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Monument details
HER Number: | TQ 64 SE 147 |
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Type of record: | Listed Building |
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Name: | TERRY'S AND TOWN FARM COTTAGE AND TOWN FARMHOUSE |
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Summary
TQ 67 41 Brenchley High Street, Brenchley (east end) 15/97 Town Farm Cottage, Terry's 20.10.54 and Town Farmhouse (formerly GV listed as The Butchers Shop).
Grid Reference: | TQ 67981 41778 |
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Map Sheet: | TQ64SE |
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Parish: | BRENCHLEY, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, KENT |
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Monument Types
- FARMHOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1467 AD to 2050 AD)
Associated Finds
- PEG TILE (Post Medieval - 1750 AD? to 1800 AD?)
- POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE (Post Medieval - 1750 AD? to 1900 AD?)
- WINDOW GLASS (Post Medieval - 1750 AD? to 1850 AD?)
Full description
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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 67 41 BRENCHLEY HIGH STREET, BRENCHLEY (east end) 15/97 Town Farm Cottage, Terry's 20.10.54 and Town Farmhouse (formerly GV listed as The Butchers Shop)
II*
2 houses and a shop, originally one building. Probably late C15/early C16 with 2 phases of construction. Close-studded framing, partly underbuilt in brick, partly tile-hung and partly weatherboarded. Peg-tile roof; brick stacks.
Plan: The plan form suggets a semi-public or non-domestic function of some kind. The 5-bay main range faces west, at the east end of the High Street. The building is evidently of high status but has no obvious evidence of an original stack or smoke bay. There is an inserted axial stack to left of centre with a high quality C16 fireplace heating the main room, which has been re-partitioned to accommodate a shop in the centre and a cross passage entrance to Town Farmhouse, but which may have been one large room originally although the evidence is not clear. Smaller heated room to the left, perhaps originally unheated. The axial stack has 2 high quality first floor fireplaces. Doorway to right of centre into a later cross passage, doorway possibly re-sited when the shop front was put in. The rear right (south east) wing, which is secondary but no later than the mid C16, is 4 bays and was probably one long room originally, the fourth bay is a smoke bay although it is not clear whether it served the long room or another room to the rear (east) where there is now an outshut. An axial stack with back-to-back fireplaces was inserted into the wing which is now 2 rooms on plan with a stair rising against the wall at the junction with the main range. It is possible that the main range was heated by a rear lateral stack which no longer exists, although no evidence of this was found on survey (1989). There are some similarities between this building and the Old Vicarage (q.v.) closeby, which is also L-plan with no evidence of an original stck.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Town Farm Cottage to the left, shop front in the centre, Town Farmhouse to the right. Asymmetrical 4-window west front, the roof hipped at ends, the axial stack with staggered shafts with a corbelled brick cornice. The first floor is jettied with deep eaves supported on chamfered brackets. The close-studded framing is well-preserved and includes evidence of original blocked windows in the frame on the first and ground floor. To the right of centre a fine circa early C16 Tudor arched moulded doorframe to Town Farmhouse with a C19 door, the top panels glazed. Circa late C19 shop window and door alongside to the left. C19 panelled door to Town Farm Cottage at the extreme left. 2 3-light casements on the ground floor alongside and right of the 2 front doors, 4 first floor casement windows. These are a mixture of dates, with leaded panes. First floor window left retains C17 or C18 old glass and a sprung catch. The right return of the main block is tile hung to the footings. Beyond it, the wing is weatherboarded on the ground floor, tile-hung above. The axial stack has staggered shafts. C20 casement windows. The left return is brick to the ground floor, tile-hung above. The rear elevation of the main block preserves most of its wall-framing intact. C18 door with fielded panels to the shop. The first floor has 2 blocked original windows. Outshut at north end of the rear. The inner (north) return of the wing (Town Farmhouse) is 4 windows, and retains its original framing including original blocked windows on the first floor and an C18 mullioned ground floor window with bead-moulded mullions and diamond leaded panes.
