Grovehurst

House. Dating from the 15th century, it was altered and extended in the 16th century and around 1641. The house is timber framed and rendered, with some exposed framing and plaster infill. It has a plain tiled roof. Originally a hall house, it has a cross wing. The right-hand section is a jettied cross wing with a close studded frame on the first floor. The left-hand section is a regular composition of two gables, jettied at the first floor and gable levels, featuring moulded bresummers, bargeboards and pendants. A central two-storey stair projection also has moulded bargeboards and a pendant, with a gable dated IA 1641, referring to John Austen. Stack clusters are located centrally to the left (behind the porch) and to the right in the cross wing. The first floor has a three-light leaded wooden casement to the left and a four-light mullioned and transomed window to the porch. A five-light transomed oriel and a three-light transomed window are on the right; the fenestration pattern is repeated on the ground floor. Lean-to porches with turned baluster side screens and rib and stud doors are located on the left flanks of the porch and cross wing. A catslide outshot extends to the right return, and the left return has exposed small-panel framing with an arched door opening, now blocked, in the upper left. The rear features a catslide outshot and single-storey extensions with a moulded stack. The interior features crown post roofs in both the main range and the cross wing, along with late 16th-century panelling and a carved overmantel in one room. A mid-17th century staircase is in the stair projection. The house was a manorial seat belonging to the Grofhurst family (brass memorials are in Horsmonden church) and by the 17th century was part of the Austen family’s extensive possessions in Horsmonden.