Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1360 to 1832 In an earlier survey of the building Mr. E.R. Swain put forward a case for an early manor house of fourteenth century date existing at Starkey, which had been modified in the fifteenth century. However, a superficial analysis of building fabric undertaken during the evaluation appears to show that Starkey was of one-period build and that many of the architectural features are contemporary with the main fabric. The earliest foundations exposed were for a 7.90m wide cellared or undercrofted structure which appeared to extend for the full extent of the trench. This was likely to have been built in the fifteenth century. Numerous brick walls associated with eighteenth and nineteeth century outbuildings were excavated.

Summary from record TQ 76 NW 168 :

A stone building of late 14th century construction with alterations and additions from the early 15th and 18th century. Starkey Castle is graded I as one of the most complete surviving stone-built medieval hall-houses in Southern England (see also TQ 76 NW 32).

Monument Types

• BUILDING (Medieval to Modern - 1360 AD to 2050 AD)
• CASTLE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1371 AD to 1900 AD)
• UNDERCROFT (Medieval - 1400 AD? to 1499 AD?)
• CHAPEL (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1467 AD? to 1800 AD?)
• GARDEROBE (Medieval to Unknown - 1467 AD)
• OPEN HALL HOUSE (Medieval - 1467 AD? to 1499 AD?)
• MANOR HOUSE (Altered, Medieval to Modern - 1480 AD? (between) to 2050 AD? (between))

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
WOULDHAM CP ROCHESTER ROAD TQ 76 NW (west side) 2/239 1.8.52 Starkey Castle
- I
Manor house, possibly at one time also hospice, now house. Circa 1360-1380, C15 and early C19. Random rubble with dressed stone quoins and dressings. Some galletting. Plain tiled roof, with coped parapeted gabled cross-wing to left and tall stone and stack at extrance left. Central buttress to hall at right. Hall-house plan with services to left and solar wing to right, probably demolished in C17. 1 storey hall, floored in C16 and C17 and 2 storey cross- to left with 2 storey out-blocks behind and to left. Wide pointed-arched 3- light traceried window on cross-wing to left on first-floor above square-headed early C19 Tudor-style window on ground-floor. 2-storey pointed-arched dais window with early C19 wood and stone mullion and tracery in moulded surround with drip-mould to right. Square-headed windows with drip-moulds and 2-light Tudor-style glazing on ground and first-floors to right of centre. Doorway to left of centre in moulded pointed-arched surround with drip-mould. Doubled doors with 'Gothick'-glazed archlight. SOUTH FRONT: Projecting chimney-breast against side of cross-wing. L-shaped block projecting to left with hipped roof. Round-arched windows on 2 floors, on main block to left of chimney-breast and facing south in angle of 'L'. WEST FRONT: Projecting wing to right, main block to left with gabled cross-wing to right of centre. Hipped roofed stair-tower at left of cross-wing with pointed arched moulded entrance and doubled doors to left. Irregular fenestration of square- and round-headed windows. Mostly C14 with one late C15 2-light window with original stone mullion above to left. North front: Rendered with 2 corbels assymetrically placed on ground-floor and C16 an early C17 red-brick infill to gable end. Interior: Double height 2-bay open hall with arch-braced rafter roof with braces, trusses and ashlars, resting on moulded cornices. Moulded arched braces resting on corbels decorated with winged angels in centre and shields at ends. Remains of inserted stack and walls in hall below. Opposing entrance doorway on scheme of screen's-passage survive as well as Buttery and Pantry doorways and doorway to stairs. Large room, formerly chapel, with remains of aumbry and piscina recesses, on first- floor of cross-wing, reached by stone spiral staircase at south-west end of hall. Rafter roof with moulded side-purlins and arched braces resting on shield- moulded corbels. Stone roll-moulded fireplace of late C15 in chapel. Starkey Castle is graded I as one of the most complete surviving stone-built medieval hall-houses in Southern England. See Archeologia Cantiana, 81, 1966, pp 118; RCHM Reports.
Listing NGR: TQ7138165592

