Otham Manor

Otham Manor is a house, originally a pair of cottages, dating to the late 14th century with alterations and additions in the 16th century. It was restored around 1912 by Sir Louis Mallet. The building is timber framed with plaster infilling and has a plain tile roof.

The house was originally built as a Wealden hall house, positioned at right angles to the road, comprising two open hall bays of roughly equal length and a storeyed end bay to the south. The north end bay may have been entirely rebuilt or had its first floor and roof replaced slightly later. A timber-framed rear wing, dating to the late 16th century, extends west from the west end of the north bay, partially overlapping it, with a later addition of circa 1912 to the north side of the wing. The building stands on a stone plinth and has broadly-spaced close-studding to the left (south) end bay, featuring two tension braces to the front, gable end and rear. The hall has more widely-spaced studding. The ground floor and a central panel on the first floor of the right end bay are close-studded, with a pair of small ogee braces under the eaves at each end of the bay. The left and right end bays are jettied to the front, with the jetties returning on moulded dragon posts. The left end bay is further jettied and partly underbuilt to the rear. There is an arch-braced flying wall-plate to the front and rear of the hall, with the front left-hand brace springing from a small moulded wooden corbel and a bracket under the central tie-beam.

The roof of the main range is hipped to the left and has a gablet. The roof of the right end bay is incorporated into the 16th-century wing and is hipped to the front with a gablet, having higher eaves than the main range. The wing is gabled to the rear. A projecting stone stack with a brick flue is visible on the left gable end. A flush louvre is in the roof to the left end of the hall. Numerous brick ridge stacks are towards the rear of the 16th-century wing. The fenestration is irregular, with a four-light leaded casement to the left end bay, a three-light leaded casement to the right end bay, and a diamond mullion window with eight lights above and eight below the midrail to the left hall bay, mirroring a similar window to the rear of the hall. A boarded door with durns is at the right end of the hall, with a matching doorway to the rear.

The interior has not been inspected. This is an important early example of its building type and is therefore given Group Value I.