Poor Travellers House Richard Watts Charity

The Poor Travellers House, also known as Richard Watts Charity, is a unique charity hostel founded in 1586 for providing overnight lodgings for six poor travellers. It now operates as a museum with living accommodation above. The original timber-framed structure was refaced in Portland stone in 1771, largely maintaining its original appearance, with significant renewal work undertaken in 1604. The charity was superseded in 1858 when larger almshouses were built on Maidstone Road.

The front range was initially designed with one large room per floor, later subdivided into a two-room plan with a central corridor, likely around 1604. This period also saw the addition of a rear stair turret and at least one brick chimney stack. The remarkable survival of the late 16th-century rear wing is noteworthy, containing three rooms per floor and featuring an open gallery, seemingly influenced by contemporary coaching inns.

The building is three storeys high. The front has a symmetrical facade of three bays, each with a coped gable featuring renewed stone finials, linked by a parapet and a prominent plat band between each floor. The central bay slightly projects above ground floor level. Windows are two-light designs with mullions, moulded surrounds, and diamond-leaded casements. Depressed panels with inscribed texts are located below each window. The central doorway has a moulded cornice and a renewed wooden door surround. The rear elevation of the main range features a gabled stair turret with a sash window, alongside two large brick stacks with set-offs and tumbled brickwork.

The rear wing, partially timber-framed, has a roof slope covered in Kent tiles, which extends as a catslide over a gallery of five and a quarter (originally six) half-open bays. One part bay is blocked by the stair turret. The gallery is supported by four large, chamfered posts with run-out stops, dividing the lower external corridor. The rooms within the rear wing, with the exception of those altered during the stair turret and stack insertion, have two-light casements with stanchions and lift-off hinges in ovolo moulded surrounds. Internally, the "poor travellers" rooms are simple, with chamfered ceiling beams, unembellished brick fireplaces, and some early ironwork. The main range includes a six-panel framed ceiling with chamfered and stopped beams. The cellar has a rubble wall that may date back to the early years of the building. The roof structure displays diminishing principals, one truss with braces, and trenched purlins.