Selbys Farmhouse

Selbys Farmhouse, Hildenborough

A former farmhouse of complex evolution, with origins dating from the late 15th century and substantial rebuilding in the late 17th century.

The house is planned as a west-facing L-shape, comprising a main range of two cells with a two-cell rear (north) wing at right angles. The wing is the earliest surviving part, dating from circa late 15th century. Its west end cell was jettied on the west and north sides, with a solar over the ground floor room. The east end cell was a small single-bay open hearth room, possibly the kitchen. The main range, presumably the site of the original hall, was rebuilt in the late 17th century and now contains two heated rooms, with a rear outshut also heated from a stack at the south end. A lobby entrance is positioned against the axial stack between the solar wing and main range.

The building is two storeys with an attic. It employs mixed construction: the north wing has timber framing with ground floor underbuilt in brick and first floor tile-hung; the main range is brick with first floor timber-framed and tile-hung. The roof is peg-tile with slate to the outshut, and features brick stacks.

The asymmetrical three-window west front has a hipped roof over the wing at the left end and a projecting late 17th-century stack at the right end. The axial stack displays staggered triple chimneyshafts with corbelled cornices and inward-angled caps. The 20th-century front door serves the lobby entrance left of centre. 1956 fenestration consists of four-light casements with square leaded panes in metal frames, with a similarly glazed canted bay window to the right of the door. Two attic dormers with hipped roofs are present. The north side of the wing has three windows, including the remains of a one-light late 15th-century cusped window at first floor right. The gabled east end of the wing features a formerly unglazed mullioned three-light window. The outshut has 20th-century timber casement windows and a 20th-century door, with two gabled dormers at the junction with the main range.

The wing interior is particularly well-preserved. The front ground floor room has a dragon beam and large exposed joists; the brick fireplace features a chamfered oak lintel and fireback constructed of bricks laid in herringbone pattern. The two-bay solar above contains a fine original late medieval crown post roof with an octagonal crown post on a moulded tie-beam with short arch braces; the crown post has four-way bracing above the moulded capital. The east end partition has a plain crown post braced to the collar purlin. The brick fireplace has a chamfered oak lintel. On the south wall is a one-light oak window with a cinquefoil-headed light with moulded cusping, pierced spandrels and shutter grooves for horizontal sliding shutters; the window is now internal but originally looked out above the level of the old hall roof. Evidence of other similar windows, their heads cut away for later casements, was discovered during 1970s renovations. The one-bay east cell has a heavily-sooted common rafter roof. The north room of the main block has a large open fireplace.

Historically, the property was called Romneys in 1480 and occupied by a family of that name. From the late 16th to late 17th centuries it was owned by a succession of city merchant families engaged in the cloth trade.

An evolved house of particular significance for its important and well-preserved late medieval solar wing.