The Trench

THE TRENCH

A large house on the west side of Coldharbour Lane in Hildenborough, probably dating from the 1830s but thoroughly remodelled in the late 19th century. The building is constructed in Flemish and English bond brick with sandstone dressings and some tile-hanging, with a 1980s Sussex clay-tile roof and brick stacks.

The house is arranged on an overall U-shaped plan, south-facing and overlooking the garden, with its entrance in the east elevation facing Coldharbour Lane. The core appears to be an early 19th-century bow-fronted double-depth house, three rooms wide with a central staircase positioned to the rear of the main entrance hall. The south front was likely the original main entrance elevation. In the late 19th century the house was largely rebuilt in Tudor style, retaining the bow front, staircase and overall dimensions while adding a rear north-east service wing. The rear left wing dates from the early 20th century, as part of a programme of internal refurbishment and refenestration, probably completed by 1913.

The building stands at two storeys and attic with a cellar. The exterior is dominated by the Tudor-style late 19th-century alterations. Windows feature chamfered stone architraves, some painted. The asymmetrical four-window east elevation centres on a massive two-storey projecting gabled porch in the 19th-century style, tile-hung with bands of scalloped tiles at first-floor level and jettied out on vine-carved brackets with a moulded fascia beam. The entrance door is a 19th-century front door with lapped planks and strap hinges, set in a Tudor arched chamfered stone doorframe. The porch has a first-floor curved oriel window, probably an early 20th-century addition, with ovolo-moulded mullions and small-pane timber casements. The gable features an attic window, a massive timber pendant and pyramidal finial at the apex, and elaborate moulded pierced bargeboards. A diapered brick stack sits on the left return of the porch. To the right stands another 19th-century diapered stack with set-offs, whose shaft was truncated in the early 20th century with a window punched through at first and ground-floor level. A small single-light window adjoins the porch to its right. To the porch's left is a shallow ground-floor bay with a two-light transomed window and a two-light small-pane casement above.

The south garden elevation retains a probably early 19th-century three-window bow in the centre, flanked by late 19th-century gabled bays, each one window wide. The gables have elaborate pierced ogee bargeboards with pendants and finials, and small-pane casement windows with chamfered stone surrounds and Tudor hoodmoulds at ground-floor level. The bow also features casement windows and steps leading to an early 20th-century French window in the centre, with a gabled attic dormer above it.

The rear north elevation has tile-hung gables, with the north-east wing gable featuring ornamental bargeboards. Early 20th-century windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and small-pane casements predominate, including a transomed stair window with a bellcote on the roof above. Later 20th-century windows are also present.

Internally, the fittings are largely from the late 19th century, with some pieces imported from elsewhere, including a series of good panelled doors with diamond panels and reveals. Plaster cornices survive in most ground-floor rooms, dating from both the 19th and early 20th centuries. The main staircase structure dates to around 1830 but its balustrade has been replaced with a heavy Edwardian example featuring turned balusters and a moulded ramped handrail.

The house is said to have been built for the trainer of Lord Derby's horses. Stabling, converted to housing and in separate ownership, survives to the north-west. An Edwardian billiard room, now converted to separate accommodation, adjoins the house at the north-west but is not included in this listing.