Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1767 to 1832

Summary from record TQ 54 NW 55:

Listed late 18th or E19thC cottage. Home to the Duke's family who produced cricket balls. Shed behind it housed the Cricket Ball Factory which is also

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval - 1767 AD to 1832 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
The following building shall be added to the list:-
TQ 54 NW LEIGH PENSHURST ROAD
50/1548 Former Cricket Ball factory in the grounds of the Paddocks.
GV II
Former factory, currently garage and outbuilding. Late C18 or early C19. Weatherboarded on stock brick plinth. Old tiled roof with 2 ridge brick chimneystacks, one with vitrified headers. Centre gable with leaded rectangular fanlight and pargetting to sides with Dutch doors. To left are 2 early C19 fixed casements with pegged architraves, one 3-light and one 2-light with Dutch plank doors on pintle hinges. To the right of the gable are 3 fixed casements, two 3-light and one 2-light and a plank door with pintle hinges. Roof has collar beams and curved tie beams and the wall framing is of thin scantling with diagonal braces. Part is lined with lath and plaster. Bats and balls were made in this factory by the Duke family who lived in the adjoining house 'The Paddocks'. In 1780 the Duke family presented the 1st six-seamed cricket ball ever made to the Prince of Wales, later George IV. In 1841 the factory was moved near Penshurst station. The Duke family were cousins of H G Wells. Joseph Wells, his father, used to come down to the Penshurst area to collect their cricket goods to sell at his shop in Bromley. This building must be one of the oldest cricket ball factories extant. [See 'The History of Kent Country Cricket' by the Right Hon Lord Harris Eyre & Spottiswoode P 39 1907. The register of Kent County Cricketers 1729-1906 P 281 H G Wells 'Experiment in Autobiography' P 54 and 62]
Listing NGR: TQ5410846345

Description from record TQ 54 NW 55:
C. late 18thC or E19th C, extended c.1850. Weatherboarded timber frame, tile hung north end gable. Plain tile roof with gabled ends. 2 brick axial stacks. 2-room plan cottage with central axial stack and with c.1850 1 room plan extension on north end. 1 storey and attic. Asymmetrical. 1:3 window west front, the 1 window on left is the c.mid C19 extension. Early C19 and late C19 2 and 3 light casements with leaded panes, the attic casement in small gale to right of centre. Doorway to left of centre with single tall canopied porch. Similar leaded casements to gable ends. The east (rear) elevation has gable at centre similar to that at front with leaded pane casement and small casement under eaves and 12 pane sash on right and 2 large stone winodws (apparently from Penshurst Place (qv)) on left each with 4-centred arch lights with narrow sash winodws with margin glazing bars. C20 glazed porch on south gable end. Interior: SOuth room has fielded dado panelling. Shed at rear housed the Cricket Ball Factory (TQ 54 NW 36) (1)

Additonal Info (2)

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

<1> Nicola Bannister, Historic landscape survey of Penshurst Estate, Tonbridge (Unpublished document). SKE6946.

<2> Cluttons, 1994, Penshurst Place: Whole estate management plan (Unpublished document). SKE6947.

Sources and further reading

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