Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Originally a farmhouse, later adapted into an inn. The north wing is C16 and the south wing was added in the late C18.

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1500 AD? to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Summary of Building

Originally a farmhouse, later adapted into an inn. The north wing is C16 and the south wing was added in the late C18.
Reasons for Designation

The Blue Boys Inn, Kippings Cross, a C16 timber-framed farmhouse, registered as an ale house in 1736, licensed to receive mail in 1765 and extended by a late C18 purpose-built brick inn range, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Intactness: the C16 wing retains a significant proportion of its original fabric, including wall framing, ceiling beams, partitions and roof structure. The plan form, and historic first-floor circulation of the C16 wing are still readable. The C18 wing has been little altered other than on the ground floor internally, and retains the original first-floor divisions. * Fixtures, fittings and decoration: the C16 wing retains chamfered ceiling beams with lambs tongue stops, ledged plank doors and a large C18 axial open fireplace. * Signage: raised panel incised with name of the inn on the C18 front; * Historic interest: It has considerable social historical interest as a reminder of vanished ale houses and coaching inns, and as a place of public gathering since 1736. * Documentation: There is an unusually complete record of owners and tenants from the C16.

History

According to a history of the building, researched on behalf of the inn, the earliest part of this property is known to date from at least 1584 when it was a farmhouse, part of an estate owned by Thomas Wickens, a yeoman of Brenchley. By 1600 the building was occupied by Jacob Fuggle, farmer and bailiff of that estate, who lived here with his wife Naomi and seven children. After his death in 1628 the widow Fuggle and four of her children remained here on a peppercorn rent until 1634. During the next thirty years the occupants are not known but the property remained tied to the Wickens estate, now owned by Olivia Dorothe (sic) Wickens.

By 1665 Samuel Jarret a thatcher, bow maker and equine keeper lived here. He appears to have acquired title to the property and remained here until 1682. This date seems to be the beginning of the building's occupation by craftsmen connected with travelling because of the importance of the adjoining road to Tonbridge. After that date his sons, Joseph a saddler and Peter an equine keeper, are recorded here and their trades were conducted from the premises. By 1690 a Maria Gizzard, harness maker was also recorded here.

By the beginning of the C17 Maria Gizzard, now Maria Bonnick lived here with her husband Thomas Bonnick, a carpenter and wheelwright of Goudhurst parish. A building in this position is shown on the Strip road map of 1720. In 1724, the 11th year of the reign of George I, the turnpike trust extended the turnpike from Woodsgate to Kippings Cross and this building was situated where the turnpiked Hastings Road met the treacherous unimproved part and travellers needed to stop here for refreshment and repairs. In 1736 Silas Bonnick, a wheelwright, applied for and was granted a licence to sell ales from the house which was a registered as an ale house on the Hastings Highway. Bonnick was now a tapster and keeper of the alehouse in addition to carrying on his trade as a wheelwright. In 1740, the 14th year Geo 11 Act extended the turnpike trust from Kippings Cross to Lamberhurst Pound and Flimwell Vent. A building in this position is shown on an 1753 map. In 1762, the 2nd year Geo III Act provided for the erection of new bars, gates or turnpikes at Kippings Cross, Lamberhurst Pound, Bewl Bridge and Flimwell, for toll houses at each and tolls to be paid separately at each. Silas Bonnick died in 1763 and the property was sold in that year to Richard Lawrence, a tavern keeper of Tonbridge who had kept an inn called the 'Half Moon' there.

In 1765 the house became a receiving house for mail and by the end of the year Richard Lawrence had a full licence. At the hearing he registered his house under the title of the 'Blue Boys' after the postboys who collected and dispatched the mail wearing blue riding coats. Their job was to ride out to inns along a given route to collect the mail and deliver it to a main government office, at first in a room at the 'Chequers Inn' at Lamberhurst but from 1800 it was sent to Staplehurst. It was probably at this time that the symmetrical front range was added to the 'Blue Boys'.

By the 1780s, at the height of the coaching era, the 'Blue Boys' had become a boarding point for passengers to pick up a through coach or transfer to a private or local coach, and the stabling facilities increased accordingly. Richard Lawrence became a livery keeper in addition, and his son Edward was a saddler and currier at the 'Blue Boys Yard'. In 1808 Edward Lawrence took over on the death of his father. The building is shown on the Mogg map of 1817 just north of the turnpike. The Prince Regent is said to have stopped here to have his horses shod on the way between Penshurst and Bedgebury. Edward Lawrence sold the business in 1824 to Robert Chesson who ran it until his death in 1835 and his widow Anne kept it until 1846 selling it in that year to Henry Whiteman.

Whiteman kept the house until 1853 when it was sold to the partnership of William Allcock, described as publican and farmer of 20 acres in the 1851 Census, and William Chittenden. The Alcocks kept the house until 1888 when it was sold to the Smith Brewery of Lamberhurst. John Smith ran the house until his death in 1902, his son took over until 1907 when it was passed to John Head. He was succeeded in 1918 by Harry Hartnup and he in 1936 by George S Moss.

