Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1500 to 1599.

Monument Types

• SITE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1500 AD to 1599 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5280 PENSHURST WALTER'S GREEN
No 7 (Walter's Green Cottages) TQ 54 SW 54/925
II GV
2. C16 timber framed cottage of 1 storey and attic, 2 windows. High pitched tiled roof with half hipped gable at left. Rebuilt chimney. 1 gable dormer breaking eaves. 1st floor tile hung. Ground floor red brick with blue headers. C19 iron casements. Plain plank door under small hood on curved brackets.
No 7 (Walter's Green Cottages) shall be amended to read
Goose Cottage
The group value note Nos 1 to 6 (consec) Walter's Green Cottage and Goose Cottage form a group
should be inserted in the entry.
1. 5280 PENSHURST WALTER'S GREEN
No 7 (Walter's Green Cottages) TQ 54 SW 54/925
II GV
2. C16 timber framed cottage of 1 storey and attic, 2 windows. High pitched tiled roof with half hipped gable at left. Rebuilt chimney. 1 gabled dormer breaking eaves. 1st floor tile hung. Ground floor red brick with blue headers. C19 iron casements. Plain plank door under small hood on curved brackets.
Listing NGR: TQ5160641434

The building was de-listed in 2010 because it was thought to have been demolished. This was caused by confusion about the name of the cottage. The postal address changed from No. 7 Walter's Green Cottages to Goose Cottage, and it is now Old Surrenden.

It was listed again in June 2014.

Summary of Building
House. C16 or earlier re-fronted in the C18, extended in the early C19 and a further L-wing was added to the
south-west circa 1900.

Reasons for Designation
Old Surrenden, a two bay C16 timber-framed building, re-fronted in brick and tile in the C18 when an external
chimneystack was also added, extended by one bay in the early C19 and with further late C20 additions and
alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Date: incorporates a two bay C16 timber-framed house, an early survival of a house of poorer
members of society;
* Regional and local characteristics: it is representative of a south-eastern counties rural type of
timber-framed house modified in the C18 by re-fronting in brick and tile-hanging;
* Plan form: the original plan form of a two bay house with ground floor and attic and the original upper
floor circulation is readable, despite later additions and alterations;
* Interior features: includes C16 floor boards and an C18 open fireplace and ledged plank doors;
* Historic alterations: the C18 re-fronting and early C19 south-west bay add interest as evidence of
changing fashions and differing accommodation needs;
* Proportion of survival : a significant proportion of pre-1700 wall frame and an internal partition survive;
* Group Value: part of a group of Grade II listed buildings in Walter's Green Road to which it is
functionally and historically related as it once housed farm workers for Walter's Green Farm.

History
Until the 1960s this house was owned by the Stonewall Park Estate and housed agricultural workers from the
adjoining Walter's Green Farm. Access to the upper floor is reported to have been by a ladder at the side of
the chimney until the 1960s.

The building appears on the 1870 Kent First Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map as a rectangular
structure, aligned south-west to north-east, with a well situated to the south-east. There is no change on the
1898 map. By the 1909 Kent map an L-wing had been added at the south-west end and the well is no longer
shown. The building has been extended to the north since the 1936 Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map.
Windows were replaced in the 1950s and the building was modernised internally circa 1965. A two storey one
bay extension was added to the north-east in 1974, and in 1984 a side entrance and two storey extension to
the north-west were added.

The postal address was formerly No. 7 Walter's Green Cottages. It was listed at Grade II under that name on
16 January 1975 as part of the re-survey of the former Sevenoaks Rural District. Between the mid 1960s and
1995 it was called Goose Cottage. By 1996 the name had been changed to Old Surrenden.

Details
House. C16 or earlier re-fronted in the C18, extended in the early C19 and a further L-wing was added to the
south-west circa 1900. It was re-fenestrated from the 1950s onwards and modernised in the 1960s. A two
storey single bay extension was added in 1974 to the north-east, and in 1984 a single storey extension was
added to the south-west and an extension to the north-west. The late C20 extensions are not of special
interest.

MATERIALS: timber-framed, the lower part of the ground floor re-fronted in red brick with blue headers and
the upper part of the ground floor tile-hung. Tiled roof with off-central brick chimneystack.

PLAN: the central two bays originally comprised either an open hall house of one bay with service end or
were built as a one storey and attic two bay house. An external chimneystack was added at the south-west
end in the C18. A further two storey bay was added at the south-west end in the early C19. An L-wing was
added at the south-west end between 1898 and 1909, and the property was further extended to the
north-west and north-east later in the C20.

EXTERIOR: the entrance front faces south-east. It is of one storey with attics. Steeply-pitched tiled roof with
gablets and half hips to the south-west and north-east. There are two irregularly-spaced gabled dormers to
the attic with paired top-opening metal casements. The ground floor has four metal casement windows and a
1970s gabled porch with carved wooden brackets and plank door. The two central bays have brickwork in
English garden wall bond and the north bay has Flemish bond brickwork with grey headers. The south-west
side has tile-hanging and Flemish bond brickwork to the southern part, partially concealed by a C20 porch.
The northern part has a late C20 brick ground floor and upper floor of applied timber-framing. The north-west
side has similar 1980s materials and a 1960s weather-boarded garage with half-hipped tiled roof has been
incorporated into the living accommodation. The north-east end has later C20 brickwork and tile-hanging.


Access by a late C20 staircase in the north-west corner leads to the upper floor which retains two jowled
corner posts, part of the midrail and tie beam, a curved brace and some struts of the original north-east end
wall of the property; also part of the north-west side wall comprising wall-plate, midrail, studs, a curved corner
brace and the base of two rafters. In the northern bedroom the wallplate to the south-east wall and a number
of rafters are visible. Some wide C16 oak floor boards survive. There is an C18 timber partition between this
and the central bedroom with a blocked doorcase, and the ceiling appears to have been added in the C18,
retaining the marks of wet plaster. The central bedroom has the wallplate to the south-east wall visible. The
original south-east end wall survives with tie beam complete, except for the insertion of a ledged braced
plank door. A curved corner brace, and part of the original north-west wall is also visible. A number of the
lower parts of rafters are visible and the room contains wide C16 oak floor boards throughout. The southern
bedroom contains the formerly external side of the original south-east end wall, including a blocked original
window with one wooden diamond mullion surviving and the socket for another visible. The upper part of the
C18 chimneystack (originally external) is visible in this room, which also retains late C18 or early C19 studs to
the south-east end wall and the bases of rafters and ceiling beams with the marks of wet plaster. The roof
structure is without purlins but has a ridgepiece.(1)

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

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

Sources and further reading