Finches Farmhouse

Finches Farmhouse is a former farmhouse dating to the early to mid 17th century, with later additions from the 18th or 19th century and renovations around 1985. The house is timber-framed; most of the ground floor is underbuilt with brick, while the upper section is clad with peg-tile. It features a brick stack with sandstone ashlar at its base and a brick chimney shaft, topped with a peg-tile roof.

Originally, the farmhouse consisted of two rooms facing west. It follows a lobby entrance plan, now with doors from both the front and back. The northern room was originally divided into two smaller service rooms, likely a dairy or buttery. The living room to the right was heated by a central stack. It is unclear which room served as the original front entrance. A staircase was originally located at the rear, probably on the west side, and is now at the front. Later outshots have been added to the front and back of the house; the front one now contains the entrance hall and a 20th-century staircase, while the rear one houses a 20th-century kitchen.

The front facade features a ground-floor window on each side of the central doorway due to the front outshot. This front wall is of 19th-century brick and contains contemporary casement windows and a doorway with a half-hipped roof above. Other windows around the house are 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars, with one original framed window on the north end wall. This window has two lights (one for each of the original service rooms) and was originally shuttered. The roof is gable-ended and steeply pitched, lowering over the outshots. This is unusual for Kent.

The original farmhouse interior is well-preserved, with a significant amount of original carpentry remaining. The main living room has a brick fireplace with sandstone ashlar jambs and an oak lintel with a low Tudor arch, with a smaller version above. The main room and upper chambers feature chamfered axial beams with scroll stops. The roof has three uneven bays, including a narrow bay containing the stack, utilizing tie-beam trusses with clasped side purlins and small, straight windbraces.

Finches Farmhouse serves as a well-preserved example of a small 17th-century farmhouse.