Court Lodge Farmhouse

Farmhouse incorporating the remains of an Archiepiscopal hunting lodge, dating from the 14th century and significantly extended around 1500, with further alterations in the early 19th century. The building is constructed of ragstone, with brick dressings and repairs, and has plain tiled roofs. The entrance front, dating from the early 19th century, reuses medieval stone and potentially foundations. It features brick quoins and corbelled eaves to the roof, with kneelered parapet gables and stacks positioned to the left and right. There are three segmentally headed glazing bar sashes on each floor, and a ribbed panelled door is centrally located on the left.

A long, two-story wing extends to the rear, with irregular wooden casements and boarded doors. The north and south elevations display blocked traceried windows from the 14th century, with one on the south side particularly revealing a pattern of three daggers over two cinquefoiled lights. A hipped extension has a weather boarded outshot at the north-east end.

A second, parallel range is situated adjacent to the south; the west and east ends were rebuilt in the late 20th century using brick, while the remaining elevation is of stone and early 18th-century brickwork, and is currently used as a garage and stabling. It features a boarded door and ventilation slits, and exposes the jambs of a blocked medieval window.

The interior of the main range to the rear includes screens, a passage with surviving stone jambs of cross-passage doors, and traces of three windows on each long side. A large eastern window is present, along with a smoke-blackened barrel roof, suggesting it was originally a great hall, rather than a chapel as previously thought. The southern range is likely of kitchen origin. Inserted 17th-century stacks with inglenooks and beamed ceilings are found in the main range.

Historically, this was a manor house and hunting lodge belonging to the Archbishops of Canterbury, particularly favoured and improved by Archbishops Morton (1486-1500) and Wareham (1508-1532), who also embellished the adjacent parish Church of St. Martin. In 1540, Henry VII purchased and extended the house, park, and chase (approximately 1000 acres). The complex was said to include five kitchens, six stables, and eight dovecotes.