Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1433 to 1900. The Old Palace (Late 15th c)

Monument Types

• WEALDEN HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1433 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 67 41 BRENCHLEY HIGH STREET, BRENCHLEY (north side) 15/93 The Old Palace 20.10.54 GV II*
House, divided into council houses. Circa mid C15 origins, C17 additions, restoration of circa 1880 (Oswald). In 1958 the building was purchased by the local council, repaired, altered and divided up for housing. Framed construction, most of the external timber C19 or C20 replacement; peg-tile roof; brick stacks.
Plan: The building fronts the road and faces west south west, say west, the frontage angled to follow the curve in the road. It is a massively long range with 4 rear wings. The south end originated as an exceptionally large, high quality Wealden type house with a 2-bay open hall in the centre the cross passage probably within the hall, at the north end and jettied storeyed ends. The hall may have been heated by a rear lateral stack - there is little evidence of blackening on the roof timbers and a lateral stack appears in old photographs of the rear elevation, but the evidence is not certain and the roof timbers may have been cleaned during the C19 or C20 restoration programmes. The function and date of the north end of the range, which has a drangway to the left (north) is less clear. No original fireplaces survive and the 1958 repartitioning has disguised the original internal arrangement. 2 adjacent rear wings have early C17 windows and could be of this date; the main block may be contemporary with the Wealden. The plan form deserves closer study than was possible on resurvey (1989) as an example of a large early complex in a village context. Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Long, irregular 10-window front (11 windows to the first floor). 2 gables to the front, to left of centre, are C19 additions (not shown in a pre 1880 photograph). Close-studded frmaing to the first floor, the ground floor underbuilt in C20 brick. The first floor is jettied throughout except for the 2 bays of the centre of the Wealden house, to the right. 6 1958 plank and cover strip front doors with arched heads to the individual houses, C20 glazed door to the Post Office which is to right of centre. All the windows are C19 or C20 casements with diamond leaded panes, the ground floor windows transomed, some set in C20 bays. Some of the window frames may be original. Below the gable to the right of the drangway a 12- light ribbon window with a similar 4-light window immediatley below it: this is probably C19. 2 gabled dormers. The rear elevation has 4 rear wings, one at the south end, 2 adjacent to one another to the right of the drangway and a fourth, in use as the parish room, immediately alongside the drangway to the right. The 2 adjacent wings have moulded fascias below the gables which have moulded bargeboards with C17 pendants at the gable. The gable ends have ovolo-moulded mullioned windows of an early C17 character. Interior: The most spectacular survival on the ground floor is a fine moulded screen, visible in the Post Office although partly obscured by shelving. This is said to have been re-sited in 1958, when it was returned to what was thought to be its original position at the lower end of the hall. The screen includes a Tudor arched doorway (now blocked), with a richly-moulded frame, giving access to No 4, the former lower end room of the Wealden. The screen is plastered over on the north side. A matching moulded Tudor arched doorframe on the rear wall of the Post Office may have been the rear doorway of the cross passge. Nos 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 all retain massive axial beams, interrupted by new partitions and inserted chimneystacks. The hall truss of the Wealden house, sited on the first floor of the Post Office (No 3) has massive arched braces with hollow chamfers and a large roll-moulding on the soffit of the arch. The tie beam supports a full octagonal crown post with a moulded base and capital (in No 2) with 4-way up-braces. The attic space of No 2 also includes the 2 plain crown posts at either end of the open hall. These have 2-way up-braces, one of the braces has been removed and another is broken. The roof timbers are fully intact over the hall. No 5, which lies north of the Wealden house also has what appears to be a plain crown post in the crosswall with No 4. The Parish room, the most northerly rear wing, has a 3-bay tie beam clasped purlin and queen strut roof construction with narrow bays at either end and windbraces. In spite of the alterations this is an outstanding building. The alterations appear to have obscured, rather than destroyed the evidence of the original plan form in the north end of the range. Source Oswald, A., 'Brenchley, Kent 1', Country Life, May 31. 1946. Listing NGR: TQ6793341795 (1)

Description from record TQ 64 SE 9 :
(TQ 67914180) The Old Palace. (NAT). (2) The Old Palace, Grade II (now several tenements) was once the mansion of the Roberts family and probably dates from the late 15th century. It reproduces they typical features of the Kentish Yeomans house. (3)The Old Palace, a long range, half timbered above the overhang. A nearer view reveals that barely a timber is old. The gables added c.1890. Inside Mr A Baker reports, remain of a very large Wealden house with a moulded post-and-plank high end screen. (4) The descendants of George Roberts long resided in one of the old timber buildings in Branchley High Street. The house, although now cut up into several cottage tenements is still interesting, as one of few remaining timber buildings of the Elizabethan era. (5) Additional bibliography, not consulted. (6) The Old Palace, house, divided into council houses circa mid C15 origins, C17 additions, restoration of circa 1880. Grade II. (7)

Dendrochronology dating gave a felling date of c.1485. (8)

Archive material (9)

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

<2> OS 1:2500 1964 (OS Card Reference). SKE48206.

<3> MHLG Tonbridge RD Kent Sept 1949 7 (OS Card Reference). SKE47180.

<4> The Bldgs of Eng W Kent & the Weald 1980 181 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE50136.

<5> Arch Cant 13 1878-80 135-6 illus (JF Wadmore) (OS Card Reference). SKE34677.

<6> Country Life 99 2576 (A Oswald) (OS Card Reference). SKE39466.

<7> DOE (HHR) District of Tunbridge Wells, Kent (Bidborough et al) 24th Aug 1990 102-103 (OS Card Reference). SKE40519.

<8> Vernacular Architecture Group, ADS Dendrochronology Database, Vol. 22, Pg. 43 (Website). SKE17391.

<9> Historic England archive material associated with The Old Palace (Archive). SKE53830.

Sources and further reading