Lympne Castle

Lympne Castle

A fortified house, now a residence, with origins probably in the 13th century, substantially developed in the mid-14th and 15th centuries. The building underwent major restoration and additions in 1907 and 1911–12 by the architect Robert Lorimer. It is constructed of ragstone with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs.

The medieval structure comprises four principal sections. A square east tower, probably 13th-century, has a 14th-century stair turret and service rooms to its south. To the west stands a 14th-century hall, which incorporates a solar block within its western end and a 14th or 15th-century north-east porch. The rectangular 14th-century west tower formerly extended further south and has a semi-circular 15th-century addition with a stair turret on its west side. Lorimer added a further block to the north-west, linked to the rectangular west tower by a short, narrow two-storey range and by a garden wall leading to a gateway and service range to the north.

The north elevation of the medieval range displays the east tower rising three storeys, the porch two storeys, and the hall as a tall single-storey structure with lower eaves than the porch but incorporating a two-storey solar section to the west. The west tower rises four storeys. A chamfered stone plinth runs along the east tower, porch, and formerly along the hall range. The west turret has a battered base. All four sections are battlemented above chamfered strings, with various stone stacks concealed within the battlements of the towers and a tall stone ridge stack towards the right end of the hall range.

Fenestration is irregular, predominantly in 15th-century style, with windows largely inserted or restored by Lorimer. The east tower displays two cross windows with trefoil-headed top lights on each of its two lower floors. The porch has one window of two trefoil-headed lights with a squared hood-mould on each face of the first floor, and a narrow rectangular chamfered light to the ground floor of the west side. Two tall pointed-arched mullioned and transomed windows with cusped lights and tracery of vertical bars forming quatrefoils light the hall. One cusped square-headed two-light window appears on each floor of the solar section. The west tower shows no visible north windows. A moulded pointed-arched doorway opens from the porch, ornamented with a squared hood-mould, hollow spandrels, and quatrefoils.

The south elevation of the medieval range is irregular. The east tower displays truncated walls forming buttresses, with a fragment of stone south-west door jamb visible. A buttress beneath the hall stack is formed from a fragment of the east wall of a former south extension of the solar section and incorporates a chamfered, pointed-arched stone doorway. Three stone corbels sit under the string-course of the solar section, with a stump of a doubly plain-chamfered stone rib below them. Various two and three-light stone mullioned windows punctuate this elevation, including the two hall windows seen on the north side. A pointed-arched plain-chamfered doorway with broach stops opens at the east end of the hall. A retaining wall runs parallel to and approximately two metres south from the south elevation, joined by a buttress to the east end of the east tower. Lorimer rebuilt the eastern section of this wall; the western section formerly served as the west wall of the south extension of the west tower and incorporates two blocked pointed-arched garderobe arches on its west side. The wall continues westward as a curved, branching Lorimer addition forming a terraced garden.

The 20th-century north-west range has an east elevation of one-and-a-half and two storeys with an irregular façade. Two gables and dormers face the courtyard, with swept eaves. Slender stone stacks rise from the roof. Various one, two, and three-light stone mullioned windows provide light. A panelled door sits within a rectangular moulded stone architrave. The north-east corner of this range connects to the south-east corner of the former service range by a buttressed stone garden wall.

The former service range, also by Lorimer, is built of ragstone with a plain tile roof. Its north (street) elevation rises to a single storey with attics, featuring a canted east stair turret and a stone gable towards the centre. Four stone ridge stacks and one stack forming the straight west side to the central gable crown the roof. Eight hipped dormers light the attics. Fenestration is irregular throughout, comprising stone mullioned windows, some with idiosyncratically carved architraves and mullions. Four boarded doors (some later) and two blocked doors punctuate the elevation. A garage and stable block adjoins to the west, set back from the main range, with a boundary wall curving around the former stable yard. Entrance gates adjoin to the east, flanked by tall canted stone walls and a moulded pointed-arched gateway with solid wooden doors.

The south elevation of the service range features a stone-arched loggia to the south end of the garage block. A small stone turret with a conical roof sits in the re-entrance angle between the garage and main range. The rear central gable incorporates a dovecote and displays stone beasts at the verge ends. A buttressed garden wall runs north-south between the east end of the gateway and the north-east corner of the east tower of the medieval range.

Interior

The medieval range contains several moulded or plain-chamfered pointed-arched doorways of 14th and 15th-century date. Ground floor openings include two at the east end and two at the west end of the hall, one to the north-west end of the solar section, and one between the west tower and the rounded west addition. First-floor doorways open to the south and east walls of the porch (the former to a gallery now removed), to the south wall of the square east tower (two), to the west wall of the solar section, between two chambers of the west tower, and to the south-west stair turret. Stone newel stairs occupy positions south-west of the square east tower and south-east of the rounded west addition; the latter staircase begins from the first floor.

A broad 14th or 15th-century extended four-centred arched moulded stone fireplace adorns the east wall of the ground floor of the east tower. A smaller, similarly arched 15th-century moulded stone fireplace appears on the west wall of the first-floor room of the east tower. The west end of the hall features cavetto-moulded stone jambs from a 16th-century fireplace, with a moulded wooden bressumer probably designed by Lorimer. A squint connects the hall to the first floor of the porch.

The four-bay hall roof comprises five trusses (at least partly restored), featuring moulded octagonal crown-posts mounted on moulded tie-beams, with scissor-braces lapped over collars to form sous-laces. Ashlar-pieces and a moulded wooden cornice complete the arrangement. A similar roof structure, largely restored, covers the first floor of the solar section. Numerous moulded stone doorways and fireplaces by Lorimer appear throughout. Linenfold panelling, probably of early 20th-century date, lines the hall. Most ceilings are by Lorimer. A few early 20th-century hinged decorative iron brackets for curtains remain. An early 20th-century vaulted ceiling covers the first-floor room of the east tower.

The early 20th-century north-west range (only partly inspected) contains panelling and a plaster ceiling to the south-west ground-floor room. A staircase of 1907 features turned balusters and finials carved as wooden beasts. A variety of moulded stone fireplaces and boarded doors are distributed throughout. The interior of the former service range was not inspected.

Historical context

Lympne was granted to the Archdeacons of Canterbury from the 11th century. The castle commands extensive views extending from Dover to Hastings.