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Monument details

HER Number:TR 03 NE 112
Type of record:Listed Building
Name:COBB'S HALL

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1525 to 1999. Cobbs Hall, was built for Thomas Cobb, shortly before his death in 1528. It is of unusual interest purely 16th century in style of a very new design design. The fine front of close-studded timbers, and a continuous jetty has been much restored. The roof, also of a new design, was built to fit the chimney. The present roof has been much rebuilt. By tradition this is the house where, about 1525, Elizabeth Barton, called the Holy Maid of Kent, worked as a maid servant in the household of Thomas Cobb, Steward for Aldington Manor to Archbishop Warham. She was a prophetess who later occupied the Chapel of Bellerica at Court-at-Street in the adjoining Parish of Lympne, (Elham Rural District) and was executed in 1533 for prophesying that Henry VIII would only survive his marriage to Anne Boleyn by one month.

At the back a stone wall with slit windows, for muskets and on the ground floor fo a cannon. Thought to be for Napoleonic defences, but could be a Watch House for the Preventitive Service as there ids a date on one opening for 1817.


Grid Reference:TR 0666 3627
Map Sheet:TR03NE
Parish:ALDINGTON, ASHFORD, KENT

Monument Types

Protected Status:Listed Building (II*) 1184555: COBB'S HALL

Full description

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Description from record TR 03 NE 32 :
(TR 06653626) Cobb's Hall (NAT) (1)

Cobbs Hall, was built for Thomas Cobb, shortly before his death in 1528. It is of unusual interest purely 16th century in style of a very new design design. The fine front of close-studded timbers, and a continuous jetty has been much restored. The roof, also of a new design, was built to fit the chimney. The present roof has been much rebuilt. The back of the house was fortified during the threat of invasion by Napoleon. (2)

22/11 Cobb's Hall Grade II C.15 timber-framed and close-studded building with plaster infilling, the first floor oversailing on the protruding ends of the floor joists and brackets. Steeply-pitched hipped tiled roof. "Saunters through Kent with and a Pen and Pencil" says that the interior has plaster ceiling and an overmantel. By tradition this is the house where, about 1525, Elizabeth Barton, called the Holy Maid of Kent, worked as a maid servant in the household of Thomas Cobb, Steward for Aldington Manor to Archbishop Warham. She was a prophetess who later occupied the Chapel of Bellerica at Court-at-Street in the adjoining Parish of Lympne, (Elham Rural District) and was executed in 1533 for prophesying that Henry VIII would only survive his marriage to Anne Boleyn by one month. (3)

Cobbs Hall, restored half-timbered front with a continuous overhang. It is of an exceptionally early date, c1528, at which to forgo a hall open to the roof. At the back a stone wall with slit windows, a Napoleonic defence. (4)

`Not the oldest framed house, but the most significant is Cobb's Hall Hall...which may well be the Court House of Thomas Cobbe (d.1528), the Archbishop of Canterbury's steward; the carving of a tudo rose and an Aragonese pomegranate on three of its four hearth-beams...suggests that it ws built after 1509 as the earliest lobby-entry house to be recognised in England...it survives remarkably unchanged, although the entrance has been moved and the original staircase has gone...the rear, south wall was rebuilt in brick during the Napoleonic invasion scare to provide a defensive position for gunners overlooking the Marsh. (5)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TR 03 NE ALDINGTON ROMAN ROAD (south side) 4/51 Cobb's Hall 13.10.52 II* House. Circa 1525-1530, altered early C19. Timber framed, close- studded and exposed with plaster and painted brick infill, with red brick to return and ragstone, red brick and some tile hanging to rear and right return elevations. Plain tiled roof. Four bay (3 full bay and firebay) continuous jettied lobby entry plan. Two storeys on ragstone plinth, with jetty with moulded bresummer on brackets (and underbuilt at left and right ends by projecting brick walls of return elevations). Hipped roof with swept-out eaves. Moulded stack to centre left. Three wooden casements on 1st floor (leaded lights to left and to right), and 2 tripartite casements on ground floor with small light to end right. Original entry to centre left, now bricked in with applied timber studding over, present entry by half-glazed door in right return. Rear elevation: built early C19 (dated 1817) with 18 inch thick ragstone walling, with red brick dressings to small wooden casements on both floors, with brick 2 storey bargeboarded gable block and single storey kitchen extension. Late C20 glazed conservatory on ragstone base. Interior: clasped purlin with windbrace roof, reeded and stop chamfered ceiling beams and joists; chimney bresummers with fernleaf and flower enriched spandrels and painted overmantel (in scallop pattern, now papered over) on ground floor, plaster overmantel on upper floor with 3 scenes of Adam and Eve separated by 4 columns. Upper great chamber with plaster ceiling with shallow bosses and fleur-de-lys. Corridors inserted in both floors to give access to rear elevation, where the small casements (9 x 12 inches to exterior) are splayed to 18 inch square internally, set 4 feet off floor level (musket height) with a larger ground floor opening (for a cannon). Formerly said to have been part of the defences of Romney Marsh against Napoleon, these features are as likely to have belonged to a Watch House of the Preventive services (one opening initialled and dated 1817 seems to support this). Traditionally associated with the Holy Maid of Kent (Elizabeth Barton), born 1506, whose prophecies (1525-34) in particular against Henry VIII's first divorce, led to her execution (with others). She was maid servant to Thomas Cobb, steward to the Archbishop of Canterbury's estates in Aldington. Other sources place Goldwell (see item 4/39 ) as the scene of those events, and since Cobb died at Goldwell in 1528, it suggests Cobb's Hall may not then have been built/completed for him and may not be as early as previously believed (said to be one of the earliest continuous jettied houses known in rural areas). (See E.W. Parkin, Archaeological 86, 1971; Alan Neame, Elizabeth Barton, Nun of Kent). Listing NGR: TR0666936276 (6)

Historic England archive material: BF035582 COBBS HALL, ALDINGTON 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.


<1> OS 1:10000 1975 (OS Card Reference). SKE48160.

<2> Arch Cant 86 1971 15 201-224 photos figs (E W Parkin) (OS Card Reference). SKE35839.

<3> MHLG Prov List July 1955 East Ashford RD Kent 7 (OS Card Reference). SKE47157.

<4> Bldgs of Eng 1980 W Kent & the Weald 127 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE37703.

<5> Anthony Quiney, 1999, English Domestic Architecture: Kent Houses (Monograph). SKE54441.

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

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<1>OS Card Reference: OS 1:10000 1975.
<2>OS Card Reference: Arch Cant 86 1971 15 201-224 photos figs (E W Parkin).
<3>OS Card Reference: MHLG Prov List July 1955 East Ashford RD Kent 7.
<4>OS Card Reference: Bldgs of Eng 1980 W Kent & the Weald 127 (J Newman).
<5>Monograph: Anthony Quiney. 1999. English Domestic Architecture: Kent Houses.
<6>XYMap: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. [Mapped feature: #21647 Listed Building, ]