Pimphurst Farmhouse

Pimphurst Farmhouse is a timber-framed farmhouse of early 16th-century origin, substantially remodelled in the late 16th or early 17th century, again in the late 17th or early 18th century, and extended in the early 19th century. Later alterations were made in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The north-east front range is weatherboarded timber frame on a ragstone rubble plinth, with a hipped plain tile roof and an external red brick stack. The original south-west rear range has walls rebuilt in late 17th or early 18th-century random almost Flemish bond red brick on a ragstone rubble plinth; the brickwork at the north-west end is 19th century Flemish bond. This range has a steeply pitched hipped roof with small tile-hung gablets and a circa 18th-century red brick axial stack with a moulded brick cornice.

The house plan developed in several phases. The existing rear north-west range comprises 1 storey and attic with a 3-room plan, the central hall heated from an axial stack at its lower right (north-west) end. The inner left room is open to the roof and unheated, as is the lower right-end room. The staircase rises from the hall on the north-east side of the hall stack. A small single-storey outshut porch is at the right (north-west) end. The front is a parallel 2-room plan addition, now one large room, heated from a stack at the right end.

The rear range represents the original medieval house, originally open to the roof from end to end with a 2 or 3-room plan, its lower service end to the right (north-west). The small inner room at the higher left end may not have been fully separated originally, allowing smoke from the open hearth to drift into the roof space at this end. In the second phase, possibly late 16th or early 17th century, the lower right-hand end was floored, and a timber-framed stack was inserted either in the lower end of the hall or in the through passage. The third main phase, circa late 17th or early 18th century, involved flooring the hall while leaving the inner room open to the roof, replacing the timber-framed stack with a brick stack, and rebuilding the external walls in brick, possibly leaving the lower north-west end walls timber-framed. The lower end walls were likely rebuilt in circa early 19th century when a 2-storey 2-room plan range was added to the front; the larger right-hand room has an end stack, while the left-hand room is unheated. A cross-passage between these front rooms led to the putative passage doorway of the original house. The partitions between the two front rooms have since been removed to form one large room. Late in the 19th century a small outshut and porch were built on the lower north-west end wall of the original range.

The early 19th-century north-east front range is 2 storeys with an almost symmetrical 2-window front. It features 19th-century 2-light horizontally sliding sashes with glazing bars; a later 19th-century 3-light casement with glazing bars is on the ground floor to the left. The doorway to the left of centre has an early 19th-century flush-panel door with a simple canopy on brackets. The original back range is set back at the left end and has a 19th-century 2-light casement with glazing bars on the ground floor. The original south-west rear range is 1 storey and attic with an asymmetrical 3-window elevation featuring 19th-century 2 and 3-light casements with glazing bars in openings with segmental brick arches. Two 19th-century weatherboarded gabled dormers sit just above the eaves; the right-hand dormer has a 2-light casement, and the smaller left-hand dormer has a 1-light casement, both with glazing bars. The north-west end has a catslide roof over a single-storey outshut with a small dormer above, a plank door on the right-hand side of the outshut, and a 20th-century metal-frame casement to the right. To the left of the north-west elevation stands the external brick stack of the front range. The south-east elevation is blind.

Interior features include a collar-rafter roof of fairly large scantling with halved and lap-jointed collars, largely complete but smoke-blackened. Over the inner room only one smoke-blackened couple and a few other blackened rafters survive. The rafter couples and collars over the lower end appear clean except for one possibly reset blackened collar. The back of the timber-frame stack with blackened wattle and daub lies behind the brick stack. The partition at the high end of the hall has recently been rebuilt except for the top section in the roof, which shows signs of blackening on the hall side. The hall chamber retains remains of a tie-beam, truncated by the inserted hall stack, with a mortice for a brace. The partition behind the stack has a tie-beam with an arch brace and vertical studding above for the timber-framed stack. Wall-plates are exposed, with the front plate showing an exposed scarf joint. On the ground floor, the hall has a roughly chamfered axial beam with run-out stops and narrowly chamfered joists. The brick hall fireplace has a slightly cambered and chamfered timber lintel with run-out stops and a cupboard inside to the left with a fielded panel door. The timber-framed partition at the high end of the hall has been rebuilt. The lower end room (kitchen) has later chamfered joists and no main beam. The inner room has no first floor but is ceiled from the roof space. Most 19th-century joinery survives, including simple plank doors, and on the first floor an 18th-century fielded 2-panel door to a cupboard behind the stack. A simple wooden winder staircase beside the stack has a railed balustrade. The hall chamber has wide elm floorboards, while the floors over the kitchen (lower end) and front rooms are pine. One chamber in the 19th-century front range has a small simple wooden chimney-piece with a bracketed shelf and cast-iron grate; the chimney-piece in the room below has been removed.

Few small medieval houses have been found in Kent, and those wholly open to the roof such as Pimphurst Farmhouse are rare.