Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1267 to 1332. This was the former hospitium of Boxley Abbey, (TQ75NE15). Ragstone with tile roofs.

Monument Types

• BARN (Medieval to Modern - 1267 AD to 2050 AD) + Sci.Date
• HOSPITAL (HOSPITAL, Medieval - 1267 AD to 1539 AD)

Full description

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(TQ 76025864 - sited from HHR Map) Barn at Boxley Abbey (formerly listed as Tithe Barn at Abbey Court Farm). Grade I. Hospitium to Boxley Abbey (Cistercian). Late 13th c or early 14th c. (1) (For full descriptive text, see list) Additional bibliography. (2-4)

Tree-ring analysis undertaken in Mar 2004 by English Heritage. A timber form the floor had a felling date of winter AD 1382/3, and the timbers from the western roof seem to have a similar date. (This is slightly later than the previously presumed constrution date of late 13th to early 14th century). Timbers in the eastern section of roof were seen to be reused, and felled sometime after AD 1273. The lintels over the doorways could not be dated. (5)

Description from record TQ 75 NE 662:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 75 NE BOXLEY
5/49 Barn at Boxley Abbey 20.10.52 (formerly listed as Tithe Barn at Abbey Court Farm) G.V. I
Hospitium to Boxley Abbey (Cistercian). Late C13 or early C14. Ragstone with plain tile roof, 186 feet long. Gable end walls recessed above tie-beam. Each wall has very small irregularly placed rectangular ventilation holes. All original windows are morticed in sides and tops for rectangular bars and have chamfered reveals. Some of the windows and doors are now blocked. West gable has 3 lancet-type pointed windows above, and 3 below the tie- beam, the central one in each case stepped above the lower 2. Small later window punched through coping at left end. South side:fenestration changes towards centre of building. Left section has 5 regularly-spaced oblong windows under the eaves. On the ground floor, below the middle 3 and stepped slightly to the left are 3 taller, narrower oblong windows. At the left end, immediately below the cill level of the upper windows is a small inserted window with a wooden frame and below the left original first-floor window are 2 superimposed inserted windows, also in wood frames. One pointed window on ground floor to right of last first-floor window. Central quarter of wall blank save for one pointed window will cill immediately above level of tops of ground floor windows. Right section has 4 regularly spaced narrow oblong windows well below the eaves with similar windows on the ground floor below. Inserted barn doors with wooden archi- traves below 2 central first-floor windows. East gable: has one pointed window in the centre above the tie-beam and 2 oblong windows, much larger than any others in the building, under the tie-beam towards the centre of the wall, with 2 immediately beneath on the ground floor. North side: fenestration highly irregular. Left section has tall narrow oblong first floor windows well below the eaves, similar to those on the south side; one at the left end opposite the end window in the south wall and 2 much further towards the centre of the building, aligned to the right of the 2 counterparts in the south wall. One similar window on the ground floor below the second first-floor window from the left. On the ground floor, 2 arched doorheads, one to left of the left first-floor window and one beneath the first- floor window at the right end; that to left has stone voussoirs and chamfered stone jambs with broach stops. Slightly projecting rectangular stone stack on first floor, on brick relieving arch between the left first-floor window and the full-height barn doors. Full-height inserted barn doors opposite the doors on the south side. Central quarter blank save for inserted wooden doors on each floor. Right section:inserted wooden doors on each floor to right of those in central quarter, the top door obscuring an original oblong window. Then 2 smaller oblong windows immediately below eaves, opposite those on south side, with a pointed window on the ground floor below that to left and a blocked oblong window below that to right. Large long oblong opening under eaves to right of these with wall-plate as head and with broach stops to chamfered stone jambs and a plain cill; not morticed for iron bars, and possibly a first-floor door. Listing NGR: TQ7610358681 (6)

HE archive material: BF008601 BOXLEY ABBEY, BOXLEY

<1> DOE(HHR)Dist of Maidstone Kent July 1984 27 (OS Card Reference). SKE41333.

<2> Bldgs of Eng - NE and E Kent 1983 154 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37670.

<3> Country Life 100 265 (OS Card Reference). SKE39376.

<4> Arch J 44 1887 426 (OS Card Reference). SKE36638.

<5> Centre for Archaeology English Heritage, 2005, Tree-Ring Analysis of Timbers from the Abbey Barn, Boxley, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE16371.

<6> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading

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