Swinford Manor

Swinford Manor is a Grade II* listed building located on Godinton Lane in Hothfield. The central part of the manor is a late 15th to early 16th century Wealden hall-house with two bays, originally serving as a Dower House of Godinton. It is timber-framed, with a red brick refacing on the ground floor and tile-hanging above. The first floor of the end window bays used to oversail but has been underbuilt. The eaves overhang on large curved braces and a central bracket. The roof is steeply pitched and hipped, featuring three gabled dormers and casement windows. A 19th-century porch with a shaped Dutch gable includes a cartouche of the Toke family, who were formerly associated with Godinton.

Inside, the manor has a moulded beam at the solar end of the hall and a dragon beam. An extension was added to the south end in 1884, and another to the north end in 1901. The east front, also from the 19th century, is faced with ashlar and features five shaped Dutch gables. The window bay of the north gable projects, while the south gable is deeply recessed, and the central gable projects with a porch on the ground floor, containing seven windows.

The poet Alfred Austin, who served as Poet Laureate from 1896 to 1913, rented Swinford Manor from the Toke family and lived there from 1867 until his death on June 2, 1913. Several of his works, especially the prose piece "The Garden that I Love," published in 1894, make reference to the house.