Denton Court And Entrance Court

TR 24 NW DENTON AND WOOTTON CANTERBURY ROAD (east side) 1/36 Denton Court and 27.8.52 entrance court GV II* House. 1792-1810 for Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, extended late Cl9 for Willats family. Red brick and plain tiled roof. Two irregularly planned parallel ranges. Entrance front: 2 storeys and attic on plinth the left 2 bays projecting, with 2 string courses, the lower raised over the heads of ground floor fenestration. Dogtooth cornice to roof with shaped gable to right, stacks ranged left to right and 4 gabled dormers. Pyramidal roofs to projecting bays on right return, to end left and to partly detached tower block at end left. Projecting single storey and attic wing to left with turret, end stack and gabled half-dormer. Two sashes on each floor to left, 3 to right, and double panelled door to centre left in large half-timbered porch, with 3 bay arcaded pentice across ground floor to right. Panelled door and sash in projecting wing to left. Front courtyard enclosed by low brick wall with ball finial entrances to left and to main carriage drive. Garden facade: late C18 front, 2 storeys on rendered plinth with 3 complex shaped gables with finials, and with shaped end gables, and moulded stacks ranged to left and to right. False oval windows in gables, with regular fenestration of 7 glazing bar sashes on first floor and 6 on ground floor with central double half-glazed doors. Canted balustraded pavillions to left and to right. Interior: C18 wing with modillion eaves cornice and ceiling roses, and fine deep frieze in major rooms. C19 additions centred on large 2 storey hall, panelled in Jacobethan manner, with large staircase with moulded rail and turned baluster, continued as gallery, around 3 sides of hall. The garden wing was either rebuilt or remodelled from a C16 house of the Boys family, by Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, poet, bibliographer, printer, M.P. for Maidstone, putative claiment to Duchy of Chandos, and famed Kentish eccentric (See P. Bretton, Bygone Kent, June 1982 p.326).

Listing NGR: TR2170046730