Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1550 to 1590

Monument Types

• SITE (Post Medieval - 1550 AD to 1590 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
CRANBROOK BIDDENDEN ROAD TQ 83 NW (NORTH SIDE) 4/27 Sissinghurst 9.6.52 Tower and Walls 30 yards east of the west range at Sissinghurst Castle (formerly listed as part of Sissinghurst Castle) GV I
Tower and walls. Circa 1570 for Sir Richard Baker. Red brick with red brick, stone and some cemented dressings, and bands between first and second and over third floors in centre. Coped parapet in centre and modillion cornices to shingled roofs with weather-vanes over towers. Central rectangular tower with flanking octagonal stair-turrets, that to north only containing staircase. Four storeys in centre with 3 windows on east and west sides of each stain- turret. Six-light transom and mullion window on third floor of centre, 8-light window on second floor with drip-mould over and large 8-light window in pilastered surround with entablature over on first floor. Bases of first floor pilasters rest directly on top of entablature and pilasters of the round-arched entrance surround. To north and south of the tower the remains of the enclosing walls of the courtyard, about 25 yards long, of the circa 1570 house extend, that to the south returning to the west some 40 yards, and including the remains of windows and a doorway. These have been rebuilt but rest on earlier parts below. Vita Sackville-West customarily wrote in the first floor room of the tower.
Listing NGR: TQ8084338316
(1)

In 2010 Archaeology South-East carried out a survey of the building and the walls of the gardens. (2)

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

<2> Archaeology South-East, 2011, Sissinghurst Castle, Sissinghurst, Cranbrook, Kent: Conservation Management Plan volume 3 (Unpublished document). SKE25133.

Sources and further reading

Related records