Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1300 to 1999. 15th century

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1300 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TQ 73 NW 11 :
(TQ 70563595) Gatehouse (NAT). (1) Gatehouse, Riseden. Grade II*. Also called Riseden House. 15th century (for full description see list). (2)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
GOUDHURST RISEDEN LANE TQ 73 NW (east side)
5/257 Gatehouse and restored 9.6.52 early C20 wall to front garden (attached) GV II* House. C14, altered and extended C15 restored early C20. Timber framed and exposed close-studding with plaster infill, with red brick and tile hanging to return and rear elevations. Plain tiled roofs. Hall house with cross-wings. Two storeys with jettied gabled wings to left and to right, with moulded bres- summers and returned on dragon posts, with attached moulded shafts carrying hollow chamfered brackets. Central hall bays recessed behind overhanging eaves carried on bracket. Hipped main roof with stacks at end left, centre right and end right. Six and eight light mullioned windows to gable 1st floor, with blocked mullioned window and 3 light leaded mullioned window to centre left, with 3 multi-light leaded mullioned windows to ground floor. Six light 2 storey hall window to centre right with mullions and transoms, and depressed arched heads to ground floor. Plank and stud door to centre left with raking hood. C20 wing to rear left, recessed and carried over rear elevation. Interior: great hall reopened to ceiling early C20 (by then owner Mr Edward Grinling). Large central moulded and arched truss, braced to secondary parallel truss from main posts to tie beam. The main central posts carrying this arch have massive brackets, carrying the external eaves to front, with mortice holes to rear post, possibly indicating an outshed origin for the hall. C15 inserted tie beam and crown post over lower end of hall. Moulded heads for rear cross-passage doorway survive. C20 turned baluster gallery across rear wall of hall. Large inserted brick fireplace, with parlour door adjacent, the spandrels carved with images of a Green Man and a Fool. Cross-wings with moulded ceiling beams, and short unmoulded crown posts on hollow chamfered and cambered tie-beams, with Bellersden marble fireplaces with strapwork and damask-style decoration, one with 2 portrait medallions. The home originally of the Sabbe family, by C17 sold to cadet branch of Bothurst family (of nearby Finchcodes). For last 21 years of her life the home of Dame Edith Evans. A full account of the house is in Country Life, 9 January 1937 (Arthur Oswald). Projecting from the left of the house a red brick wall (probably C18), with dogtooth cornice, about 7 feet high, and incorporating an arched boarded gate, ramped down to about 5 feet, extending some 50 yards to the roadside, returned about the same distance along the roadside. Listing NGR: TQ7055135953 (3)

<1> OS 1:10000 1972 (OS Card Reference). SKE48157.

<2> DOE(HHR)Dist of Cranbrook RD Kent Nov 1960 52 (OS Card Reference). SKE41311.

<3> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading