Chainhurst Farmhouse

The farmhouse, now a house, dates to the late 16th century, with significant alterations and additions around 1684, the 19th century, and the 20th century. It is timber-framed, with the ground floor constructed of red and grey brick, formerly painted, and the first floor rendered. The rear elevation’s first floor is close-studded with rendered infilling. A rear stair turret is built of red and grey brick in English bond to the ground floor, with exposed framing and straight bracing on the first floor. The roof is tiled, steeply pitched, gabled to the left and hipped to the right with a gablet. A projecting brick stack, featuring a moulded brick plinth on a galleted ragstone base and Ionic modillions, is located on the left gable end. A multiple red and grey brick stack is situated towards the right end, in the fifth timber-framed bay from the left. The fenestration is irregular, comprising five casements: two four-light windows to the left, a two-light window above the door, and two four-light windows flanking the stack. Four canted bay windows with brick bases are present on the ground floor. The rear elevation incorporates a four-light diamond mullion window and a two-light ovolo-moulded mullion window. The front door consists of six fielded panels within a moulded architrave, adorned with a frieze of Ionic modillions, and is positioned in the third timber-framed bay from the left. A late 17th-century single-bay addition with a brick ground floor, timber-framed first floor, and hipped roof extends from the left gable end, situated behind the stack. A similar style late 17th-century stair turret is located to the rear of the second timber-framed bay from the left. A brick and rendered lean-to extends from the right gable end, while a two-storey 19th-century rear wing sits to the right, with a red and grey brick ground floor and a tile-hung first floor.

The interior features exposed framing. The right stack includes a plain brick ground-floor fireplace to the right and chamfered stone fireplaces with vase chamfer stops and wooden bressumers on each floor to the left. Smaller late 17th-century brick fireplaces are situated to the left of the stack; the ground floor fireplace is elliptical, and the first-floor fireplace features a bolection-moulded surround, a moulded mantlepiece, and an iron grate. An 18th-century first-floor fireplace is found to the right. A late 17th-century panelled ground-floor room, located to the left of the stack, possesses pilasters on the left wall, a doubly-corbelled panelled frieze and an overmantle featuring two octagonal panels between short pilasters. A staircase with a corkscrew baluster, moulded handrail, and a panel dated 1684 with initials is housed within the rear stair turret. The building includes a moulded axial beam to the left end of a first-floor room, as well as gunstock-jowled posts. The roof is an altered clasped-purlin design with diminishing principal rafters and windbraces, while the rear stair turret has a clasped-purlin common-rafter roof.