On the 1885 25 inch First edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map the building is shown almost to its full present extent with the symmetrical C18 front to the south-west with a projecting porch, and it is labelled post office. There are also a number of outbuildings situated to the south-west, probably stables. By the Second Edition OS map of 1898 there is no change in the outline of the buildings but the public house is no longer labelled post office. There is no change on the 1908 Third Edition map. By the Fourth Edition map of 1938 the outline of the outbuildings has been reduced in size. Some extensions have been added to the building to the east in the mid-C20 and to the north in the 1980s.
Details

Originally a farmhouse, later adapted into an inn. The north wing is C16 and the south wing was added in the late C18. Single-storey additions were added to the east in the mid-C20 and a two-storey north-west extension and a further porch were added in the 1980s. These C20 additions are not of special interest.

MATERIALS: the north wing is timber-framed, the ground floor re-fronted in brick and the first floor clad in weatherboarding. It had a peg-tiled roof and retains its brick chimneystack. The south wing is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with some grey headers, but the entrance front has been painted; it has a tiled roof and end brick chimneystacks. The east extensions are rendered brick, the north-west extension is weather-boarded to the first floor and painted brick to the ground floor; these roofs are tiled.

PLAN: the earliest part is the north wing which comprises the two and a half remaining bays of the C16 farmhouse, with an entrance on the west at right angles to the road, and an outshot to the east. In the late C18 a two-storey, three-bay, purpose-built inn wing was added onto this facing south directly onto the road. This has a central entrance, altering the plan to an L-plan. In the mid-C20 extensions, including toilets, were added on the east side, and in the 1980s the bar was extended on the north-west side with living accommodation above.
EXTERIOR: the south or entrance front is in the later C18 wing. The central bay projects slightly forward of the end bays and has a raised panel above inscribed 'BLUE BOYS'. The windows have been replaced by uPVC sash windows within the original window openings. There is a wide gabled central porch to which a further later C20 porch has been added. There is a bracket eaves cornice. The east and west side elevations of the south wing are of red brick in Flemish bond with some grey headers, some tile-hanging to the gables and external chimneystacks. The west side of the north wing has a weather-boarded first floor and painted brick first floor. The first floor has two casement windows with multiple lights. The ground floor has three C20 windows and a C20 door. The north end has a steeply hipped roof with a penticed dormer window and brick ground floor. The west side is mainly concealed by the single-storey C20 extension but has an outshot with a catslide roof. The 1980s west extension has a weather-boarded first floor with two metal casement windows with diamond panes, and the painted brick ground floor has patio doors and small windows.

INTERIOR: the central entrance from the south leads into the C18 south wing where room divisions on the ground floor have been removed and there are some C20 bar fittings and brick fireplaces. On the west side the C18 spine beam and some ceiling beams remain near the end chimneystack, and the C18 brickwork of the chimney is exposed internally. In the cellar underneath the south wing the brickwork of the end chimneystack is exposed. From the north-east side of the bar there is access into the ground floor of the C16 wing. The southern ground floor room has a large brick open fireplace with a wooden bressumer and moulded wooden plate-shelf along the east wall. The fireplace cuts through a wallplate and is therefore probably an C18 insertion. There is a central spine beam with lambs tongue stops and square ceiling joists of good scantling and also a brick floor. A partition with C18 timbers separates the two ground floor rooms of the north wing. The northern room has square floor joists of large scantling running north to south, at right angles to those in the southern room.

Access to the first floor is by a staircase in the northern outshot with a ledged plank door at the top. The first-floor rooms of the C16 wing were not originally ceiled as the spine beams are all above the tie beams. There is a good series of jowled bay posts. The northern room has wide C16 floorboards and a spine beam with a two inch chamfer and lambs tongue stops. The central room has C16 floorboards, a partition wall with two very long straight tension braces, and a spine beam with a one and a half inch chamfer and lambs tongue stops, set higher than the one in the northern room. There is good peg-hole evidence for an original window frame on the west side and there was probably also one in the east wall. The upper part of the inserted chimneystack is also visible. The southern room has old floorboards, an axial beam and an C18 partition wall with a diagonal brace bordering the C18 wing. Another part of the inserted chimneystack is also visible in this room. When inspected on 11th April 2014 the roof space over the C16 wing, accessed by ladder, was floored with very wide floor boards. The hipped north end bay had a C16 high set collar with collar rafter pairs, many soot stained but some clean, two missing, strengthened by later secondary timbers. The remaining bays had more recent paired rafters with side purlins which had been nailed on. It is believed that much of this C16 roof was removed on 14th May 2014.

The first floor of the C18 south wing contains three bedrooms, the eastern one containing a C19 wooden fireplace with late C19 tiled interior and metal fire-grate, and the western room containing a late C19 tiled fireplace interior and metal fire-grate but a C20 fireplace. The roof structure above the C18 wing is reported to have paired rafters with a ridge board and nailed-on side purlins.
Selected Sources

Book Reference - Author: Harper, Charles G. - Title: The Hastings Road - Date: 1906 - Page References: 143
Unpublished Title Reference - Author: Wealden Buildings Study Group - Title: Blue Boys - Date: February 18 2014 - Type: Site Visit Notes
Other Reference - Description: http://pubshistory.com/KentPubs/Brenchley/BlueBoys.shtml


National Grid Reference: TQ6467539920 (1)

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

Sources and further reading