Synyards, and path between front door and road

Synyards and Path Between Front Door and Road

A house of the late 15th century with 16th-century features and alterations dated circa 1663, restored in 1905 by P.M. Johnston. The building is timber-framed with plaster infilling and a plain tile roof, standing on a stone plinth with cellar.

The house is of Wealden type with an open hall comprising two roughly equal-length timber-framed bays and storeyed end bays, the left one longer than the right. Both end bays were formerly subdivided into two rooms on the ground floor. The building rises to two storeys with an attic. The right and left end bays are jettied, with the left jetty returning on a moulded dragon post. The framing is close-studded, with a higher midrail to the right hall bay. The left hall bay has a broad low window cill. Short arch braces spring from each side of an unusual central post under the wall-plate and from each end of the flying wall-plate. The central post is jowled towards the house, clasps the plate, and rests on a short bracketed spur protruding from the central truss post just above the midrail.

The roof is steeply pitched and hipped with a gablet to the right. A multiple brick stack sits in the front slope of the roof at the left end of the hall, with a later filleted brick stack in the front slope of the left end of the right end bay. A gabled dormer rests on the flying wall-plate over the right hall bay, with sides rising to a moulded tie-beam and fillet. The bargeboards are moulded.

The fenestration is varied and includes a three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window with an inverted heart and the date 1663 painted on plaster. A five-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window with a carved fillet sits between the tie-beam and flying wall-plate. The end bays have irregular fenestration comprising one two-light latticed casement to the centre of each, while the left hall bay has a six-light window with narrow round-headed lights, three with ogee-moulded mullions to each side of a central stud and with a deep plain wooden head. A similar but smaller six-light window serves the ground floor of the left end bay. A four-light ogee-moulded mullion window stands to the right of the left hall bay, and a four-light diamond mullion window to the ground floor of the right end bay is blocked. Further diamond and ovolo-moulded mullioned windows light the gable ends and rear. A 16th-century rectangular bay window on a chamfered stone base projects from the front of the left gable end, fitted with a six-light ogee-moulded mullioned and transomed window with side-lights. A 16th-century canted eight-light ovolo-moulded mullioned and transomed bay window on a stone base stands to the right gable end; this was brought from a Maidstone house in the early 20th century. A broad boarded door in a moulded four-centred arched architrave with hollow spandrels and with brattished and moulded fillet over sits at the right end of the hall.

A short 19th-century rear return wing to the right has a ground floor of red brick in Flemish bond and a first floor weatherboarded, with a hipped plain tile roof.

Interior

The framing is exposed throughout. A moulded four-centred arched doorway with hollow spandrels opens to the rear of the cross-passage. A pair of similar service doorways with ground-cill retained under them stands at the right end of the hall within a close-studded partition under a moulded end-of-hall beam. The left end of the hall beam is moulded and brattished, with a plank-and-muntin partition beneath. The hall window has a long moulded cill. Evidence for stairs survives to the rear of each end bay, though later cellar stairs now occupy the position in the left end room. The left end room features chamfered midrails and a chamfered window cill on both floors. The central truss has moulded principal posts, but the tie-beam has been moved into the left hall bay to avoid the 1663 dormer window. The tie-beam is cambered and hollow-chamfered, morticed for braces towards the centre. A crown-post with a restored moulded capital was transferred to an inserted axial tie-beam. An inserted floor to the hall has chamfered beams.

The hall fireplace has chamfered stone jambs, low vase stops, and a cambered chamfered bressumer. The chimney breast is of brick with a tapering inset straight-joints. The ground floor of the left end room has a moulded four-centred arched stone fireplace decorated with a rose, leaf, and knot to the spandrels. The first floor of the left end room has a differently-moulded four-centred arched stone fireplace with hollow spandrels, with wall-painting to the chimney breast depicting a lion and dragon facing each other over a vase of fruit and foliage. Further concealed wall-paintings to the north and west walls of the same room are said to depict a merman and mermaid. The ground floor retains 16th-century panelling in various parts.

The path between the front door and road is of ragstone, approximately 5 feet wide and 70 feet long.