Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1433 to 1978

Summary from record TQ 65 SW 41 :

Mid-late C15 farmhouse; C16-C19 extensions and alterations.

Monument Types

• FARMHOUSE (FARMHOUSE, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SITE (Medieval to Modern - 1433 AD to 1978 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
HADLOW CARPENTERS LANE TQ 65 SW 3/16 Spring Place 20.10.54 II*
Farmhouse. Mid/late C15, altered and extended in the late C16/early C17, the hall bay window and gable are dated 1634. The house was divided into 3 cottages, probably in the early or mid C19; reunited to one house and refurbished circa 1950 and minor modernisations circa 1968. This is essentially a timber-framed structure but much of it has been underbuilt or faced up with brick (some of the ragstone footings survive internally); a small part is clad with peg-tile; brick stacks and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.
Plan and Development: The house faces north east, its layout a developed 3- room-and-through.passage plan. The hall is in the centre with crosswings each end, both projecting to rear. The passage is at the right (north west) end and is now blocked by a C20 stair. The passage front doorway was also blocked in the c20. At the right end is an unheated service room, maybe a buttery, with a parlour behind served by a projecting lateral stack in the outer wall. A large axial stack at the upper end of the hall serves back-to-back fireplaces. The left end inner room was a kitchen with an unheated service room behind. This wing was somewhat rearranged circa 1950 when the main entrance was moved to the centre of the outer wall. The former kitchen has a passage through to the hall and the rear service room is now used as a kitchen. The main stair projects to rear of the hall fireplace. It was enlarged circa 1960. On the first floor there is an original corridor along the back of the hall chamber from the main stair to the parlour wing.
This plan is essentialy that of the late C16 early C17. The remains of the late medieval house are confined to the left (south eastern) crosswing. it originally extended further back. The front bay was a storeyed end (probably the inner room or solar end). The late C16/early C17 kitchen beam was originally part of a full height crosswall which still survives above. The rest of the wing was the hall, open to the roof, and heated by an open hearth fire. it is one wide bay and that seems to have been its full length. After the house was enlarged in the late C16/early C17 the main block roof (over the new hall) ran between the crosswings. In 1630 the front was altered when the full height bay window with jettied gable over was built onto the hall.
House is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace, and lean-to outshot to rear of the kitchen wing.
Exterior: The gabled front is very attractive. The brick is Flemish bond with burnt headers. 3-window front with an extra ground floor window at the right end. The windows are of various dates. Those each end on the ground floor are c20. The upper windows at the right end are C18 or C19 casements, the first floor one containing rectangular panes of leaded glass and the attic one containing diamond panes. At the left end the first floor and attic windows have late C16/early C17 oak frames with ovolo-moulded mullions, the lower one with a transom. In the centre is the full height canted bay window with an ovolo-moulded mullion-and-upper-transom window on each floor; the first floor window contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. Each side of these windows there are strips of later brick suggesting that there were formerly ribbon windows on each floor. The gable above is carried on a bressummer, Console brackets each end are carved with guilloche and floral motifs and the bressummer itself is carved with a decorative frieze of guilloche and crude egg-and-dart; the centre includes the date 1634 along with symbols such as crescents, a lozenge and an upside down heart. The tile-hung gable contains an original 4-light window containing ancient diamond panes of leaded glass. The bargeboards here are original and although worn clearly show the same carved ornamentation as the bressummer. At the apex there is a pendant. The flanking gables are not jettied. Both are tile-hung with bargeboards and the left end bargeboard and bressummer are late C16/early C17, both carved with the same decorative frieze. The same carved ornamentation is found on the bressummer and bargeboards in the jettied gable at the back of the parlour crosswing. The passage front doorway is blocked. The roofs are tall and steeply pitched. The main chimneyshaft is late C16/early C17 brick and is shaped.
There are 2 other oak small late C16/early C17 windows, both at first floor level on the left end wall, one 3-lights, the other 4-lights; chamfered mullions and diamond panes of leaded glass. Below is a 3-light window with Gothick tracery from Hadlow Castle (q.v.).
Interior: The late medieval work is confined to the kitchen (south eatern) crosswing. Here the side walls and maybe the end walls are original timber frames with large curving braces showing at first floor level. The original partition between the hall and probable solar end survives above first floor level. What is now a crossbeam was originally a rail in the frame and there are a series of redundant mortise slots in its soffit (including evidence for a doorway at the north west end) from the lower part of the partition. The chamfers with scroll stops were applied in the late C16/early C17. The ceiling joits in the front bay are of large scantling and original. 2 bays of the medieval roof survive, one each side of the crosswall. The tie-beam is supported on heavy wall posts with jowled heads and there are small curving arch braces. Above is an A-frame truss with a crown post and downward-curving braces. There was no crown purlin. The rest of the roof is carried on common rafter trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The hall section is smoke- blackened from the original open hearth fire. The front section (probably over the solar) is clean nd there is here evidence of a gablet and original hipped roof arrangement.
The rest of the house contains late C16/early C17 carpentry. Hall and kitchen fireplaces have oak lintels with chamfered and scroll-stopped low cambered arches and there is a smaller version in the hall chamber. The parlour fireplace is similar but its lintel is ovolo-moulded and is carved with false spandrels and rosettes and there is a similar fireplace in the chamber above. Most of the floor beams are chamfered with scroll stops but the hall beam is ovolo-moulded and the joists here are chamfered; all with scroll stops. The parlour has the remains of a moulded plaster frieze. The doorways of the hall to the passage and from the passage to the parlour have ovolo-moulded surround with scroll stops. There is also some good early joinery in the house; notably in the chamber over the hall where there is a late C16/early C17 panelled door to a small closet in front of the stack and the bay window has a sill with oak panelling below which includes cupboard doors hung on iron butterfly hinges,
The roof over the hall and parlour crosswing is carried on tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins, small wind braces and queen posts.
Spring Place is a well-preserved late C16/early C17 house with a late medieval section. The quality of craftsmanship is high. It was apparently once known as the Old Manor House. No documentary evidence has been found to suggest it was a manor but it is certainly higher quality than most of its local contemporaries.
Listing NGR: TQ6279251063

Description from record TQ 65 SW 41 :
[TQ 62795107] Spring Place [NAT] (1) HADLOW CARPENTERS LANE Spring Place Farmhouse. Mid/late C15, altered and extended in the late C16/early C17, the hall bay window and gable are dated 1634. [Full architectural description] LISTED GRADE II*. (2)

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

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

<2> DOE(HHR)Dist of Tonbridge and Malling Kent, 19th Feb 1990 17-18 (OS Card Reference). SKE41367.

Sources and further reading