The Dower House, Bayham Abbey

The Dower House, part ticket office and part living accommodation, was originally the dower house for the Camden estate. Its construction occurred in three phases, incorporating a possible medieval, monastic core. The south wing dates to the early 18th century and incorporates reused medieval masonry from Bayham Abbey. The north wing was built by John Pratt, Viscount Bayham, before 1752, representing a significant early example of mid-18th century Gothic revival architecture, predating Sanderson Miller’s Laycock Abbey and concurrent with Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill, and featuring medieval fragments. Between 1799 and 1814, the south wing, which had become a service wing for the Gothic villa, was refaced on the east, potentially to a design by Humphry Repton, who was engaged to improve the estate. A large extension from the 1830s, located east of the south range, was demolished in the 1950s.

The north and east fronts are built of Tunbridge Wells stone rubble, while the south and west fronts feature red brick (painted on the west) on the ground floor and tile hanging above. The building has tiled roofs with brick chimney stacks. The north front, of mid-19th century origin, has a hipped roof and two brick chimney stacks, arranged with seven windows over two storeys, including two full-height, three-light canted bays. The windows are six-light arched sash windows with hexagonal patterns in the upper panes, incorporating a crenellated parapet and projecting band to the cornice. A plinth is present. A central arched doorcase features a fanlight under a cambered dripmould, and is approached by three stone steps. The mid-18th century front door retains an arched pattern in studs. The east front has a central, lower section with attics, and two windows flanked by taller two-storey canted bays with arched six-pane windows. Three 20th-century flat dormers are located centrally. The first floor displays tripartite windows, while the ground floor has modified Venetian windows. The west front has a painted brick ground floor, tile hanging on the first floor, four hipped dormers, and 20th-century casements below.

The interior of the north wing contains a mid-18th century staircase with a column newel and turned balusters. The ground floor includes two rooms with dado panelling featuring a trefoil pattern, a stone arched fireplace with rib mouldings, and cornices with trefoils and arched doorcases. The first floor has one room with an early-19th century basket firegate in the original fireplace, a dado rail, arched doorcase, and cornice. Another room features an original stone arched fire surround. The roof includes reversed medieval timbers from the east end of Bayham Abbey Church. The south wing has an 18th-century roof, an attic with a circa 1830 iron firegrate, an early 19th-century service staircase with turned balusters and column newels, and a two-panelled door with an L-hinge. A ground floor cupboard contains a section of reused medieval ribbed stone. The cellar has stone winder stairs, a fireplace constructed of reused medieval stone, three stone alcoves, and 18th-century wine bins.