Benover House

Benover House is a farmhouse, now converted to residential use, located on the south-west side of Yalding Benover Road. The building dates from the early-to-mid 16th century, with significant later additions and alterations from the late 16th, 17th, and late 18th or early 19th centuries. It underwent restoration in 1986.

The structure is timber-framed with rendered infilling, featuring gable ends of red and grey brick in Flemish bond at ground floor level, with weatherboarding above. The roof is covered in plain tiles. The building comprises four timber-framed bays: a single-bay open hall with a storeyed end bay to the left, a storeyed bay to the right incorporating an undershot cross-passage, and a further storeyed bay to the right which was partly rebuilt at a later date. The open hall was probably floored in the later 16th century and jetties forward with a gable above. The building stands 2 storeys and a garret high on a rendered plinth.

The timber framing displays variable spacing. The left end bay, two right bays, and the ground floor of the left-central bay (open hall) have broadly-spaced studding, with inserted studs creating an impression of close-studding. The first floor and gable of the left-central bay are fully close-studded. The first floor jetties forward on solid-spandrel brackets, with a roll-moulded bressumer that sits higher than the midrails of the left end and right-central bays. The right end bay has a lower midrail. Both left and right ends feature underbuilt gable end jetties. Arch braces occur in pairs to both the left end and right-central bays, with a single straighter brace to the right end. The roof is hipped to the left with a gablet and half-hipped to the right.

A large projecting stack of red and grey brick in English bond, with offsets and two corniced flues on a ragstone base, projects from the left gable end. A second large stack, constructed of galleted ragstone with stone slab shoulders and a red and grey brick flue, projects from the rear of the left-central bay. The left-central bay has a half-hipped gable with moulded bargeboards; mortices in the timber suggest this bay was originally fully gabled and jetted like the first floor.

Windows are irregularly distributed: one three-light casement to each end bay, one four-light to the left-central bay, and one two-light to the right-central bay, all with five panes. A ribbed door is located to the left end of the right-central bay. A rear lean-to extends across the two right bays. A single-storey weatherboarded addition with an end stack and half-hipped plain tile roof, dating from the 1970s, was added to the rear of the right gable end.

Interior features exposed timber framing throughout. The open hall contains a roll-moulded beam to its left end and a chamfered beam to its right end, each with a chamfered plank-and-muntin partition beneath. Possible evidence for a moulded spear exists towards the front end of the left partition. A broad plank door is located towards the centre of the right partition. A roll-moulded midrail runs along the right end of the rear hall wall. The right-central bay is subdivided. A deep pegged doorhead is located to the front of the central stud in the right wall of the cross-passage, with mortices for another adjacent doorhead towards the rear.

The left and right end ground-floor rooms are fitted with chamfered axial joists, those to the right end being plainer. Gunstock-jowled principal posts support the structure, with plain crown posts at each end of the hall and between the two right bays. Morticed collars are present throughout. The right end bay is separately framed from the main range, with lower first and attic floors, though the roof structure (excluding wallplates) is continuous except for the rebuilt half-hip.

The inserted hall floor features a moulded axial beam and hollow-chamfered joists. The first floor of the left end room contains a 16th or early 17th-century stone fireplace with a stone kerb and moulded jambs and bressumer. A large stone fireplace with moulded stone jambs and renewed bressumer stands at the rear of the hall on the ground floor. A smaller, more simply moulded stone fireplace with a four-centred arched stone head with hollow spandrels and an elliptical brick back is located on the first floor above. The attic floor is fitted with chamfered axial beams. A shutter groove is present on the right gable end at first-floor level. A three-light hollow-chamfered mullion window is located to the right of the ground-floor hall fireplace.