Royton Manor

Royton Manor is a timber-framed house dating from the late 15th century through the 19th century, located on Lenham Heath Road. The building represents multiple phases of construction and alteration, revealing its complex architectural evolution.

The main range dates to the second half of the 15th century and early 16th century. It features ground floor cladding of early 18th-century red brick in Flemish bond with occasional grey headers, and tile-hung first floor. The left wing is early 19th-century chequered red and grey brick with a tile-hung first floor on its right side elevation. Its left side elevation is rendered on the ground floor with some close-studding and tile-hung above. The right wing has brick in Flemish bond to the ground floor and English bond to the first floor, with roughly coursed galleted stone to the ground floor on the right side elevation and tile-hung above. The rear right wing is rendered. All sections are covered with plain tile roofs.

The plan reveals an original late 15th-century open hall of two unequal-length bays with storeyed bays to either end. The left bay was originally jettied to the front, left side, and possibly the rear. A separately framed early or possibly late 16th-century wing two bays deep was added to the rear of the right end bay. The hall was floored in the late 16th century, when a wing of three long bays was added to the left end, projecting slightly forward from the main range. A further wing was added to the right end, probably in the 19th century, also projecting slightly forward. First-floor ceilings of the left wing and hall were probably raised in the 19th century, and a rear lean-to was added in the 19th century.

The facade presents two storeys with a cellar to the left, set on a brick plinth. Plat bands in Flemish bond mark the front of the left cross-wing, and in English bond, the right end of the main range. The cross-wing roofs are hipped with a gablet to the left wing. Multiple brick ridge stacks are positioned towards the rear of the left wing, to the rear centre of the main range, and in the front slope of the roof to the right gable end of the original building, which was formerly projecting and external. The facade shows irregular fenestration of six late 19th-century casements.

A timber-framed porch with a close-studded gable jettied on a moulded bressumer projects from the right end of the hall. The outer door has a four-centred arched head with moulded jambs and spandrels carved inside and out. The heavy door, probably original, features multiple vertical roll and cavetto moulding with a circular iron handle pierced with trefoils. The inner door has a four-centred arched head with carved spandrels and an architrave with deep multiple roll moulding and large finely-carved four-tiered pedestals to the bases. A heavy boarded 19th-century door currently closes this opening.

The interior contains significant medieval features. The left end of the hall retains a moulded, brattished dais beam and the remains of a massive moulded central truss post. Principal posts with rebated jowls appear in the main range and the rear right wing. A door in the rear wall of the hall at the left end has a four-centred arched head, hollow spandrels, and moulded jambs, partly renewed. The stairs in the right end are probably in their original position. The right wing contains a staircase with solid triangular treads that have been re-set. A plain crown-post with two upward and two curved downward braces appears in the rear right wing.

The inserted hall floor features heavily moulded beams and joists. Moulded stone fireplace surrounds appear on both floors of the left cross-wing, and a ribbed plaster ceiling adorns the ground floor front room. The rear right wing contains late 16th or early 17th-century ovolo-moulded mullion windows, one with a moulded internal cill. A narrow corridor runs along the right side of the wing, with walls and window jambs painted with strapwork design in ochres. A Flemish Renaissance overmantle adorns the fireplace in the rear wall of the hall, and a linen-fold panelled door to the cross-passage back door, possibly introduced in the 19th century, survives. Nineteenth-century square panelling appears in the hall. Exposed timbers are visible throughout the building.