The Old Vicarage Vicarage Cottage

THE OLD VICARAGE AND VICARAGE COTTAGE, MARKET PLACE, CHARING

Two houses, formerly probably a house and Court Hall, later a vicarage. This complex structure comprises two formerly separate buildings. To the north stands Vicarage Cottage, an early open hall of Wealden type dating from the very early 15th century. At right angles sits the Old Vicarage, a two-storey three-bay building with a first-floor hall, probably a Court Hall dating from the second quarter of the 16th century. Both buildings were owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury until 1546. Around 1702, the two buildings were linked together and converted into a vicarage.

The building is timber-framed with the ground floor refaced in brick or roughcast, and tile-hung above. The first floor oversails with wide eaves overhanging on brackets. The steeply pitched hipped tiled roof rises to two storeys with attics in Vicarage Cottage. Fenestration is irregular, mainly 19th-century sash windows with vertical glazing bars remaining intact. Vicarage Cottage features a recessed second bay with a triple casement window, curved in the centre. The right-side first-floor window is an unusual triple sliding sash. The gable to the right projects with strapwork design and the date 1885. One hipped dormer sits to the west of this. A plank door provides access. There is one off-centre brick stack of 19th-century brickwork and an external stack to the rear.

Vicarage Cottage was originally a Wealden house with an open hall of two bays. The interior contains a moulded dais beam and a frame with braces of open truss springing from low-set main posts. The upright posts are jowled, with shutter grooves and a three-panel plank door. The braces and tie beam of the open truss have quarter-round mouldings. A crownpost with four-way braces crowns the structure.

The Old Vicarage has two sashes to the first floor of its east or entrance front, one set within a central projecting two-storey porch of 19th-century date with an arched opening with wooden brackets and a 19th-century plank door. The south front comprises two bays with a projecting bay to the right and French window. The west front has a roof in three hips, an external brick stack, and four windows, including a two-storey triple bay on the right-hand side. The north front has a 17th or early 18th-century brick gable hung with curved tiles, which shows a blocked attic window internally.

The Old Vicarage was originally jettied on its long east and west sides. The first floor is spanned by two open crownpost trusses suggesting a single open chamber. A fine arched brace with moulded pilasters survives, along with the top of an original doorhead. The ground floor probably contained a single unheated chamber. This building is unlikely to have been domestic in purpose and is possibly a court hall of around the second quarter of the 16th century.

In 1702, the building became a vicarage. Improvements at this time included a staircase of three turned balusters and scrolled tread ends (of which only the top survives), a wide fireplace with wooden bressumer and a possible bread oven to the side, a wooden fireplace to the Dining Room with Gibbs surround and brackets, brick paving to the Dining Room, and some two-panelled doors. A series of fireplaces with 19th-century cast-iron firegrates remain, along with interesting 19th-century window shutters which fold vertically in three sections. A well is now incorporated into the building, with stone to the top and brick lining below.

The roof retains original 16th-century rafters and tie beams, 18th-century collar beams, and inserted purlins.

The building was restored and refronted in 1885, as evidenced by the strapwork design and date marking on the right gable.

Historical documentation indicates that in 1528, John Brent, who also held Pierce House in Charing, was granted a lease of the Archbishop's Palace, its appurtenances, and certain other buildings which may have included the great hall. The Archbishop reserved all manorial rights, which would have necessitated a Court Hall. The Wealden house may have housed the Archbishop's Steward, whilst the other building may have been constructed as a Court Hall around 1530. The building may also have been used for Church Ales, with a meeting room on the first floor. The manor of Charing passed from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Crown in 1546.