Poplar Court

Poplar Court is a timber-framed farmhouse of yeoman status at Hadlow, Three Elm Lane, Golden Green. The building is basically an L-plan structure with a main block set back facing the road to the south and a kitchen crosswing projecting backwards and slightly forward to the right.

The crosswing is the earliest part, dating to the early or mid-16th century, with timber-framed walls containing large curving braces that are certainly original towards the front. Its wall plate level is lower than that of the main block. The crosswing has been much altered, but evidence suggests the front bay was originally storeyed with the first floor room still jettying out at the end, and it probably contained an open hall with another storeyed end to the rear. The roof was rebuilt in the late 16th or early 17th century when the old house was rearranged and the new main block was built.

The main block dates from the late 16th or early 17th century. It is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace, with a 3-room plan comprising a parlour at the west end with a projecting gable-end stack (a 19th-century rebuild), a former hall or dining room sharing an axial stack with the entrance lobby containing the main stair at the right end. The kitchen crosswing contained the original kitchen, which has since been moved to the room behind, with an axial stack between the two rooms. There is also a small service room behind.

The house was refurbished and enlarged in the late 16th or early 17th century, with some modernisation in the early 18th century, the mid-19th century, and circa 1970. Much of the ground floor has been underbuilt with 19th-century brick. The walls are clad with 19th-century red tile including bands of scallop tiles, with brick stacks and chimneyshafts and a peg-tile roof.

The exterior has an irregular 3:1-window front. The ground floor windows are all 19th and 20th century, with the two to the right including doors containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The hall or dining room has French windows with glazing bars and the parlour has a canted bay window containing a 12-pane sash. The upper windows contain rectangular panes of leaded glass, mostly with diamond panes of ancient glass, and some of the window frames may be as early as the early 18th century. The main roof is gable-ended to the left and the crosswing, which jetties forward at first floor level, has a half-hipped roof. On the right side of the crosswing some of the original ground floor framing shows towards the front. To the rear of the main block are 3 first-floor windows, all late 16th or early 17th century with ovolo-moulded mullions.

Interior

The oldest fabric survives in the crosswing. The framed outer walls have large curving braces and are certainly original towards the front. The jettied front end is original and its joists are set into a timber which now serves as a crossbeam, although redundant mortises along its soffit show that it was originally a rail in a crosswall.

The rest of the main structure is late 16th or early 17th century. Some of the framing is exposed internally in the rear wall where each bay has a single curving tension brace. Beams where exposed are chamfered with step stops. Both the kitchen and hall or dining room have large brick fireplaces, the former with a chamfered oak lintel and the latter with a Tudor arch head (there is a smaller version in the chamber above).

Both the hall or dining room and parlour were superficially modernised in the mid-19th century. However, in the parlour, the lath and plaster has been removed from the internal partition revealing the late 16th or early 17th-century frame, which is painted with a contemporary decorative scheme: painted panelling enriched with floral motifs in black, white and turquoise on an ochre ground below a strapwork frieze containing texts in black, white and red. The paintwork is remarkably complete and fresh. According to the owner, similar ancient painting remains hidden in the hall but is less stable and would be expensive to expose. In the parlour there are small holes in the painted lime plaster which show the surface skin is laid onto a mud plaster base which was combed to key the finishing skim. On the first floor, particularly in the parlour chamber, the combed patterns on the base plaster are exposed and are quite decorative. One late 16th or early 17th-century panelled door survives on the first floor.

The early 18th-century modernisation is represented by a couple of bolection-moulded chimneypieces, and the mid-19th-century modernisation by superficial finishes to the front rooms and the open string stick baluster stair with shaped stair brackets.

The roof structure is entirely late 16th or early 17th century. In the main block the wall posts have jowled heads. The roof comprises a 4-bay structure of collared tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins, diminished principals, queen posts and small curving windbraces. The contemporary crosswing roof is 3 bays with similar trusses missing only the queen posts.

Historical records discovered by the owner reveal a reasonably complete list of owners since circa 1556 when it was occupied by Richard Rabblys. It was sold in 1577, 1625 and circa 1635.

Poplar Court is an attractive and well-preserved farmhouse of yeoman status, especially notable for its late 16th and early 17th-century work. The wall painting is a significant survival.