Symnells and Walled Forecourt

This house, with its associated walled forecourt, likely originated in the 16th century or earlier, with extensions added between the 16th and 17th centuries, and a re-facing of the front around 1800. The structure combines timber framing and brickwork with a rendered front elevation. The roof is tiled, hipped on the left side, and features three 19th-century gabled dormers and chimney stacks located to the left, to the rear centre right, and projecting at the right end.

The front elevation has four tripartite sash windows on the first floor and two on the ground floor, plus a wooden casement window at the end on the left. A double-panelled door is situated in a flat-roofed projecting porch in the centre right. The rear right return and a rear wing display exposed timber framing with brick infill, set upon a high ragstone base. The main block’s right return showcases a truncated 16th-century octagonal stack on stone corbels, incorporating a relieving arch above, and brick moulded mullioned window surrounds which are cut into by a cluster of brickwork from a later 17th-century stack.

The rear of the property has connections in local folklore to Lambert Simnel, an individual who claimed the throne in 1487, and Erasmus, who served as rector of Aldington in 1512.

The forecourt or garden is enclosed by 18th-century buttressed brick walls approximately six feet high, which return and project, sloping down at the ends to openings containing short piers. A lower front wall is constructed of ragstone, standing about three feet high, with a central wicket gate. The forecourt itself measures approximately 50 yards by 25 yards overall.