Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1400 to 1999 Studmore House: listed building Probable early 15th century hall house, altered and extended in the early 20th century. Late 20th additions are present to the rear

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1400 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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description from record TQ 64 SE 11 :
(TQ 6682 4181) Studmore (NAT). (1) Studmore house (formerly listed as Worms Lodge). Probably early C15, the hall altered and extended in the early C20, late C20 rear additions. Grade II*. (2)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 64 SE BRENCHLEY BRENCHLEY ROAD (off)
6/37 Studmore (Formerly listed as Worms 20.10.54 Lodge) II*
House. Probably early C15, the hall altered and extended in the early C20, late C20 rear addition. The early block is framed construction, underbuilt in unusually large bricks laid in Flemish bond, the first floor tile-hung; the wall-framing surviving complete on the right (east) end. The additions are brick and tile-hung; peg-tile roofs; brick stacks.
Plan: The house faces south. The original arrangement was an open hall house of high status with a 2-bay open hall in the centre with moulded beams at either end. The inner end, to the right (east), is jettied. The putative cross passage and service end to the left (west) of the hall have been rebuilt, initially in the C17 with the house extended beyond in the early C20. An axial stack with back-to-back fireplaces inserted in the hall has a date of 1662 on the hall lintel but the flooring of the hall is almost certainly earlier and the date may refer to the replacement of a framed stack by a brick one. C20 additions include a rear left (north west) block under a 2-span roof and a 1930s porch outshut alongside. Late C20 rear right (north east) wing.
Exterior: 2 storeys and attic. Roof hipped at the left end, gabletted and hipped at the right end. Axial stack with tall staggered triple shafts with corbelled brick cornices. Asymmetrical 5-window front, the left hand window in the C20 addition. C20 half-glazed front door into the addition to left of centre. 1-, 2- and 3-light C20 iron-framed casements with diamond leaded panes. 2 attic dormers with hipped roofs. The right (east) end is jettied, the jetty on plain brackets, with tension braces to both the ground and first floors and evidence of a former window in the first floor framing. The rear elevation has a 1930s porch with a plank and cover strip front door.
Interior: High quality carpentry from the medieval phase survives. The richly-moulded beams at either end of the medieval hall are intact. Later boarding on the soffits conceals the evidence of original doorways. The hall has probably C16 exposed joists and an open fireplace, the lintel dated 1662. The right end room preserves joists of massive scantling with evidence of a former stair. The present stair rises from the hall against the rear wall of the right end room. The lower end moulded beam marking the left end of the original hall, is sited close to the fireplace of the left hand principal room. To its left (west) the joists are replaced. The wall framing is well- preserved with massive wall posts with flared jowls and step stops on the principal timbers. The hall tie beam is arch braced, one of the braces partly removed for a doorway, the braces massive and fixed with 10 pegs with a chamfered moulding.
Roof: Crown post roof construction survives from the inserted stack to the right end of the range. The hall crown post is octagonal with a moulded capital and base with 4-way up braces. The right end crown post is plain in a closed partition heavily sooted on the hall side. Beyond the axial stack there is a clasped purlin roof construction, perhaps dating from 1662.
A high quality house of medieval origins.
Listing NGR: TQ6681641824 (3)

Formerly an open 2-bay hall and upper end bay of an end-jetty house with evidence for a former service end. There are 16th or 17th century alterations.(4)

Historic England archive material: BF040383 STUDMORE, 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. RCH01/048/01/095 Labelled sheet of drawings of Studmore, Brenchley, with a sketch plan of the ground-floor, two cross-rail sections and a crown-post sketch

Historic England archive material: RCH01/048/01/095 Labelled sheet of drawings of Studmore, Brenchley, with a sketch plan of the ground-floor, two cross-rail sections and a crown-post sketch

<1> OS 1:10000 1978 (OS Card Reference). SKE48163.

<2> DOE (HHR) District of Tunbridge Wells, kent (Bidborough et al) 24th Aug 1990 40 (OS Card Reference). SKE40529.

<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