Slade House, Including Attached Boundary Wall, Gatepiers, Gates And Railings

Slade House, Including Attached Boundary Wall, Gatepiers, Gates and Railings

A large detached property originally built as a farmhouse, now a house, constructed in the 1830s. A dated stone of 1845 bearing the initials WS is reported on the building, thought to be that of William Skinner, a member of a family of quarry owners from Brishing.

The house is built of local Kentish ragstone with some courses diminishing toward the top and traces of stone galleting, with tooled stone window dressings, quoins and plinth. The roof is hipped with tiled covering and stone chimneystacks. The building follows an L-shaped plan of two storeys, with a central staircase, three principal rooms on the ground floor and service rooms contained in the north-eastern L-wing.

The principal front facing west is of three bays, featuring 16-pane sash windows in reveals. A projecting central glazed wooden porch with a geometrical patterned multicoloured tiled floor was probably added toward the end of the 19th century. Behind the porch, the doorcase has a rectangular fanlight and the door has two lower panels with the upper half glazed. The south side has two 16-pane sash windows and a French window on the ground floor. The north side has three irregularly-spaced first-floor 12-pane sash windows, while the ground floor contains two 16-pane sash windows, an original door with six flush panels and a further doorcase blocked in Kentish ragstone.

Attached to the north wall is a Kentish ragstone partially curved boundary wall leading westwards to the street, terminating at the north end in a taller square ragstone pier with pyramidal cap. To the south is an attached curved section of cast iron spear railings with elaborate scrolled pier and double gates at the north end, terminating in another square Kentish ragstone gate pier with pyramidal cap at the south end.

The central entrance hall features an elegant curved well staircase with stick balusters, mahogany handrail and scrolled tread ends, with a roll-moulded cornice and a series of six-panelled doors. The three principal ground floor rooms retain original folding window shutters. The north-west room has a deep mid-19th-century cornice and a late 19th-century wooden fireplace with built-in display cupboards either side. The south-west room has an elaborate mid-19th-century cornice with grapevine, egg and dart and bead and reel motifs, and an acanthus leaf ceiling rose. The smaller south-west room retains a narrow roll-moulded cornice. The north-eastern kitchen retains a large cambered fireplace opening, while the adjoining former scullery has a smaller cambered opening with cast iron kitchen range and brick floor. The cellar retains two round-headed alcoves, two wide ledged plank doors and a lockable slatted wooden enclosure with a narrower plank door. The first floor has a wide landing with deep cornice and several six-panelled doors. Bedrooms have cornices with reeded designs, two early 19th-century wooden fireplaces with pilasters survive, and one bedroom has built-in cupboards with panelled doors flanking the fireplace. A rear service staircase with stick balusters serves the upper floor. Some bedrooms on the north-east side have 20th-century subdivisions.

The house appears on the Tithe Award map of 1837. It is shown on the 1885 Ordnance Survey map with its current outline as a farmhouse associated with farm buildings to the immediate north-east, one of which comprised oasthouses. The outline remained unchanged on the 1897 Ordnance Survey map, except that a conservatory was added to the south-east (since demolished), and the property was then named Olive House. The building served as a boarding house for a period in the later 20th century. The house remains substantially intact despite mid and later 19th-century alterations including the porch, some later cornices and built-in cupboards, with the plan form unaltered apart from the subdivision of some minor first-floor rooms.