Durhams Farmhouse

Durhams Farmhouse is a two-storey framed farmhouse on the west side of Eggpie Lane, Hildenborough. Probably dating from the late 16th century in origin, it underwent significant alteration in the early to mid-17th century when a smoke bay was replaced by a chimney stack, with later additions at either end dating to around the late 1970s.

The original construction used timber framing, largely underbuilt in Flemish bond brick with blue headers on the ground floor, with tile-hanging to the first floor and a peg-tile roof with brick stack. The house originally followed a single-depth plan three rooms wide, with the hall at the centre heated by a smoke bay, two service rooms to the lower end (north), and an unheated room at the higher end. The position of the original stair is unclear but may have risen to the rear west of the smoke bay. The stack, which has back-to-back fireplaces serving the two higher-end rooms, was probably inserted in the early 17th century. Later alterations removed the partition between the two lower-end service rooms and added one-room-plan additions at both ends of the main range, along with a rear south-west outshut.

The house faces east with an asymmetrical 1:4 window front. The left-hand window belongs to the 20th-century left-end addition, which is set back from the main range. The windows are 2-, 3- and 4-light casement windows with glazing bars; the frames with chamfered mullions on the inner face may be late 17th or early 18th century. The rear west elevation has a 20th-century small-pane timber French window inserted into the hall, and another serves the late 20th-century addition. Other windows are 19th and 20th-century casements with two panes per light. Three attic dormers with hipped roofs sit above the main range, with additional attic dormers to the 20th-century outshut. Two wall posts of the original frame survive down to sill level. The roof is half-hipped at the left end and hipped at the right end. The axial stack has staggered triple shafts with corbelled cornices.

The interior retains good survival of original carpentry. The two left-hand southern rooms feature chamfered jewel-stopped ceiling beams and exposed joists. The fireplaces are brick with original 17th-century oak lintels; the hall fireplace lintel has a short jewel-stopped projection of unknown function. Redundant mortises in the cross walls between the hall and inner room indicate the stack is secondary, and a recess adjacent to the hall fireplace on the west side may indicate the position of the original stair. The service rooms at the lower end have plainer carpentry and now contain a 20th-century stair, said by the owner to occupy the site of an earlier stair. The first-floor rooms retain their ceiling carpentry, though that of the chamber over the inner room appears slightly later in character. The chamber over the hall has an early 17th-century brick fireplace, and one of the wall posts has a chamfered stopped jowl.

The roof over the right-hand north end is concealed. Over the left end it is butt purlin construction with evidence of a former smoke bay, shown by sooted rafters. Mortises in a tie beam just south of the stack indicate the south end framing of the smoke bay, with the insertion of the stack involving removal of a halved collar to a pair of rafters, possibly marking the northern end of the smoke bay. The roof over the hall may differ in construction from that over the inner room.

This is an evolved traditional house whose internal carpentry is well-preserved.