The Vines

The Vines is a house in Hildenborough, formerly a farmhouse, consisting of a late 15th-century timber-framed building that has been substantially modified and extended over the centuries.

The northern range comprises a four-bay open hall house with a central two-bay open hall. This medieval structure was refronted in the 19th century, with a small mid-19th-century extension of two bays added to the east side to form an L-wing. A large later 19th-century wing was subsequently added to the south, which is of lesser architectural interest.

The north range is timber-framed but has been refronted in brick at ground floor level and plastered at first floor on the north front. The east front is entirely clad in English bond brickwork, while the west front is entirely plastered. The roof is hipped to the east and west and gabled to the south. The building features an off-centre late 16th-century brick chimneystack to the north range, an 18th-century external brick chimneystack to the west, and two 19th-century brick chimneystacks to the east side.

Windows are predominantly 19th-century casement windows. The north front has a 19th-century gabled dormer and three irregularly spaced tripartite casements. The west side retains a late 16th-century five-light wood mullioned window. The east side displays three 19th-century gabled dormers and a central porch of brick and timber-framing with a tiled roof and side seats, flanked by tall four-light canted bays with French windows and hipped tiled roofs. The south side has two casement windows, including a ground-floor canted bay. The later 19th-century range to the south features a brick ground floor with roughcast upper floors, a tiled roof, and brick chimneystacks, with windows that are mainly mullioned or mullioned and transomed casements.

The interior of the ground floor central room in the timber-framed range contains an inserted open fireplace with a wooden bressumer featuring a wooden cupboard, a spine beam with a two-inch chamfer and lambs-tongue stops, and a late 19th-century built-in dresser. The west ground floor room has a central partition, probably 18th-century, with exposed ceiling beams bearing carpenters' marks. The west end wall shows 18th-century brickwork and a cambered fireplace opening.

Upstairs, the end east room originally comprised two bays of the four-bay structure, though one crownpost has been removed. A fine octagonal crownpost is embedded in the west wall, featuring triple roll moulding to the top and single roll and chamfer to the base with four headbraces. The tie beam has wide arched braces. The roof structure is exposed, with sans purlin rafters and collar beams. The central room contains the remainder of the octagonal crownpost, jowled posts, curved braces, and late 16th-century floorboards forming the inserted ceiling. The eastern end room features jowled posts, curved beams with roll mouldings, and a nine-panelled door.

The interior of the south range contains a well staircase with turned balusters and four-panelled doors, along with several fireplaces: a stone fireplace with a central floral panel and green marble interior, a rococo-style fireplace with angled console brackets, a wooden fireplace with deep carvings and green marble interior, a wooden fireplace with eared architrave and urn, swag and paterae motifs, and a stone fireplace with a green tiled interior.

The late medieval open hall in the north range contains a crownpost similar to an example documented in the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England publication "The House Within" (1994), which was dendrochronologically dated to 1490. On the 1871 Ordnance Survey Map the building is shown as Vine's Farm with a series of buildings to the north and north-west, presumably farm buildings. By the 1878 Ordnance Survey Map the property had been renamed The Vines, the probable farm buildings had been removed, and the building had taken on its present form, indicating that the south range dates from the 1870s. By the 1936–38 Ordnance Survey Map a former outbuilding to the south-west is shown as attached to the house.