Northbourne Court And Walls Attached

The property is a house, dating from the early and late 18th century, incorporating a 17th-century core, with alterations and extensions around 1930. It is constructed of red brick with a plain tiled roof, with flint and rubble visible in the rear elevation. The house has two storeys and an attic, resting on a plinth and featuring a plat band, cornice, and parapet to a hipped roof with stacks to the left, right, and at the end of the right side. There are four flat-roofed dormers. The front elevation contains six segmentally headed wooden casements on the first floor, and two casements and three French doors on the ground floor, with a six-panelled door to the right; the top two panels are glazed and traceried, topped with a traceried semi-circular fanlight within a panelled and pilastered surround. A two-storey canted bay window is present on the left return. The rear elevation presents a plinth, plat band, modillion eaves cornice, and kneelered gabled projecting wings to the left and right, with a central two-storey gabled stair turret featuring lozenge traceried windows. The projecting wing on the left particularly incorporates older flint and rubble walling.

Inside, the house features ovolo moulded panelling and raised and fielded panelling in the main rooms, along with marble and painted neo-classical fire surrounds. There is a 20th-century staircase with turned balusters, a wreathed and ramped handrail, and a newel backstair. An elliptical pilaster screen is located in the upper stair hall. Exposed timber joists and early 18th-century doors can be seen, and the interior reflects the various stages of building from the 17th century to the 1930s. Very extensive cellars are also present.

Attached to the left of the house are modern walls, approximately 8 feet high, stepped down at a pier, and terminated after about 20 metres by a boarded gate and gate pier with a terracotta vase finial. A separate 18th-century red brick wall, also about 8 feet high, incorporates two gate piers with fine stone vase finials and runs for approximately 15 metres, terminating at the Great Barn.

The house occupies a site previously belonging to a large mansion built around 1616 for Sir Edwin Sandys, which was demolished in 1750; this mansion itself was built on the site of a grange of St. Augustine's Canterbury. Alternatively, the house may represent a post-1750 adaptation of outbuildings associated with the demolished mansion.