Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Talbot House was a Grade II listed building that was dismantled and rebuilt on this site ahead of the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Monument Types

• (Former Type) HALL HOUSE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1450 AD to 1900 AD)
• HALL HOUSE (Reconstructed medieval building, Modern - 1999 AD? to 2003 AD?)

Full description

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Talbot House was a Grade II listed building that was dismantled and rebuilt on this site ahead of the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

It was a four bay timber framed Wealden hall house dating from the mid 15th century with alterations from the 16th, 17th and 19th century, the last of these being the most substantial when it was split into three cottages by the South Eastern Railway company and the orientation of the house reversed as a railway embankment was built forcing the front of the house to become the rear.

Original listing text:
House, formerly house row, now house. C15, restored 1980s. Timber framed. Ground floor clad with red brick in mixed bond. Exposed framing to first floor, with rendered infilling. Plain tile roof. 4 timber-framed bays, central 2 probably open hall. 2 storeys, on stone plinth. Slightly higher midrail to 2 central bays. Broadly-spaced studding. 2 tension braces to right end bay. Steeply-pitched hipped roof with gablets. Slender projecting stack to left hall bay. Projecting gable end stack to right. Irregular fenestration of one 2-light casement, to left hall bay. Four C20 wooden casements to ground floor. Panelled door within durns to right end of right hall bay. Interior not inspected.

A building survey was carried out in 1999 (2)

A building survey carried out by Oxford Archaeology in 2000 in advance of, and during, the dismantling of the building prior to its relocation revealed 6 primary phases of activity:

It originated in the mid-15th century as a timber-framed 'Wealden' house, with a central 2-bay open hall, jettied end bays, and a unitary roof. The current building retains a high proportion of the original structural fabric, such as wattle and daub pannels. Most of features are typical, though some are unusual, such as five 'combed' daub panels, and the inclusion of a representation of a human figure is unique.

The mid-16th century sees the insertion of an upper floor into the previosuly open hall, and the previously open fire was enclosed within a flue. Dendrochronological analysis revealed the insertion of the upper floor to date to between AD 1546-1566.

The flue was replaced by a double-flue brick stack in the late 17th / early 18th century. The roof structure was altered, though reusing a high proportion of the original 15th century rafters.

In the 18th or early 19th century the lower floor space was expanded to encompass the space under the jettied upper floors, and the first floor façade on three sides was covered in hung tiles.

Following the creation of the railway in the 1840s the building was divided into three cottages. The building was reverted to a single dwelling in 1985. (1)

<1> Oxford Archaeology, 2002, Talbot House, Sellindge, Kent: Archaeoligical Record in Advance of and During Dismantling (Unpublished document). SKE16764.

<2> Archaeology South-East, 1999, An archaeological interpretative survey of Talbot House, Sellindge, Kent. (Unpublished document). SKE54750.

Sources and further reading

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