Theobalds Farm

Theobalds Farm is a house that was formerly a farm, of late medieval origin. It was altered in the early 17th century and refronted in the 18th century, with windows replaced in the late 20th century within earlier openings.

The building is timber-framed, refronted in brickwork on the south-western and north-western sides. The south-west side has a sandstone ground floor. Weatherboarding appears above, and the north-east side is cement-rendered on the ground floor with tile-hanging above. The roof is tiled with half-hipped ends and a central tall channelled brick chimneystack. The building has two storeys with attics in the gable ends.

The south-eastern or entrance front has a deep plinth. The lower part of the wall uses English garden wall bond to the left with Sussex bond above. The right side features Flemish bond diaper brickwork with grey headers dating from circa 1800. Four irregularly spaced casement windows with two or four lights appear on the first floor, and three on the ground floor with cambered heads. The front entrance, opposite the chimneystack, comprises a 20th-century wooden doorcase with moulded flat hood on brackets and plank door.

The south-west side has a very deep sandstone plinth with ground floor mostly of sandstone, the sides in brick, probably inserted when the timber frame was removed and the two long elevations replaced in brickwork. This side retains an early 17th-century two-light mullioned window and a 20th-century casement, with three further 20th-century casements above.

The north-west side retains a sandstone plinth with English bond brickwork above. The upper floor has only two small casement windows on the first floor. The ground floor has three casement windows with cambered heads; the right side window is adapted from a former doorcase, and the left side combined window and door was probably originally a window. A doorcase to the right has a half-glazed door. At the extreme left is a 19th-century brick lean-to extension with slate roof.

The north-east side has no window openings. Part is obscured by a circa 1800 brick cart shed with tiled roof hipped to the north-west, built against it.

Internally, the entrance lobby has a wall of mixed English bond brickwork and massive sandstone blocks, one with a deep chamfer certainly reused. The room to the right of the central chimneystack has an open fireplace with chamfered wooden bressumer, probably reduced in length, and a ceiling with two chamfered spine beams. The north-east wall retains wide plank panelling with beaded decoration in the centre of each plank. This appears to have been re-sited from the adjoining room to the south-west, where an empty groove survives adjoining the open fireplace and is probably the panelled partition to the dais of an open hall.

The north-eastern bay ground floor has a ceiling beam with grooves for a partition, probably the buttery and pantry formerly. A 20th-century staircase has been built at this end. The room to the south-west of the central chimneystack has a wide open brick fireplace with wooden bressumer retaining the imprint of a crane for supporting a cooking pot, a gabled salt hole, and a bricked-up opening for a bread oven. Above the fireplace is a wide ceiling beam with a full-length groove which probably originally held the panelled partition now in the adjoining room. The spine beam and ceiling beams are chamfered with lambs tongue stops. A recess has been carved out of one beam, possibly to accommodate a grandfather clock. The ground floor at this end is one room but may have been subdivided before. The end bay has a similar spine beam and floor joists to the other end of the room.

The first floor retains visible jowled posts and two trusses with tie beams and curved tension braces. One room retains a section of wattle and daub infill. The penultimate room to the south-west has square framing to a partition wall, a central spine beam, and was a heated chamber with a small fireplace with stone sides, narrow 17th-century bricks, and a curved wooden bressumer. An original plank door with pintle hinges leads to a cupboard recess by the chimneystack, with a further 19th-century ledged door. The room to the north-east of the chimneystack has a truss with arched tension brace. Both these rooms have wide floorboards concealed beneath carpets.

The roof structure has staggered purlins with collar beams and an inserted ridgepiece. Some rafters appear smoke-blackened and are probably reused; the top of the chimneystack is visible. A lath and plaster partition exists in the attic.

The building originated as a late medieval open hall house and was adapted into a lobby entrance house in the early 17th century. The earliest known archive reference dates from 1729, when the property formed part of an estate settled on the marriage of John Luck of Penshurst in Kent, Gentleman, with Ann Allen of Tonbridge, spinster. The building appears on a map of 1742 which shows John Luck's tanyard and a property named "Tibbald's". "Tibbalds" or "Theobald's" is shown with the facade of the house and barn. The brick refronting of the south-east and north-west fronts took place in the 18th century, probably by the date of this map.

From the 1940s the farm was a chicken farm for a number of years, during which time many windows were replaced with Crittall windows. It was then unoccupied for a number of years. When brought back into residential use, the Crittall windows were replaced by wooden casements of late 19th-century or early 20th-century type, and a doorcase of 18th-century type was inserted.

Theobalds Farm is a late medieval hall house, adapted into a lobby entrance house in the early 17th century and refronted in 18th-century brickwork. It retains a significant proportion of its original fabric, possesses readable medieval and lobby entrance plan forms, and contains many interior features of considerable interest, including the rare survival of a late medieval panelled partition.