The Old Red House and 2 Church Street

The Old Red House and 2 Church Street

Two houses, one with a shop, the other with a restaurant, formerly a single property. The building contains some 16th or 17th century fabric, with a major rebuild in the mid 18th century and some 19th and 20th century alterations. The front is of painted Flemish bond brick, exposed on the left end to Church Street in red with decorative burnt headers. Other parts are timber-framed and variously plastered or clad with peg-tile. The building has brick stacks and chimney shafts, and a peg-tile roof.

The structure is large with a long and complex history. Reports exist of 16th or 17th century structural fabric discovered during building work, though this is now hidden. The main block results essentially from the mid 18th century rebuild. The main house faces north onto The Square with a three-room plan. An axial stack sits between the centre and right rooms, with direct entry into the smaller right room and the main stair in a block projecting to the rear of the centre room. The unheated left end room functions as a shop. A rear block, formerly serving as a service building, projects at right angles from the left end along Church Street. The two-room plan block immediately behind is mid 18th century and possibly older in parts. Behind that are 19th century rooms with former stables at the end. The building is two storeys.

The regular five-window front features twelve-pane sashes on the first floor. The ground floor was altered in the 19th century. The left two bays contain plain 20th century shop windows on either side of a shop door. At the right end is a mid 19th century doorway with a part-glazed four-panel door accessed by a couple of stone steps, and a timber doorcase with moulded entablature and pediment. Projecting brick flat bands appear at first floor and eaves level, with a plain parapet above. The roof is hipped at both ends. Lower rear blocks follow, with the stair block hipped and the rear block roof hipping down to the 19th century service buildings. The rear block windows are less regular, varying in size and date, and include some horizontal-sliding sashes with glazing bars on the inside edge.

The interior largely results from the mid 18th century rebuild but has been modernised several times since. In the centre room of the main block is a large open brick fireplace with a plain oak lintel, possibly of 17th century origin. The mid 18th century main stair has a closed string, square newel posts, a flat moulded handrail and turned balusters. Some other mid 18th century joinery survives, including two-height panelling in the rear block. The roof structure was not accessible during recording.

The site occupies a large plot in the centre of Hadlow and was occupied by wealthy merchants through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The earliest documentary reference dates from 1388. By 1570 it was known as Frankfort House, possibly named after the ventures of the wealthy mercer William Trice. In the late 17th century it was occupied by John Wells, another mercer, who sold it in 1694 to Ruben Colgate, yet another mercer, in whose family it remained through most of the 18th century. A possible connection has been suggested with the Colgates of later toothpaste fame. This is an important house in Hadlow and forms part of a group of varied listed buildings in the centre.