Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II listed building. Main construction periods 1600 to 1932

Summary from record TQ 55 SW 25 :

Cottage, c.late 15th/early 16th C. and later additions and alterations.

Monument Types

• HOUSE (HOUSE, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SITE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1600 AD to 1932 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
HILDENBOROUGH NIZELS LANE (north side) TQ 55 SW 1/175 Nizels Farm Cottage
GV II
Former farmhouse. Circa early C17. Framed construction, the ground floor framing replaced with brick, the first floor tile-hung; peg-tile roof; brick stack.
Plan and Development: The house faces south south west, say south. The original plan form is largely intact: a lobby entrance arrangement, 3 rooms wide. The rear outshut appears to be integral with the original build at the near right (north east) end and may be coeval throughout. The principal rooms are parlour, to the left (west) of the entrance with a slightly larger hall/kitchen to the right, both heated from back-to-back fireplaces in the axial stack. There is a small buttery the extreme right hand end. There is evidence that the original stair rose within the parlour, against- the rear wall. The chamber over the parlour was heated from the outset and the attic storey was used for accommodation with a C17 stair to it. The ground floor framing was replaced in brick, probably in 2 phases, in the late C19/early C20. The house was divided into 2 cottages in the early C20. Later alterations have involved the addition of a small single-storey rear right (north east) wing at right angles to the main block and a main stair rising within the outshut against the rear wall of the principal rooms.
Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Asymmetrical 3-window front with a C20 timber glazed door to the lobby entrance to left of centre. Set of 2- and 3-light circa late C19/early C20 timber casements with glazing bars. The axial stack has staggered shafts with vertical ribs and corbelled caps. Both returns have C19 or C20 attic windows, the left return with a late C20 ground floor timber casement, the right return with a C20 door to the outshut, similar to the front door but with a flat porch hood. Hipped roof dormer to the rear elevation, which has C19 or C20 timber casements to the outshut. Roof half- hipped at ends and carried down as a catslide to the outshut.
Interior: Well-preserved. Both the principal ground floor rooms have chamfered, step-stopped ceiling beams - a cross beam to the parlour and a longitudinal beam in the kitchen - and original fireplaces with chamfered oak lintels. The parlour fireplace has curved corners to the fireplace, the larger kitchen fireplace has evidence of a bread oven. On the first floor there is an original plain brick fireplace to the chamber over the parlour. Complete set of original floorboards to the first floor, the attic floor is supported on longitudinal beams with scroll stops. The oak winder stair to the attic has plain, stout balusters and a newel post with a moulded splat ball finial. Above the attic stair the wall plate thickens into a neatly- finished jowl-like projection. Where the wall framing is exposed it is of large scantling, most of the jowls roughly-finished and flared but one, in the front wall, is square-cut and chamfered. There is evidence of some reconstruction of the wall framing on the rear wall of the parlour. Original joinery includes numerous C17 ledged plank doors with handmade strap hinges.
Roof: Most of the roof timbers are concealed. 2 queen posts or struts and a straining beam of slender scantling are visible over the right (east) end of the house, pegged together but difficult to date accurately without a sight of any other timbers.
A well-preserved traditional house with much of its original plan form intact and a good survival of interior features.
Listing NGR: TQ5452650091

Description from record TQ 55 SW 25 :
[TQ 54525009] Nizel's Farm Cottage [NAT] (1) HILDENBOROUGH NIZEL'S LANE (west side) Nizel's Cottage House. Circa late C15/early C16 with circa mid C17 alterations, C20 rear addition. [Full architectural reference] LISTED GRADE II*. (2)

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

<1> OS 1:2500 1972 (OS Card Reference). SKE48214.

<2> DOE(HHR)Dist of Tonbridge and Malling Kent, 19th Feb 1990 154-155 (OS Card Reference). SKE41366.

Sources and further reading