Wall Forming West Boundary Of Church Yard With Classical Gateway

TL 4115 WIDFORD WARE ROAD (north side)

5/2 Wall forming W boundary of church 24.1.67 yard with Classical Gateway

GV II*

Wall. Mid C16 and early C17. Narrow red bricks set in lime mortar to irregular English-bond. Moulded brickwork in both parts. A thick wall about 180 metres long and 3 metres high, extending S from the churchyard stile and continued W as a retaining wall behind Widfordbury. The northern part represents the lower part of the E wall of a wing of C16 Widfordbury and it extends about 2 metres in advance of the S end of the crosswing of the present house. The brick mansion was presumably built c1556 when the Dissolution transferred the manor from Bermondsey Abbey to secular hands. the E face has a chamfered plinth a dummy arrow slit with chamfered jambs, a 4-centred arch with reserved chamfer moulding, and the ovolo moulded jambs of a former mullioned window to its right hand. On the W side at the N end are the remaining 2 sides of a room with a large fireplace. Further S is a wide 4 centred arch. The southern part of the wall is of the early C17 and closed one side of a forecourt. The ground is higher on the churchyard side, where there is a moulded plinth and a brick pilastered gateway with full entablature in moulded brick. the wall has a corbelled saddle-back coping of bricks set flat and is propped by later buttresses on the W. The gateway rises above the wall and has a segmental rere arch on the plain W side. E face has a deeply moulded round arch with heavy moulded imposts checked for a door opening westward. The pilasters are unusual in being abruptly narrowed a little below the necking of the moulded brick capital as if a truncated diagram of the Tuscan Order had been misunderstood. Moulded bases to pilasters and tile capping to pedestal. The entablature breaks forward over each pilaster and terminates as simple bands to the side. The upper part of the gate now terminates in a blunt triangle which may be a late alteration. Most interesting examples of C16 and early C17 brick craftmanship in the lower sidewall of an early brick mansion with historical features, and a Renaissance gateway and courtyard wall of the early C17. Part of a picturesque group with Widfordbury and the parish church in this part of the conservation area. (RCHM (1911) 241: VCH (1912) 404-5: EHAS Newsletter No 32 (1974) 4).

Listing NGR: TL4130115793