Terry'S Town Farm Cottage Town Farmhouse

Town Farm Cottage and Town Farmhouse, Brenchley High Street

This is a complex of two houses and a shop, originally one building. The structure probably dates to the late 15th or early 16th century, constructed in two phases. It features close-studded timber framing, partly underbuilt in brick, partly tile-hung and partly weatherboarded. The roof is covered in peg tiles with brick chimney stacks.

The building's plan suggests it originally served a semi-public or non-domestic function. The main five-bay range faces west at the east end of the High Street. The building is of high status but shows no original evidence of a smoke bay or initial stack. An axial stack was inserted left of centre, containing a high-quality 16th-century fireplace that heats the main room. This room has been re-partitioned to accommodate a shop in the centre and a cross passage entrance to Town Farmhouse, though it may originally have been a single large room. A smaller heated room sits to the left, possibly originally unheated. The inserted axial stack contains two high-quality first-floor fireplaces. The south-east wing is secondary but dates to no later than the mid-16th century. It is four bays and was probably originally one long room, with the fourth bay being a smoke bay. An axial stack with back-to-back fireplaces was later inserted into this wing. It is possible the main range was originally heated by a rear lateral stack, now no longer existing, though no evidence of this was found during survey in 1989. The building shows similarities to the nearby Old Vicarage, which is also L-plan with no evidence of original stacks.

The exterior presents two storeys. Town Farm Cottage stands to the left, the shop front in the centre, and Town Farmhouse to the right. An asymmetrical four-window west front features a roof hipped at the ends and an axial stack with staggered shafts topped with a corbelled brick cornice. The first floor is jettied with deep eaves supported on chamfered brackets. The close-studded framing is well-preserved and shows evidence of original blocked windows in both first and ground floors. To the right of centre is a fine early 16th-century Tudor arched moulded doorframe leading to Town Farmhouse, with a 19th-century door whose top panels are glazed. A late 19th-century shop window and door sit alongside to the left. A 19th-century panelled door to Town Farm Cottage stands at the extreme left. There are two three-light casements on the ground floor alongside and to the right of the two front doors, and four first-floor casement windows of mixed dates with leaded panes. The first-floor window to the left retains 17th or 18th-century old glass and a sprung catch. The right return of the main block is tile-hung to the footings. Beyond it, the wing is weatherboarded on the ground floor and tile-hung above, with an axial stack of staggered shafts and 20th-century casement windows. The left return is brick on the ground floor and tile-hung above. The rear elevation of the main block preserves most of its wall-framing intact, with an 18th-century fielded-panelled door to the shop. The first floor contains two blocked original windows. An outshut extends from the north end of the rear. The inner north return of the wing contains four windows and retains original framing including blocked windows on the first floor and an 18th-century mullioned ground-floor window with bead-moulded mullions and diamond leaded panes.

The interior is rich in carpentry and other features, with Town Farmhouse being particularly unspoiled. The main block preserves a very fine early 16th-century fireplace on the south side of the axial stack in Town Farm Cottage, featuring a moulded oak lintel and moulded stone jambs, though a modern partition stands about 1.5 metres in front of it. The small room to the left has a rebuilt fireplace with a chamfered step-stopped crossbeam with short curved braces and chamfered step-stopped joists. The ceiling carpentry in the shop is concealed behind a later ceiling. The right end of the main block in Town Farmhouse has a chamfered step-stopped axial beam and closely-spaced joists of large scantling with evidence of a former stair at the right end. On the first floor, the axial stack contains a good moulded fireplace above the ground-floor one. The first-floor room to the left of the range in Town Farm Cottage also has a good fireplace with a hollow-chamfered lintel and moulded stone jambs, positioned on the return face of the stack and probably re-sited from an original back-to-back arrangement with the other first-floor fireplace. The first floor of Town Farm Cottage has been re-partitioned, though the original room arrangement remains evident. Tie beams have short curved braces, some now missing. A blocked rear window preserves sockets for diagonally-set mullions and a shutter groove. The rear wing in Town Farmhouse has a ceiling of intersecting step-stopped beams with exposed joists interrupted by the inserted stack. The stack features a good open fireplace with brick jambs and an oak lintel in the western of two principal rooms. Two 16th-century doors survive, one into the cross passage and one external door on the south side. Joists in the eastern room are plastered over, and a small fireplace there possibly conceals earlier jambs and lintel. The smoke bay at the east end of the wing is accessible from the lean-to, with a stair now built inside. Its walls are heavily sooted from the bottom of the bay to the roof apex. Evidence of an early partition appears on the west side, and the beam on the east side is chamfered and step-stopped, suggesting either re-used timber or original use from the lean-to side. The first floor above the eastern room is used for storage and opens to the roof apex. Other first-floor rooms in Town Farmhouse retain exposed ceiling beams, old wall plaster and joinery. Internal wall-framing is well-preserved throughout, with flared jowls to the wall-posts and some internal tension braces.

Both the main range and wing have crown post roofs with no evidence of smoke blackening. The main range roof has plain posts with ogival down-braces to the ties and up-braces to the collar purlin, the post to the right of centre chamfered with step-stops. The inserted axial stack has interrupted the rafter couple collars, confirming its insertion date. The wing crown posts are all plain with two braces to the tie beams and two to the collar purlin, which has been truncated to accommodate the inserted stack. A piece of machinery, a hopper of unknown function, is fixed to the southern crown post of the main range.

This is an extremely interesting timber-framed building of high status, well-preserved both internally and externally.