Interior: Rich in carpentry and other features. Town Farmhouse is very unspoiled. The main block preserves a very fine early C16 fireplace on the south side of the axial stack (in Town Farm Cottage). This has a moulded oak lintel and moulded stone jambs with a modern partition about 1.5 metres in front of it. The small room to the left (north) has a rebuilt fireplace, a chamfered step-stopped crossbeam with short curved braces and chamfered step- stopped joists. The ceiling carpentry in the shop is concealed behind a later ceiling. The right end of the main block (Town Farmhouse) has a chamfered step-stopped axial beam and closely-spaced joists of large scantling with evidence of a former stair at the right end. On the first floor the axial stack has a good moulded fireplace above the one on the ground floor (Town Farm Cottage). The first floor room to the left of the range (Town Farm Cottage) also has a good fireplace with a hollow-chamfered lintel and moulded stone jambs, but this is sited on the return (west) face of the stack and has probably been re-sited there. It may originally have been back-to-back with the other first floor fireplace. The first floor of Town Farm Cottage has been re-partitioned, but the original arrangement of rooms is still evident. The tie beams have short curved braces (some missing). A blocked rear window preserves sockets for diagonally-set mullions and a shutter groove. The rear wing (Town Farmhouse) has a ceiling of intersecting step-stopped beams, with exposed joists interrupted by the inserted stack, which has a good open fireplace with brick jambs and an oak lintel in the western of the 2 principal rooms. C16 doors survive, both into the cross passage and an external door on the south side. The joists in the eastern of the two main rooms are plastered over and there is a small fireplace, possibly concealing earlier jambs and a lintel. The smoke bay at the east end of the main block is accessible from the lean-to at the end of the wing. A stair has been built inside it and it preserves heavily sooted walls from the bottom of the bay up to the apex of the roof. There is evidence of an early partition on the west side of the bay and the beam on the east side is chamfered and step-stopped: it must either be a re-used timber or the bay was originally used from the lean-to side. The first floor above the eastern of the 2 rooms is used for storage and is open to the apex of the roof. The other first floor rooms in Town Farmhouse (which include the first floor of the main range over the shop) retain exposed ceiling beams, old wall plaster and joinery. The internal wall-framing is well-preserved with flared jowls to the wallposts throughout the building and some internal tension braces.
Roof: Both the main range and the wing have crown post roofs, with no evidence of smoke blackening. The main range roof has plain posts with ogival down- braces to the ties and up-braces to the collar purlin, the post to right of centre chamfered with step-stops. The axial stack has interrupted the collars of the rafter couples and is clearly an insertion. The wing crown posts are all plain with 2 braces to the tie beams and 2 to the collar purlin, which has been truncated to accommodate the inserted stack. A piece of machinery, some kind of hopper of unknown function, is fixed to the southern crown post of the main range.
This is an extremely interesting framed building of high status, well- preserved internally and externally.
Listing NGR: TQ6798341776 (3)
Previously listed as TQ 64 SE 15
Town Farm Cottage, Terry's and Town farmhouse (formerly listed as the butchers shop). 2 houses and a shop, originally one building. Probably late C15/early C16 with 2 phases of construction (TQ 6798 4178 not named) Grade II*. (1)
In 2021, below-ground remains and artefacts associated with the use of the slaughterhouse known as Town Farm Shambles were observed to the rear. Town Farm Shambles was the slaughterhouse for the butcher's shop within Town Farmhouse from c. 1750- c. 1970 . The finds included Kentish red earthernware pottery, German stoneware, fragments of Kentish roof tile c. 1750-1800, window glass c. before 1750 to 1850 and animal joint bones. (2)
Historic England archive material: RCH01/048/01/097 Labelled plan of Town Farm Cottage and House, Brenchley BF040386 TOWN FARM COTTAGE AND TOWN FARMHOUSE, BRENCHLEY 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.
House of two early 14th century phases. Phase I is an early continuous jetty range of uncertain function. Phase II is a rear 4-bay range with a smoke bay. Part of this may have been used as a kitchen. (4)
<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.
<2> Darnley Archaeological Services, 2021, Report for an Archaeological Watching Brief at Town Farm Shambles, High Street, Brenchley, Tonbridge, Kent TN12 7NH (Unpublished document). SKE55236.
<3> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.
<4> Pearson, S., Barnwell, P. S. & Adams, A. T., 1994, A Gazetteer of Medieval Houses in Kent (Monograph). SKE8010.
Sources and further reading
Cross-ref.
| Source description | <1>XY | Map: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. [Mapped feature: #37568 listed building, ] |
<2> | Unpublished document: Darnley Archaeological Services. 2021. Report for an Archaeological Watching Brief at Town Farm Shambles, High Street, Brenchley, Tonbridge, Kent TN12 7NH. |
<3>XY | Map: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. [Mapped feature: #37568 listed building, ] |
<4> | Monograph: Pearson, S., Barnwell, P. S. & Adams, A. T.. 1994. A Gazetteer of Medieval Houses in Kent. |