Boxley Abbey House

Boxley Abbey House

Boxley Abbey House is a fragment of what was once a large L-plan house, incorporating parts of the west range and possibly the Abbot's house of Boxley Abbey. The abbey itself was founded in 1146 by William of Ypres, Earl of Kent, and dissolved in 1538. The present house contains some 16th-century work but was largely built in the early 18th century. The eastern part is scheduled as an Ancient Monument.

The house is constructed with a stone core, red brick front, and plain tile roof, arranged over three storeys. The north elevation serves as the entrance front. Its base features coursed galletted stone for about one foot, with red brick in Flemish bond above. A platt band runs above the ground-floor and first-floor windows, and a very deep dentilled and moulded wood eaves cornice crowns the elevation. The roof consists of four small ridges parallel to the front. Small projecting stacks from the 19th and 20th centuries sit at either end—one towards the front on the right, one towards the rear on the left—with a shallow brick buttress at the right end. The north elevation presents a regular four-window front of recessed glazing-bar sashes with thick glazing bars. The fourth window on the first floor at the left end is a tall round-headed stair window with windows above and below it now blocked. A 19th-century panelled door stands under a depressed rubbed brick arch in a small 19th-century brick loggia to the left. A print from 1801 shows the door originally occupied the place of the right ground-floor window, with two further windows to its right, and a wing extending at right-angles to the front along the west range of the Abbey.

The left end elevation (east) has its left half built in stone to eaves level, with the remainder in red brick in header bond with irregular courses of stretchers. The right end elevation (west) shows ground floor in galletted stone, possibly from the 16th century, with brick in Flemish bond above. A bell hangs beneath a semi-circular hood on the third gable from the front. The rear elevation (south) has a ground floor in stone, possibly 16th-century, and is crowned by a deep moulded wood eaves cornice. A large 16th-century coursed and galletted stone stack stands on a plinth, its top finished in brick crow-steps with a rectangular, corniced brick plinth above and three diagonally set brick flues. At the right end of the rear elevation sits a 19th-century rear wing of roughly coursed stone with brick dressings and plain tile roof, two storeys high with a brick end stack, central dormer, and two first-floor glazing-bar sashes.

The interior contains very thick internal walls on the ground floor with three possibly original openings, one featuring a two-centred arched head with moulded jambs and broach stop. An early 18th-century staircase rises from ground to second floor. The first floor retains some 18th-century panelling and cornices, with first-floor doors displaying eared architraves and fielded panels; second-floor doors have fielded panels only.

On the ground floor, the structure divides into three sections corresponding to changes in window arrangement. A narrow central area is marked by original stone cross-walls with probably much later timber partitions above them between the tie-beams and roof apex. The south side of the central area, not recessed for a floor and containing a mid-height pointed window, may serve as a stair area. Side walls of the east and west sections are recessed for floors, that in the east section lower than in the west. Three chamfered posts on stone pads, braced to carry the floor—two with cross-beams intact—remain in the centre of the ground floor in the west section. Stone doors in the north end of both cross-walls on ground and first floors feature chamfered jambs and broach stops, with jambs of another visible in the south end of the west wall on the first floor. A plain ground-floor fireplace in the north wall of the east section is served by a stack external on the first floor.

The roof to the east of opposed barn doors was rebuilt, probably in the early 19th century. Five regularly spaced trusses, including one with tie-beam embedded in the east gable, carry straight king posts supporting the ridge-piece. Each has two evenly spaced parallel tiers of straight braces to principal rafters; tie-beams are also braced to principal rafters at a steeper angle. Principal rafters carry four tiers of slightly staggered butt side purlins. The remainder of the roof features rafters of relatively uniform scantling, scissor-braced with collars and ashlar pieces, forming seven cants and ten tie-beams, two of which are clearly replacements and the remainder possibly re-used. Six tie-beams are morticed for cornice, wall (or pendant) posts, and braces; two remain unmorticed over the original stone cross-walls. Progressive rebuilding has occurred: the area between the east cross-wall and the king-post roof may be original, while that between the cross-walls is differently marked and may be slightly later. The area to the west of the west cross-wall was carefully rebuilt in two stages during the 18th century. The whole structure presents a remarkably uniform appearance.