Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Ightham Court

Monument Types

• GARDEN (Post Medieval to Modern - 1540 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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From the National Heritage List for England:
"A small country house with gardens and woodland containing features surviving from the formal layout of the late C17 or early C18.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Ightham Court, formerly known as Court Lodge, was built in the mid C16 by the Willoughby family. It had been bought by William James by 1600 and remained in the ownership of that family for over 300 years. Little is known about his descendants, Sir William James II, Sir Demetrius James, and William James III, although during the latter part of the C17 or the early part of the C18 a formal garden was laid out and this is illustrated in a Kip engraving published in 1728. During the middle years of the C18, William James IV was in residence at Ightham and on his death in 1781 the estate passed to his second son, Colonel Richard James. A series of alterations carried out by him in c 1800 may, in part, have been directed by the architect Samuel Wyatt (CL 1958). Colonel James died childless in 1807 and left Ightham to his first cousin once removed, Demetrius Grevis, who then changed his name to Grevis-James. From the Grevis-James family the property passed by marriage to Colonel E W Grevis Bailey, on whose death in 1920 the house was sold and the estate divided up. It then passed through several hands until, in 1944, the Court was purchased by Colonel Ralph and Lady Gweneth Cavendish. It changed hands again in 1984, following which a major restoration programme was undertaken. The site remains (2001) in divided ownership.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Ightham Court is situated c 8km to the east of Sevenoaks on the north side of the A25. The c 10ha site occupies a rural location which is bounded to the west by Fen Pond Road and to the south, east, and north by a mixture of farmland and woodland. The house and gardens sit in the south-west corner of the generally level site.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES The present (2001) access is from Fen Pond Road, c 150m to the south-west of the house. The drive runs north and then turns east towards the stable block, in an arrangement which has been altered from its early C18 route, although the entrance to the house is still on the west front. A second drive enters the site from the northern tip of the Wilderness and runs south through the woodland to arrive at the west front.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING Ightham Court (listed grade II*) is a small country house built of red brick with stone dressings under a slate roof. It represents one recess of the original mid C16 H-plan house, filled in by a projecting four-storey classical frontispiece in 1575. Apart from the c 1800 alterations which included the addition of Tudor-Gothic mullion windows and a porch on the west front, the main building has been little altered since its construction by the Willoughby family in the mid C16.

On the south side of the Court stands a single-storey stable courtyard, open on the west side, into which the main drive leads.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS The house is set in lawns which, to the east and north of the house, retain grass terraces and have walls surviving from the late C17/early C18 formal gardens, as shown on the engraving by J Kip (1728). To the south-east of the house, at a lower level, are walled gardens which also formed part of this scheme. The walled gardens are laid to lawn and planted with shrubs and perennials, while the grass terrace on the north side of the walled garden contains a circular garden area with a central fountain basin.

Beyond the garden to the north is a piece of woodland known as the Wilderness, which retains some early plantings. It was divided by a lime avenue aligned on the north facade of the house until the avenue was severely damaged in the storm of October 1987. Within the Wilderness is a complex of fishponds and two substantial moated mounds. The larger of these earthworks is circular and has the remains of an icehouse at its centre. The smaller is D-shaped and carries the footings of a summerhouse on its summit. The ponds and mounds may predate the gardens but were incorporated into the late C17/early C18 layout as garden features." (1)

<1> Parks and Gardens Data Services Limited (PGDS), 2005, Parks and Gardens UK (www.parksandgardens.org) (Website). SKE16061.

Sources and further reading

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