Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1600 to 1850

A regular multiyard farmstead.

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval - 1600 AD to 1850 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:

ST MARY'S HOO CP TQ 87 NW 3/78 St Mary's Hall - II
House. Cl7 and circa 1830. Red brick with plain tiled roof to north, painted brick with hipped slate roof to south. Double depth plan. 2 storeys; 3 window front, sashes on first-floor, 2 outer bays on ground-floor, united by slate roof to form porch between on ground-floor. St. Mary's Hall was the home of Henry Pye from 1845-1909. He made many innovations in farming practices including promoting the use of steam engines (by Aveling of Rochester) for ploughing and threshing. By draining the marshes he improved the grazing and eliminated the fevers which had so reduced the population in the past.
Listing NGR: TQ8041276524 (1)

Type: Regular courtyard multi-yard
Farmhouse: Farmhouse detached in central position
Position: Hamlet
Survivial: Altered - significant loss of original form (more than 50%)
New sheds: Large modern sheds built on the site of the historic farmstead, may have destroyed original buildings or obscured them
(1-2)


This feature is noted in the English Heritage Historic Area Assessment for St Mary Hoo Parish. The report states: "The paramount manor was Sy Mary Hoo and this still occupies its original site to the south of the parish church. It was anciently held by the Bardolf family before passing briefly to Sir John Brooke, Lord Cobham in the 15th century. Thereafter it passed through the Wiseman and Faunce families. Parts of the present farmhouse at St Mary's Hall as the manorial site is now known are said to date to the 16th century…By the 1840s one William Fuller owned St Mary's Hall, Lowland Farm, Moat Farm, Hoppers Farm and Ross Farm. This estate was subsequently acquired by Ecclesiastical Commissioners (latterly the Church Commissioners). The farms were often managed by bailiffs and it was as a tenant that Henry Pye arrived at St Mary's Hall in 1851….To the south of the church is the manorial famr complex, St Mary's Hall. The farmhouse (listed grade II) is building of many phases, ranging from the 17th century to the late 19th century. The two-storey red-brick house, mostly painted white, was the home of Henry Pye between 1851 and 1909. Still an active farm, it has a timber-framed barn (externally of a 19th century character), late 20th century outbuildings and a walled kitchen garden." (3)

<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<1> Forum Heritage Services, 2012, Kent Farmsteads & Landscape Project (Unpublished document). SKE18075.

<2> English Heritage, 2009, Historic Farmsteads: A Manual for Mapping (Unpublished document). SKE18076.

<3> historic england, 2014, Hoo Peninsula Outline Historic Area Assessment: St Mary Hoo Parish. Research Report 2014-52 (Bibliographic reference). SKE31593.

Sources and further reading