Cobb'S Hall

Cobb's Hall is a house dating to circa 1525-1530, with alterations made in the early 19th century. It is constructed of timber framing, with close-studded and exposed timber framing alongside plaster and painted brick infill, with red brick to the return elevations and ragstone, red brick, and tile hanging to the rear and right return elevations. The roof is plain tiled with swept-out eaves. The house follows a continuous jettied lobby entry plan with four bays (three full bays and a firebay). It stands on a ragstone plinth, with a jetty featuring a moulded bresummer supported by brackets, underpinned at the left and right ends by projecting brick walls of the return elevations. A hipped roof is topped with a moulded stack to the centre left. The first floor has three wooden casements; leaded lights are to the left and right. The ground floor features two tripartite casements with a small light at the end on the right. The original entry was centrally located on the left, now bricked in with applied timber studding above, while the current entry is through a half-glazed door in the right return.

The rear elevation was built in the early 19th century (dated 1817) with 18-inch thick ragstone walling, and features red brick dressings to small wooden casements on both floors. A two-storey bargeboarded gable block and a single-storey kitchen extension are also present. A late 20th-century glazed conservatory is situated on a ragstone base.

The interior reveals a roof with clasped purlins and wind braces, reeded and stop-chamfered ceiling beams and joists. Ground floor chimney bresummers display fernleaf and flower enriched spandrels, with a painted overmantel (in a scallop pattern, now papered over). The upper floor has a plaster overmantel depicting three scenes of Adam and Eve separated by four columns. A grand upper chamber features a plaster ceiling with shallow bosses and fleur-de-lys. Corridors have been inserted on both floors to allow access to the rear elevation; the small casements (measuring 9 x 12 inches externally) are splayed to 18-inch square internally, elevated 4 feet off the floor (musket height), with a larger ground floor opening. These features were traditionally associated with defences against Napoleon in Romney Marsh, though they are as likely to have belonged to a Preventive Service Watch House, supported by an opening initialled and dated 1817. Legend links the hall to Elizabeth Barton, the "Holy Maid of Kent," born in 1506, whose prophecies—particularly against Henry VIII's first divorce—led to her execution. She was a maidservant to Thomas Cobb, steward of the Archbishop of Canterbury's estates in Aldington. Conflicting accounts place events at Goldwell, suggesting Cobb's Hall may not have been built or completed for Cobb and possibly not as early as previously thought.