Leybourne Castle

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 24 August 2022 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ 65 NE 7/200

LEYBOURNE CP CASTLE WAY Leybourne Castle

(Formerly listed as Leybourne Castle MALLING ROAD (west side))

25.8.59

II* Castle gateway ruin, outbuilding and house. Early C14 and 1925-26. House related to ruins by Walter Godfrey in free Cotswold vernacular style.

GATEWAY: random rubble stone. Two broad semicircular bastions with a triple-chamfered depressed arch between with beginnings of opening area. Loop-holes on ground floor with widish square windows above. Portcullis groove and beginnings of rib-vault oriel cut in archway. Internally, evidence of upper floors, and vaulted cupboard in addition to west bastion. Low wall, probably reconstructed in right-angle to west and south, connecting with two-storey random rubble gabled outbuilding, probably also C14 with arched doorway in north gable end and two-light window arch.

HOUSE: attached to east bastion and stretching to south east front: Random rubble with stone tiled roof, and hipped gable to left arch shallow projection. Ridge stack to left and stack to right behind ridge, both very tall. Two storeys; three bays, irregular with shallow, parapeted, canted bays at each end. Large ten-light window on ground floor, off-centre to right with five-light window above. Large projecting gabled chimney breast to left with door- way, further to left. South side: hipped to right with centre valley and gabled end to left with tall projecting stack. Two storeys; two windows to right, twelve-light window below. North front: two storeys; irregular fenestration of five windows on first floor, and one for right on ground floor with round-arched doorway to left with stone surround and brick arch between. Interior: ground floor rooms panelled. Scheduled as an Ancient Monument.

Listing NGR: TQ6858258935