Wye College, Cloister Quadrangle

Wye College, Cloister Quadrangle

A college founded in 1432 by Cardinal Archbishop John Kempe and occupied by 1448. The Cloister Quadrangle comprises the domestic ranges and great hall of the original college complex, with a detached schoolhouse and service buildings (including a surviving brewhouse). The building was altered in 1739.

The South front faces onto Wye High Street and features a flint ground floor with string course and red brick upper storey with hipped roof and chimney stacks to centre left and centre right. The ground floor displays 15th-century Perpendicular cusped lights arranged as one pair, one triple and four single lights. Five glazing bar sashes appear on the first floor. A central panelled door is set within a pedimented porch with barley sugar columns topped by bobbin-like capitals. The left return wall, facing the churchyard, has roughcast on the ground floor with three-light cusped windows to left and right of a central arched doorway leading to the cloister garth. The first floor is of red brick with glazing bar sashes.

Other exterior faces now lie within early 20th-century quadrangles. The face immediately to the east displays a moulded arched doorway through to the cloister and a mullioned square-headed window above. The Hall features two 15th-century four-centred arched mullioned windows and a full-height canted bay with three tiers of mullioned and transomed lights, the latter part of early 20th-century work.

The cloister garth's east wall contains two depressed arched windows serving the Hall with a brick stack projecting between them. The arcade and gallery were originally fully framed but were rebuilt in 1739 in red brick in English bond, with a simple arcaded ground floor, plat band and boxed eaves, and glazing bar sashes on the first floor. Within the inner wall survive fine moulded 15th-century doorways, some retaining 15th-century doors and others with 17th-century or earlier doors. A particularly fine example is the wave-moulded doorway with plank and stud door to the staircase.

Interior

The Hall retains a renewed screen passage at its southern end with 15th-century four-centred arched doorways. A four-centred arched stone fireplace with a fireback dated 1610 is present, possibly contemporary with the wainscotting featuring fluted pilasters and cornice. The dais beam is crenellated. Tall octagonal crown posts rest on moulded tie beams. Fragments of stained glass bearing Kempe's Arms survive in the bay window.

The Parlour, to the north of the Hall and also accessed via the cloister, is now a library. It is entered through a linenfold-panelled door in a fluted surround to an ante room with painted wainscotting. The Parlour itself displays heavily enriched panelling with foliated and scrolled pilasters and grotesque heads on a bifurcated frieze with dragon motifs. The beams are heavily carved and enriched. A stone fireplace carved to match the panelling features a linenfold panel overmantel. The structure dates to the 15th century, while the decoration is late 16th century. The bay window and bookshelves date to circa 1900 and 1980.

The Staircase in the north range is 17th century, featuring an open well with half-landing. The heavily moulded rail rests on turned balusters with moulded string. Great doubled newels serve as pedestals for statuettes—nearly naked figures now kept elsewhere in the old college. The top flight becomes a newel stair. The timber-framed structure is apparent on the upper floor, with crown posts throughout featuring octagonal capitals and bulbous bases. Upper rooms display double arcaded panelled overmantels and bead-moulded wainscotting with strapwork frieze over the Parlour range. A modern chapel has been formed at the west end of the range behind the stair.

The South Cloister Range contains the Senior Common Room, which has an enriched stone fireplace and moulded beams. A simple 18th-century stair with wreathed rail and geometric plan leads to the pedimented south entrance doorway.

The Northbourne Room is decorated in 18th-century style with six raised and fielded panel doors and wainscotting. It contains stained glass dated 1346, 1546 and HW 1635.

Upper rooms (offices and bedrooms) feature simple 18th and 17th-century panelling, including an arcaded overmantel, fluted pilasters and carved plinth in the office. Some panelling is exposed.

Historical Context

Kempe founded the college to house a Master, a Master of Grammar, six clerks and two choristers. The college was dissolved in 1545 and sold into private hands, though the proviso that the Grammar School be maintained was retained. From 1545 the south side of the cloister served as the Master's residence. From 1708 the northern half of the college housed Lady Joanna Thornhill's Charity School. In 1724 the two schools were divided to share the buildings. The college was purchased in 1892 and expanded by Kent and Surrey County Councils as an agricultural college and is now the Agricultural Department of the University of London.