Groombridge Place

Groombridge Place is a small moated mansion built for Philip Packer between 1652 and 1674 on a medieval moated site. John Evelyn recorded in his diary that a new house had been built there since his previous visit. No medieval fabric survives. The building underwent minor but high-quality modernisations around 1700 and was carefully renovated in 1919 by H.S. Mountain, with remarkably little alteration since then.

The house is constructed of Flemish bond red brick with some burnt headers, set unevenly, and features sandstone ashlar dressings with a chamfered plinth. It has brick stacks with mostly original tall brick chimneyshafts, those on the northern side panelled over moulded sandstone cornices. The roof is peg-tile.

The building follows an H-plan, facing essentially west. The layout is somewhat old-fashioned for a house of this quality and date. A central hall contains opposing front and back doorways at the right (south) end, with the front doorway leading through a lobby onto the back of the service staircase. The hall has a projecting rear lateral stack. Crosswings project equally front and back at each end. The right (south) crosswing contains the kitchen and a small front parlour, both with projecting outer lateral stacks. The left (north) parlour crosswing has a large front parlour and smaller rear parlour with the main staircase between them accessed from a hall lobby, also with projecting outer lateral stacks. This layout is essentially original, though the front main parlour was refurbished and windows changed around 1700. The house is two storeys with attics in the roof space and a half basement below.

The symmetrical front elevation features a 2:3:2-window arrangement with circa-1700 18-pane sashes with fat glazing bars, all in original openings with rubbed brick flat arches. A chamfered stone plinth to the half basement has stone mullioned windows on the inner sides of the wings. Two front doorways, one at each end of the recessed central hall front, maintain the symmetry. Each has an eared stone architrave with floating cornice on carved consoles and contains original double three-panel doors. Access is via an attractive five-bay stone loggia on a stone platform between the wings, with Ionic columns on pedestals supporting a moulded entablature. The central bay breaks forward as a pedimented porch sheltering a flight of five stone steps. Balustrades have stone rails supported on turned timber balusters. Main walls display a flat brick band at first-floor level and brick quoins at the corners. The roofs are hipped and contain a regular series of hip-roofed gables.

The other sides continue in the same style but without symmetry. Many windows on these elevations are original flat-faced mullion-and-transom windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The northern parlour end has a tall staircase window with medallions of armorial stained glass. A stone doorway with eared architrave in the centre of this side contains an original two-panel door. Another similar doorway appears in the rear wall, reached by stone steps, with a flat hood on timber consoles below an overlight containing tiny panes of old leaded glass. The kitchen has taller original windows with two sets of transoms each. The southern side, facing the service courtyard, includes a couple of 19th-century windows with diamond patterns of glazing bars in original openings, and an early 20th-century pentice.

The interior is exceptionally well-preserved. The house appears to have escaped major modernisations since around 1700, and the work undertaken is of extremely high quality. Many principal rooms feature sandstone ashlar fireplaces with moulded surrounds, canted corners and original iron firebacks. Some on the first floor are lined with Delft tiles. Most main rooms are lined with small-field oak panelling, much of it evidently reused from the earlier house. The panelling in the first-floor rear chamber of the parlour crosswing is carved with the date 1611 and bears the initials of Richard Waller. The ground-floor front parlour of the kitchen crosswing contains fine Jacobean linen-fold panelling with richly carved panels including heads and armorial bearings. The panelling in the chamber over the hall retains its 17th-century decorative scheme of paintwork imitating inlaid marquetry.

Two good oak dogleg staircases with closed strings, square newels with ball finials and moulded pendants, moulded handrails and large turned balusters. The balusters differ between the stairs. The service staircase is much smaller than the main staircase. The main staircase is considered to have been rebuilt around 1700, though its vase-like balusters are very similar to those in the loggia balustrade.

The kitchen is built at ground level without a half basement beneath, making it substantially taller than other rooms. It is plainly finished with a large partly-blocked fireplace whose oak lintel is exposed. The basement contains original wine-rack alcoves and stone dairy slabs.

Extensive original joinery detail survives throughout. Doorways to principal rooms have architraves whilst service rooms have solid chamfered frames. Attic rooms occupy the roof space and are plastered, making the roof structure inaccessible.

The main front parlour was refurbished to a high standard around 1700. It features a large marble bolection chimneypiece and is lined with bolection-moulded panelling in two heights. The ceiling displays fine ornamental plasterwork featuring a large oval panel enriched with high-relief foliage, fruits and flowers.

Groombridge Place is a most remarkable and very special survival, notable for its age, quality and preservation. It is described as one of the loveliest and mellowest houses in the southern counties. It forms a group with its service buildings, the moat and its bridges, and its terraced garden walls, with the wider group extending to the whole of Old Groombridge, where most buildings are listed.