Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Brishing Court, 15th century farmhouse with 16th and 17th century alterations. Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1400 to 1699

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1400 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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[TQ 777514] Brishing Court [NAT]. (1) Farmhouse. 15th century, (probably early 15th century), with 16th and 17th century alterations. Timber framed with rendered infilling. (2) Additional bibliography. (3 - 4)

The 'Wealden' hall house at Brishing Court has been identified as having seven distinct phases of construction and alteration. The original early 15th century house is a five bay house with the upper and lower ends jettied to the front and sides. The building has an archetypal plan form, with the upper dais end of the hall in the widest bay. An upper floor was inserted into this open hall in the late 16th century, most likely to create a single chamber above the hall. In the 17th century, brick hearths and chimneys were added to the building. The main hearth was replaced with stone and brick, and a tapering chimney stack was built inside the Phase One smoke cavity. It is suggested that a new open well stair was built during this time to replace the earlier stair-ladder. The 18th century saw a series of alterations, including the addition of a garret room in the roof void above the service chambers in the lowest two bays. A new staircase was also added at this time to provide access to the new chamber. The service and parlour chambers were divided in two during the 18th century, and all chambers were ceiled using oak joists and lath and lime/hair plaster. A log store and rear porch were also constructed at around this time. In the early 19th century, the main intervention consisted of the division of the house into two dwellings. A second main entrance, now filled, was created to provide access to one of these properties, and new staircases were built in each dwelling. Around 1900, the building reverted to a single dwelling, and a number of alterations took place to present the building as a medieval manor house. A brick cavity wall lobby and pantry were added to the building duirng the 20th century, and the Period One dais screen at the upper end of the hall was removed at some point in the 1920s or 1930s. (5-6)

Description from record TQ 75 SE 296:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
BOUGHTON MONCHELSEA BRISHING LANE TQ 75 SE (North-West side)
1/6 Brishing Court 25.7.52 GV II*
Farmhouse. C15, (probably early C15), with C16 and C17 alterations. Timber framed with rendered infilling. Plain tile roof. Wealden, with open hall of 2 unequal-length bays and storeyed end bays. Right end bay longer than left, incorporating undershot cross-passage. Left hall bay and left half of right hall bay floored in C16. Smoke-bay, possibly with enclosed hearth, formed in front three-quarters of right half of right hall bay, leaving passage to rear on ground floor and partitioned void on first floor. C17 stack inserted in smoke bay. 2 storeys and attic on stone plinth. End bays jettied on filleted solid-spandrel brackets, jetties returning to rear, that to left on moulded dragon post, that to right on plain. Broadly-spaced studding. Cross- passage delineated by principal posts. Ogee tension brace to left end bay, to right hall bay (on both floors) and to right end bay. Arch brace over cross- passage. Short spur, with solid-spandrel bracket under, protrudes from central truss post just above midrail, carrying a post jowled towards the house to butt under the central tie-beam , and supporting the flying wall-plate on the side away from the house (c.f. also Synyards at Otham). Ogee arch-braces to flying wall-plate to right hall bay, and formerly also to left. Below the flying wall-plate another bracketed spur protrudes forward from the jowled post, supporting an outer wall-plate at the same level as the flying wall-plate. This outer wall-plate runs right round the house supported on short spurs protruding from principal posts, and is an unusual feature (cf. also the Cloth Hall, North Street, Headcorn). Roof hipped, with gablet to left. Multiple brick stack in front slope of roof, to right hall bay. Hipped 2- light dormer. Irregular fenestration of 3 leaded mullioned and transomed windows; one 4-light with pegged cill to left end bay, one 8-light to left hall bay and one 8-light to right end bay. Deep short pegged cill towards centre of left end bay on ground floor. Blocked doorway to cross-passage to left end of right end bay. Later blocked doorway to left end of hall. Lean- to to right gable end with stone ground floor and rendered gable, incorporating door in right gable end. Single-storey rear addition to right, with stack. Interior: exposed framing. Most members chamfered. Moulded and brattished left end-of-hall beam, with ogee braces to partition above. Broad cill of rear window of left hall bay. Plain-chamfered central truss posts, with cambered tie-beam, morticed for braces meeting towards centre. Chamfered crown-post on chamfered base, braced to collar purlin and to long sous-laces. Plain crown-posts to ends of hall, with foot braces, and to truss to right side of cross-passage. Ashlar pieces. Smoke-blackened straw-daub walls of smoke-bay survive in roof. Mortice evidence for smoke-bay below. Stone fireplace with plain-chamfered jambs to left side of stack. (E.R. Swain, Divided and Galleried Hall-Houses, in Medieval Archaeology Vol. XII, 1968). Listing NGR: TQ7778551451 (7)

<1> OS 1:10000 1979 (OS Card Reference). SKE48165.

<2> DOE (HHR) Borough of Maidstone Kent 25 March 1987 4 (OS Card Reference). SKE39940.

<3> Bldgs of Eng - West Kent and the Weald 1980 177 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37683.

<4> Med Arch 12 1968 134-135 plan (E R Swain) (OS Card Reference). SKE46726.

<5> The Gale & Dunn Partnership, 2006, Brishing Court, Brishing Lane, Boughton Monchelsea: Historical Survey (Unpublished document). SKE32393.

<6> The Gale & Dunn Partnership, 2006, Brishing Court, Brishing Lane, Boughton Monchelsea: Historical Survey (Unpublished document). SKE32393.

<7> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading