Brenchley Manor

Brenchley Manor

Large house with 16th-century or earlier origins, substantially altered and extended in 1912–14 by Mr C.H. Allfrey (Oswald). Close-studded timber-framed construction with peg-tile roof and brick chimneystack.

The house faces east and is arranged around a main range of three rooms on plan, with the entrance positioned right of centre, probably originally into a cross passage. To the left lies a high-quality hall heated by a rear lateral stack, beyond which is a fine parlour at the east end, also served by a rear lateral stack. The lower end contains a small service room, originally unheated. Behind the main block, further rooms including service spaces are housed under a three-span roof at right angles, completed to the rear by a block parallel to the main range. The house was thoroughly restored between 1912 and 1914, when a rear left (north-west) wing was added in matching style and a stair hall was incorporated to the rear of the 16th-century hall. These alterations matched the style of the original externally and incorporated features imported from elsewhere, obscuring the service rooms of the original house. The roof construction is entirely 20th-century except for the rear wing parallel to the main range.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window north front and a half-hipped roof at the ends. Most chimneyshafts are early 20th-century; the parlour stack is handmade brick with a staggered shaft. The close-studded framing was exposed around 1912 and most studs are renewed. The first floor is jettied with a moulded fascia; one jetty bracket has roll-moulding and the left (south) corner has a triple bracket. The porch, positioned right of centre, is probably largely early 20th-century but reuses old timbers. It has a flat lead roof with moulded cornice, deep eaves carried on dragon beams and curved braces. The outer doorway has moulded jambs and a replaced lintel. The richly-moulded inner doorframe is probably 16th-century with a Tudor-arched head and delicately carved spandrels. A fine 16th-century ledged front door with moulded overlapping planks fixed with studs survives. Windows are largely early 20th-century but incorporate old timbers, some of which may belong to original windows in situ. Three first-floor regularly-spaced four-light ovolo-moulded mullioned windows flank the centre window with smaller two-light mullioned windows; all are glazed with early 20th-century square leaded panes. Similar transomed ground-floor windows lie to the left of the porch; the ground-floor window to the right is two-light and transomed. A projecting right-end stack is probably 20th-century. The left return of the main range is also jettied with similar 20th-century windows including a three-light attic window. Beyond the main block, a three-window early 20th-century wing is also jettied and close-studded with a gable to the front at the left end. The rear (west) elevation of the wing is jettied with a two-span roof. The rear right wing is brick with large sash windows and may date from the 19th century. At the rear right end of the house, a single-storey north-west wing is built of handmade brick and probably dates from the 18th century.

The interior of the main range preserves very high-quality 16th-century carpentry and panelling. The hall features a ceiling of richly-moulded intersecting beams with a crossbeam marking the hall/passage division, though the partition no longer survives. A fine rear doorway to the former cross passage has a richly-moulded frame with elaborate stops; a richly-moulded doorframe with bar stops leads from the passage into the lower end room. A moulded stone hall fireplace has a Tudor-arched lintel. The inner parlour is fully panelled with five tiers of linenfold crowned with a Renaissance frieze of arabesques and profile heads. Debate has occurred regarding the date of the linenfold (early or late 16th-century) and whether it remains in situ (Oswald). The wainscotting is divided into bays by classical pilasters, and a panel over the door is dated 1573. The moulded timber cornice meets the moulded four-panel ceiling beams rather awkwardly. A fine Tudor-arched moulded stone fireplace is flanked by Ionic pilasters in the wainscot. The overmantel has a cranked arch with spandrels filled with lively carvings depicting a man being bitten by a monster on one side and a woman with a club controlling a similar monster on the other. A tier of six carved panels above is divided by Ionic pilasters with moulded panels bearing lions' heads carved in relief; the centre two panels display the arms and initials of Elizabeth Fane, who held the Manor as her dower house following her husband's death in 1571. Her memorial in Brenchley church records that "her memorable hospitalitie made her famous and renowned". Above the carved panels runs a frieze of arabesques divided by carved brackets. The lower end room has been subdivided and contains a plain chamfered crossbeam. The 16th-century house evidently extended further to the rear (south), as evidenced by a moulded 16th-century doorframe leading from an extension of the cross passage into what is now the stair hall. This contains an early Georgian-style stair, said to have been introduced in the early 20th century (Oswald), with an open string, moulded ramped handrail and replaced balusters. A heavy egg-and-dart cornice in the stair hall is probably early 20th-century. Other rooms mostly contain chimneypieces of early 20th-century or 1980s date. The single-storey rear wing has a probably 18th-century tie-beam and queen-strut roof. The chamber over the hall on the first floor has a moulded stone fireplace surround with a Tudor-arched lintel.

The extremely high-quality interior features of the 16th-century main range make this a house of special interest.