Kingstons Farmhouse

Kingstons Farmhouse is a manor house, dating from circa 1580, with alterations made in the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The house is timber-framed, largely encased in red brickwork with blue headers and Flemish bond, and has a roof of handmade red clay tiles. It comprises a hall block aligned approximately northeast-southwest with two crosswings of three bays each. An original axial chimney stack is located at the southwest end of the hall block, forming a service end lobby-entrance, with an external chimney stack at the northeast. A stair tower is situated to the southeast of the axial chimney stack. An 18th-century one-bay extension adjoins the southwest side, and an 18th-century single-storey bakehouse, originally freestanding, is connected to the main building in the 20th century. A 20th-century extension is situated between the stair tower and the northeast crosswing, constructed of re-used timber and is jettied. The northwest elevation features a panelled flush door, two 20th-century casement windows, and a bay with sliding glazed doors. The first floor has three 20th-century casement windows. Two hipped dormers contain 19th/20th-century casements. The roof has been altered to a continuous northeast-southwest range, hipped at the southwest, with gables at the southeast ends of the crosswings. Internal frame details are partially exposed, revealing jowled posts, curved tension bracing trenched inside studs, and mortices for diamond mullions in the south wall. Evidence of an early type of glazed frieze window is present in the northwest wall of the northeast crosswing. A north ground floor room, originally the parlour, retains original late 16th-century oak panelling. The hearth of the room above this parlour features a brick depressed arch with jambs cut to a double agee profile, originally plastered, and now stripped. Within the attic and roof space, two collars are made from original bargeboards, carved with a serpentine cable design and lunettes. This house is unusually datable to the late 1570s or 1580s, reflecting a period when glazed windows were introduced in prominent positions, alongside unglazed windows in less prominent areas. The panelling and carved bargeboard design support this dating. The lobby-entrance, located between the 'hall' and the service end, was an archaic feature, soon to be replaced by a more fashionable lobby-entrance providing direct access to the parlour. In the 17th century, the roof was rebuilt with clasped purlin construction, creating attic space. In the 18th century, a short hipped-roof extension was added to the southwest, the house was bricked, and the southeast elevation became the fashionable entrance. The site is surrounded by a moat.