The Hop House

The Hop House, formerly known as Walkhurst, is a house located on New Pound Road in Benenden. It is likely a late 16th-century lobby entrance house that was refronted and had a parallel range added to the rear in the early 19th century. The front range features timber framing, clad in red brick with grey headers on the ground floor, and weatherboarding on the first floor. The roof is half-hipped and tiled, topped with a late 16th-century clustered brick chimneystack. The building has two storeys and attics with three windows, featuring 19th-century casements, some with three lights and others with four lights. There is a central four flush panelled door. The rear range has a ground floor made of red brick and a tile-hung first floor, also with a hipped tiled roof and three casements. A 20th-century lean-to is present on the side elevation. Inside, there are two large beams, and a probable late Medieval wooden carved board with a shield, set back to the front on the right side of the lobby, may have been reused from an earlier house on the site, as no other earlier features were observed.