Mascalls

Mascalls

House of early 17th century or earlier date, with early and late 19th century additions, located in Paddock Wood.

The early range consists of framed construction with a tile-hung front elevation. The return walls are underbuilt in brick to first floor level and tile-hung above. The 19th century additions are brick with some tile-hanging, including bands of scalloped tiles, peg-tile roofs, and brick stacks.

The house has an irregular plan. The early range is roofed on a north-south axis and faces east, comprising two rooms on plan at present with a right end stack and an axial stack to the left of centre. A rear wing at right angles, probably early 19th century although heavily remodelled in the late 19th century, forms a south-facing entrance block with a long entrance passage running parallel to the rear wall of the early range and extending into another block to the north. The main stair rises from this passage. A circa 1880s crosswing adjoins the entrance block to the west, containing one large reception room on the ground floor.

The exterior is two storeys, with the entrance block rising to two storeys and attic. Gable-ended roofs include dormers with curly 19th century bargeboards. Most fenestration dates from the late 19th or early 20th century, with ground floor windows being high transomed plate glass windows and first floor windows large two-light casements with two panes per light. The south elevation is asymmetrical with a 2:1 ratio. A gabled early 19th century porch with a chamfered brick Tudor arched doorway opens into the south block, with a glazed outer door and Tudor arched early 19th century inner door with upper panels glazed. The porch gable has ogee bargeboards. French windows and casement windows occupy the remainder of the south elevation. The east return has three ground floor French windows and three first floor casements, plus a 19th century gable to the front with a two-light gable casement. Two gabled attic dormers with casement windows sit above a moulded brick cornice. The rear elevation features three gables with an early 19th century Tudor arched porch opposed to the front door, covered by a circa 1860s lean-to porch hood on shaped pierced brackets. The centre and right-hand gabled blocks have two-tier canted bay windows, probably late 19th or early 20th century. A service block to the left preserves a bell fixed to the wall.

The interior of the early block preserves most of the wall framing, including wall posts with formed jowls on the rear elevation. Jettied sections, partly boxed in, suggest the block originally had two jettied gables to the west. 17th century ceiling carpentry survives in the first floor rooms with scroll stops to the crossbeams. Other internal fittings are 19th century. A marble chimney-piece in the principal room of the early block features vine leaf decoration, fluted jambs, and a reeded cornice. The north room at the end of the entrance passage contains a repaired circa 1880s carved Arts and Crafts timber chimney-piece with a fine tiled surround depicting various crafts, showing among others a barber and dyer at work. Other 19th century chimney-pieces and iron grates survive on the first floor. The main stair, probably 1840s, has a cast iron balustrade in the form of stylized flowers and a ramped handrail. The entrance passage is divided from the entrance hall to the west by two large Tuscan columns, probably early 20th century in date. The west crosswing contains a large room with a very high ceiling featuring a decorated plaster cornice and ceiling frieze, which may originally have served as a ballroom but was described as a billiard room in sales particulars. This room now contains a large swimming pool.

The roof of the east range is of clasped purlin and queen strut design to the north of the axial stack with staggered butt purlins to the south.

The house is identifiable as one mentioned in Siegfried Sassoon's Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man (1928). It was owned by his godfather, and Sassoon visited from his home, Weirleigh, in the adjoining parish of Brenchley. During the Second World War it was the home of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan, Chief of Staff to Supreme Allied Command, and is said to have been the location for Supreme Command meetings.