Hill Farmhouse

TL 74 SW RIDGEWELL TILBURY ROAD 3/41 Hill Farmhouse, (formerly 7/8/52 listed as Ridgewell Hill Farmhouse) II*

Manor house, late C16, altered in C19. Timber framed, plastered, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. Range of 5 bays aligned approx. N-S, jettied at the S end, with axial chimney stack one bay from the N end, aspect E. 3-bay range to W, with 2 axial chimney stacks and a jetty and 3 facade gables to the N. Small C19 extension to W. Single-storey flat roofed extension in NW angle, C20. 2 storeys with attics. N elevation (towards Tilbury Road), on gable end of N-S block one C19 casement window on each floor and attic, C19 bargeboards with billet moulding. C20 glazed door in small extension. 2 C19 casement windows on ground floor, one on first floor. One bracket below jetty with acanthus carving. 3 projecting facade gables with 4 similar brackets, foliate carving on bressumer and inscription 1589 IMP. 3 sets of original bargeboards with foliate carving and turned pendants. The chimney stacks have 2 and 4 octagonal shafts, one with a blank recessed panel. In addition there are original bargeboards with carving and billet mouldings on the S gable of the N-S range, and gadrooned bargeboards on the E gablet of the E-W range which appears over the roof of the N-S range, and original bargeboards with billet moulding, decayed, on the W gable. The 6-panel door in the E elevation has a hood mounted on brackets with acanthus carving similar to those on the N elevation, and possibly removed from it. The interior of the N-S range has axial plain-chamfered beams with lamb's tongue stops and joists of square section, short arched braces to the tiebeams, face-halved and bladed scarfs in the wallplates, a blocked ground floor window with 3 ovolo-moulded mullions on the W side, an exceptionally large ground floor hearth, and oak panelling of c.1600. The E-W range has moulded beams, and both storeys of exceptional height. Morant calls this manor Pannells le Hill, and states that the Pannell family occupied it from 1385 to 1613 (II, 342). The inscription evidently refers to a member of this family. RCHM 4.

Listing NGR: TL7445441026