of the end window bays oversails on bressumers and brackets with curved braces. The centre portion between is close-studded, with eaves overhanging on brackets, and has one bay containing a window of 6 lights on ground and first floors with an oversailing gable above containing an attic window. The windows in these bays are of 6 lights each with wooden mullions, that on the first floor having 2 tiers of lights and a wooden transom also. Hipped tiled roof. Casement windows with diamond-shaped leaded panes. Two storeys. Four windows. (4) Chessenden, a big half-timbered house, is the best example in Smarden of the typical Wealden arrangement of an open hall between two-storeyed wings, overhanging but kept within the simple hipped roof. When the hall had a floor put across it, then came the two- storeyed carted bay, and the gable over it. Close studding in the centre. Curved braces in the wings. Blocked four-centred doorway.(5)

Description from record TQ 84 SE 132:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5272 SMARDEN THE STREET (south side) Chessenden (formerly listed as Chessendenin) TQ 8842 29/15 17.9.52.
II* GV
2. C15 timber-framed building with plaster infilling. The first floor of the end window bays oversails on bressumers and brackets with curved braces. The centre portion between is close-studded, with eaves overhanging on brackets, and has one bay containing a window of 6 lights on ground and first floors with an oversailing gable above containing an attic window. The windows in these bays are of 6 lights and a wooden transom also. Hipped tiled roof. Casement windows with diamond-shaped leaded panes. Two storeys. Four windows. Listing NGR: TQ8827642401 (6)

HE Archive material: AL2390/036/01 View of Chessenden House in Smarden, from the east, with two men posed by a gate in the foreground
RCH01/048/01/605 Labelled sheet of drawings of Chessenden, Smarden, with a ground-floor plan, a dais beam profile, and a crown-post elevation

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

<2> DOE (HHR) West Ashford Kent 1960 64 (OS Card Reference). SKE40668.

<3> Arch Cant 29 1911 182-6 (H S Cowper) (OS Card Reference). SKE34934.

<4> DOE (HHR) Boro of Ashford Kent Oct 1980 240 (OS Card Reference). SKE39825.

<5> Bldgs of Eng W Kent & the Weald 1980 533 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37912.

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

Sources and further reading