Description from record TQ 76 NW 32 :
[TQ 7137 6559] Starkey Castle Farm [NAT] (1)

In this parish [Woldham] is an ancient house now called Starkeys which had the repute of a manor. Sir Humphrey Starkey, "one of the barons of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry VII, erected the present house called after his name". Built of stone, in former times much larger, it is now [1769] only a farmhouse much out of repair. In the E angle of the house is to be seen a fragment of wall, the remainder of a "large chapel". (a) (2)

A grant is to be made (by the Ministry of Works) for repairs to Starkeys, lovely Wouldham manor house which is often called Starkeys Castle. It is a stone manor of late 14th century origin, somewhere between 1370-90, rebuilt about a hundred years later. The house takes its name from Sir Humphrey Starkey who bought it in the late 15th century and rebuilt it although there are traces of the earlier building left in the fabric. Before then it was known as Little Hall, Wouldham, and the earliest record shows it in the hands of a Richard Bysit around 1390. (3)

Starkey Castle Farm, now tenements, is a fine example of a late C14th manor house (see photos AO/59/16/1, 3-8). Externally the building has been little altered except for some restoration work, mainly to windows. (4)

House to be known as `Starkeys' at owners request. (5)

Starkey Castle, Grade 2*, now divided into three cottages. It dates from the reign of Edward III. (For full description see list). (6)

Starkey Castle Farm, ragstone building, rectangular, with a hipped- roof appendage at the SW corner, and a further annex SW of that. The main block rises higher at the S end under a transverse gable. Staircase projection on the W side, and a late 14th century doorway left of it. On the E front a second doorway in line with the first, clearly they mark the ends of the screens passage. The high building then is the service wing, and the staircase leads to its upper floor. Half of two bays, the buttresses carrying the weight of the main truss. The appendage is a generous garderobe wing with privy pit. The solar end demolished, together with Sir Humphrey Starkey's late C15th chapel etc. (7)

TQ 7137 6559 Starkey Castle. Full historical and architectural description. (8)

An alabaster St John's Head of 15th century date, dug up from the garden of Starkey Castle, is in Maidstone Museum, Acc No 32.1919. (9)

Manor house, possibly at one time also hospice, now house. Circa 1360-1380, 15th and early 19th century. Random rubble with dressed stone quoins and dressings. Some galletting. Plain tiled roof, with coped parapeted gabled cross-wing to left and tall stone and stack at entrance left. Central buttress to hall at right. [Full architectural description] LISTED GRADE I. (10)

In February 1990, prior to a proposed extension to the stone-built manor house, evaluation trenching was carried out at the request of the County Archaeologist and the owners of the property. In an earlier survey of the building Mr. E.R. Swain put forward a case for an early manor house of fourteenth century date existing at Starkey, which had been modified in the fifteenth century. However, a superficial analysis of building fabric undertaken during the evaluation appears to show that Starkey was of one-period build and that many of the architectural features are contemporary with the main fabric. The earliest foundations exposed were for a 7.90m wide cellared or undercrofted structure which appeared to extend for the full extent of the trench. This was likely to have been built in the fifteenth century. Numerous brick walls associated with eighteenth and nineteeth century outbuildings were excavated. (15)

Description from record TQ 76 NW 168 :
Stone building of the late C14 with alterations and additions of the early C15 and C18

