Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1400 to 1499. Fifteenth century gatehouse, the only surviving element of a medieval manor house. The building is square on plan with stair turrets at the angles and two outer arches, and contains two early 15th century gunports. The building is constructed of alternate bands of squared, knapped flints, and bricks, mostly red, but yellow in the turret-tops

Monument Types

• FORTIFIED MANOR HOUSE (FORTIFIED MANOR HOUSE, Medieval - 1400 AD to 1539 AD)
• GATEHOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1400 AD to 2050 AD)
• LOOPHOLED WALL (Medieval to Modern - 1400 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
DENT DE LION ROAD, GARLINGE 1. 1380 Dent-de-Lion Gateway TR 36 NW 9/78 10.4.51.
II*
2. This is a scheduled AM and was once owned by Charles James Fox. A C15 gateway consisting of a flat stone carriage arch and pointed arch for pedestrians beside it. These are stone faced. The arches are flanked by 4 square towers, alternately composed of it courses of knapped flints and 4 courses of red brick with long and short stone quoins at tile base of the towers and battlements over. A few corbels remain. Crenellated centre, arrow-slit windows and each tower has a newel staircase. The rear has an arch of flintwork only, unknapped and with brick quoins.
Listing NGR: TR3354669651

Description from record TR 36 NW 9:
[TR 33216957] Dent-De-Lion Castle (NR) (remains of) (1) The C15th gateway in the farmyard of Dent-de-Lion Farm, Garlinge, is all that remains of the fortified mansion. Scheduled. (2-4) Gateway, as described, in good condition. GP AO/62/121:1 and 2. (5) Dent-de-Lion Gateway, Dent De Lion Road, Garlinge. Grade II*. This is a scheduled AM and was once owned by Charles James Fox. A C15 gateway consisting of a flat stone carriage arch and pointed arch for pedestrians beside it. (6) [For full description see list]. Dent-de-lion Gatehouse, Garlinge. Fine 15th century gatehouse is all that is left of what must have been a mansion of some magnificence. The sheild of arms over the main arch dates it to before 1445, when the last of the Daundelyons died. Lion heads too with their tongues out. Now it stands in a farmyard and a host of bungalows has wiped out the site of the house. The entrance was from the south. Four lofty stair turrets at the angles, square in plan, and linked by plainside walls. Two outer arches, the main one four-centred, that for thefootway two centred; and an inner arch so lofty that there cannot have been a room above it. The doorway high up in each turret must then have given on to the roof. Battlements over the outer arches and arrow slits low down. The special thing about the gatehouse is the wasp-like striping all over, with alternate bands of squared, knapped flints, and bricks, mostly red, but yellow in the turret-tops. (7) TR 332696. Dent-de-Lion medieval castle remains. Site number 36. (8) TR 332696, Dent-de-Lion Castle, Margate is not a fortified building, but only an ornamental gateway of the C15th. (9) Medieval gatehouse of a fortified enclosure. A medieval iron spearhead is also reported to have been found here in 1984. (10) Scheduled listing. (11)

From the National Heritage List for England.
The monument includes a medieval gatehouse representing the standing remains of a contemporary fortified house, situated on the western edge of Garlinge, around 1km inland from the north Thanet coast.

The Grade II* Listed gatehouse has been dated to the early 15th century and survives in almost complete form, with some subsequent restoration and repair. It is a tall, roughly east-west aligned, rectangular building faced with alternating horizontal bands of coursed squared, knapped flint and red and yellow brick, decorated with ashlar dressings. The main approach to the gatehouse was from the south, and the southern facade is pierced by a tall carriage entrance, headed by a segmental arch. This is flanked to the west by a smaller, pointed archway for pedestrians. The entrance way is topped with a crenellated parapet. To the rear is a single, large, round-headed archway with flint dressings. Flanking the cobble-faced entrance passage are four tall, square, embattled corner towers pierced by gunloops and arrow slits. Each tower contains a newel staircase giving access to the roof. Further architectural decorations include a stone string course over the entrance archways and a carved stone shield over the carriage arch, representing the coat of arms of the Daundelyon family, for whom the gatehouse was built.

The gatehouse was originally the main entrance into the courtyard of a contemporary fortified house. The house, now demolished, is thought to have stood to the north of the gatehouse, in an area now occupied by a modern housing estate. The construction of the modern houses will have caused substantial damage to any surviving buried traces of the earlier medieval house, this area is not therefore included in the scheduling.

All modern fixtures and fittings are excluded from the scheduling, although the masonry around these features is included.

Reasons for Designation
Fortified houses were residences belonging to some of the richest and most powerful members of society. Their design reflects a combination of domestic and military elements. In some instances, the fortifications may be cosmetic additions to an otherwise conventional high status dwelling, giving a military aspect while remaining practically indefensible. They are associated with individuals or families of high status and their ostentatious architecture often reflects a high level of expenditure. The nature of the fortification varies, but can include moats, curtain walls, a gatehouse and other towers, gunports and crenellated parapets. Their buildings normally included a hall used as communal space for domestic and administrative purposes, kitchens, service and storage areas. In later houses the owners had separate private living apartments, these often receiving particular architectural emphasis. In common with castles, some fortified houses had outer courts beyond the main defences in which stables, brew houses, granaries and barns were located. Fortified houses were constructed in the medieval period, primarily between the 15th and 16th centuries, although evidence from earlier periods, such as the increase in the number of licences to crenellate in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, indicates that the origins of the class can be traced further back. They are found primarily in several areas of lowland England: in upland areas they are outnumbered by structures such as bastles and tower houses which fulfilled many of the same functions. As a rare monument type, with fewer than 200 identified examples, all examples exhibiting significant surviving archaeological remains are considered of national importance.

Dent-de-Lion gatehouse represents the only standing remains of an otherwise demolished fortified house. It survives well, retaining most of its original fabric, including interesting decorative details, and provides evidence for the high architectural quality and importance of the house during the medieval period. (12)

Additional reference (13)

<1> OS 6" 1961 (OS Card Reference). SKE48369.

<2> M.H.L.G. (1380/11/A. March 1948). 1 (OS Card Reference). SKE46240.

<3> Arch. Cant. 25, 1902, 57-60, illust. (C.E. Woodruff) (OS Card Reference). SKE36991.

<4> A.M. England & Wales 1961, 59 (OS Card Reference). SKE32940.

<5> F1 CFW 01-OCT-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42382.

<6> DOE (HHR) Borough of Margate, Thanet District, Kent 1973, 22 (OS Card Reference). SKE39949.

<7> B.O.E. North East and East Kent 1983, 331-2, pl. 63 (J. Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37447.

<8> Thanet. The Arch. Heritage c.1982, 5 (Thanet Dist. Council & Isle of Thanet Arch. Unit) (OS Card Reference). SKE49911.

<9> Castellarium Anglicarum 1 1983, 239 (D.J. Cathcart-King) (OS Card Reference). SKE38614.

<10> Isle of Thanet Arch. Unit Sites and Mons. Archive 1988, Record No 36 (OS Card Reference). SKE44750.

<11> DOE (IAM) SAMS 1988, Kent 23 (OS Card Reference). SKE40778.

<12> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<13> Field report for monument TR 36 NW 9 - October, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6216.

Sources and further reading