Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

House/cottage thought to date from the C16, with subsequent alterations and additions made between the C17 and C20.

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1500 AD? to 2050 AD)

Full description

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From the National Heritage List for England:

"Summary
House/cottage thought to date from the C16, with subsequent alterations and additions made between the C17 and C20.

Reasons for Designation
Pear Tree Cottage, thought to date from the C16, with subsequent alterations and additions made between the C17 and C20, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the core of the building represents a small C16 house, retaining significant elements of its timber frame; * despite considerable change, the surviving historic fabric retains legible evidence of the building’s original form and early development, principally relating to the original floored hall; * the coherent single-bay ceiling of the original hall is of good quality, with chamfered beams and joists.

Historic interest:

* such a modestly-sized house, retaining legible C16 fabric, is a relatively rare survival.

Group value:

* with Maypole Thatch, a C14 hall house, standing a short distance to the east, listed at Grade II*, and with the Ivy House, Maypole House and Orchard House to the south, all C18 Grade II-listed houses, as well as the early-C19 Green Oak Farm, also listed.

History
The house now known as Pear Tree Cottage is thought to have its origins in the C16. The core of the historic building is the partial timber frame thought to represent a small original floored hall, possibly built against an earlier structure to the north, now replaced. There has been rebuilding at the north end of the hall, probably in the later C16 or early C17. The current chimney stack, at the southern end of the hall, is thought to have been inserted in the C17, when the hall was enlarged slightly southwards. The building appears on both the Tithe map of 1839, and the first edition Ordnance Survey map (dated between 1843 and 1893). When the survey was made for the OS map of 1907 the building was still a single rectangular range. The 1938 map shows a small extension to the south-east. This was later extended along the length of the east elevation. Small additions have been made to the north and south. The building has seen numerous external and internal alterations during the C20.

Details
House/cottage, thought to date from the C16, with subsequent alterations made between the C17 and C20.

MATERIALS: timber-framed, now rendered in roughcast, with a steeply-pitched thatched roof and axial brick stack. The windows to the western elevation are replacements with leaded lights dating from the mid-C20 or later; other windows are more recent.

PLAN: the original building is set on a north/south axis, with Maypole Road running alongside to the west. There are C20 extensions on three sides: to the north is a porch, to the south a bay window, and there is an extension along the eastern side of the building. The southern section of the extension was built at some time between about 1907 and about 1938; the northern section, which projects a little further to the east, is later. These extensions do not contribute to the special interest of the building.

EXTERIOR: the west elevation fronting Maypole Road has two windows, one very small, towards the north end of the building. In the roof above are three C20 dormer windows, with tiling instead of thatch beneath. The main entrance is now at the north end of the building, set to the eastern edge, protected by a C20 porch formed of two side walls over which the roof eaves descend. The northern elevation is otherwise blind. The east elevation of the building is obscured by the C20 extensions. The southern, single-storey section, has a door and large windows; the northern section has French doors, with a box dormer above. At the south end of the building is a large square bay window, over which the roof eaves descend.

INTERIOR: the southern room of the house displays significant evidence of the original timber frame, and appears to represent an original floored hall, rebuilt first at the northern and then at the southern end, and with much subsequent alteration. A single bay within this room is defined by two cross beams, both chamfered on their inner edges, with a linking spine beam chamfered on both sides with step stops, and a series of transverse chamfered joists, running out of a substantial girding beam to the east. The framed northern wall of the room has a sill wall, and a diagonal brace to the east; the framing of this wall continues to first-floor level, with joweled heads to the posts. This wall is a short distance north of the northern cross beam, and it is thought that this may be evidence of rebuilding at this end, with the hall being slightly enlarged. A partial truss survives above the beam, with a second truss in line with the wall, supporting this theory. At the southern end of the room, originally the high end, the transverse beam has mortices indicating the former presence of a partition beneath, with doorways at either end presumably leading to a parlour to the south, or a parlour and stair. The lack of a chamfer to the southern side of the beam is unusual. With the introduction of the chimney into the parlour area, the hall was slightly enlarged. The brickwork of the fireplace was rebuilt in the C20. The steep stair curves around the west of the stack and may have C17 origins with some reconfiguration; the stair projects beyond the face of the chimney rather than being in-line, and the door to the stair appears to be of early date, probably re-used and set in a C20 frame. The eastern wall of this room has posts and studs with a framed window opening to the north. Immediately to the south of the southern cross beam is what appears to be a blocked door opening, probably the result of later alteration. The sill beam runs the length of the eastern wall, and may have been inserted later. No historic features are visible in the western wall, or in the northern or southern rooms.

At first-floor level, the roof structure has seen very extensive alteration, especially to the eastern side where the insertion of dormers has necessitated complete rebuilding. Evidence of the original southern hip is seen in the truss immediately to the north of the inserted stack, which has a redundant high collar for supporting the hip. The southern end of the roof may largely retain its C17 form." (1)

<1> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

Sources and further reading