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
WOULDHAM CP ROCHESTER ROAD TQ 76 NW (west side) 2/239 1.8.52 Starkey Castle
- I
Manor house, possibly at one time also hospice, now house. Circa 1360-1380, C15 and early C19. Random rubble with dressed stone quoins and dressings. Some galletting. Plain tiled roof, with coped parapeted gabled cross-wing to left and tall stone and stack at extrance left. Central buttress to hall at right. Hall-house plan with services to left and solar wing to right, probably demolished in C17. 1 storey hall, floored in C16 and C17 and 2 storey cross- to left with 2 storey out-blocks behind and to left. Wide pointed-arched 3- light traceried window on cross-wing to left on first-floor above square-headed early C19 Tudor-style window on ground-floor. 2-storey pointed-arched dais window with early C19 wood and stone mullion and tracery in moulded surround with drip-mould to right. Square-headed windows with drip-moulds and 2-light Tudor-style glazing on ground and first-floors to right of centre. Doorway to left of centre in moulded pointed-arched surround with drip-mould. Doubled doors with 'Gothick'-glazed archlight. SOUTH FRONT: Projecting chimney-breast against side of cross-wing. L-shaped block projecting to left with hipped roof. Round-arched windows on 2 floors, on main block to left of chimney-breast and facing south in angle of 'L'. WEST FRONT: Projecting wing to right, main block to left with gabled cross-wing to right of centre. Hipped roofed stair-tower at left of cross-wing with pointed arched moulded entrance and doubled doors to left. Irregular fenestration of square- and round-headed windows. Mostly C14 with one late C15 2-light window with original stone mullion above to left. North front: Rendered with 2 corbels assymetrically placed on ground-floor and C16 an early C17 red-brick infill to gable end. Interior: Double height 2-bay open hall with arch-braced rafter roof with braces, trusses and ashlars, resting on moulded cornices. Moulded arched braces resting on corbels decorated with winged angels in centre and shields at ends. Remains of inserted stack and walls in hall below. Opposing entrance doorway on scheme of screen's-passage survive as well as Buttery and Pantry doorways and doorway to stairs. Large room, formerly chapel, with remains of aumbry and piscina recesses, on first- floor of cross-wing, reached by stone spiral staircase at south-west end of hall. Rafter roof with moulded side-purlins and arched braces resting on shield- moulded corbels. Stone roll-moulded fireplace of late C15 in chapel. Starkey Castle is graded I as one of the most complete surviving stone-built medieval hall-houses in Southern England. See Archeologia Cantiana, 81, 1966, pp 118; RCHM Reports.
Listing NGR: TQ7138165592 (17)

HE archive material: BF039731 STARKEY CASTLE, WOULDHAM File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.
OS59/F149/6 STARKEY'S HOUSE, WOULDHAM AS AT 1769.

<1> OS 6" 1938-9 (OS Card Reference). SKE48357.

<2> Harris Hist Kent I 1719 377 (OS Card Reference). SKE43694.

<3> Bibliotheca Topo Britannica 1 1780-90 No VI pt 1 21-2 ilust (OS Card Reference). SKE37654.

<4> Chatham Standard 14 1 58 (OS Card Reference). SKE38950.

<5> F1 CFW 01-SEP-59 (OS Card Reference). SKE42383.

<6> LS Rev 21 9 81 (OS Card Reference). SKE46205.

<7> DOE (HHR) Dist of Malling RD Kent May 1950 135 (OS Card Reference). SKE40309.

<8> The Buildings of England West Kent and the Weald 1980 615-6 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE50249.

<9> Arch Cant 81 1966 118-125 (E R Swain) (OS Card Reference). SKE35713.

<10> Arch Cant 65 1953 3 187-9 (L R A Grove) (OS Card Reference). SKE35411.

<11> DOE(HHR)Dist of Tonbridge and Malling, Kent. 90 (25.2.87) (OS Card Reference). SKE41381.

<12> Arch Cant 108 (1990) 244-252. (OS Card Reference). SKE34643.

<13> Arch Cant 109 (1991) 318. (OS Card Reference). SKE34644.

<14> Field report for monument TQ 76 NW 32 - September, 1959 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4101.

<15> wards, A & Bennett, P., 1990, Archaeological Evaluatio Starkey Castle, Starkey Castle-Arch Evaluation 1990 (Canterbury Arch Trust) (Unpublished document). SKE11906.

<16> STARKEY'S HOUSE, WOULDHAM AS AT 1769. (Photograph). SKE1413.

<17> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading