Tongswood, Now St Roman'S School, With Garden Terrace

TONGSWOOD, NOW ST ROMAN'S SCHOOL, WITH GARDEN TERRACE

A house of mid to late 19th-century date, extended in 1904–6, situated on the east side of Water Lane, Hawkhurst. Built for William Cotterill before 1874, the property was later extended by William Gunther, who commissioned the ballroom addition between 1904 and 1906. The builders were J T Davis of Hawkhurst. Gunther, who made his fortune from Argentinian beef products and drinks, lived here from 1902 to 1931 and was a general benefactor to the parish. The site has historical connections to the Dunk family, who anciently held the property; Sir Thomas Dunk, the last of the family, founded the almshouses bearing his name in Highgate, Hawkhurst. The property subsequently belonged to Jeremiah Curteis of Rye, one of the leaders of the Hawkhurst Gang in the mid-18th century, probably the most notorious smuggling gang of the period.

The building is constructed of red brick with diapering in blue brick, ashlar details, and an ornamental tiled roof, executed in Jacobethan style. The main range rises two storeys with an attic storey, set on a plinth with a string course and a moulded brick dog-tooth cornice to the roof. Three projecting gables crown the composition, with the centre and right gables shaped with finials. Two gabled dormers flank central stacks arranged left to right. A large central clock tower dominates the roofline, featuring a tiled spire and a two-tier wooden top-piece with cornices, a leaded spire roof, and an ogee cupola with a weather-vane. A three-storey bay projects to the left and a two-storey bay to the right, both with enriched parapets. The front elevation presents an eight-window bay, with sashed stone mullioned windows; those on the ground floor are mullioned and transomed. Central panelled doors in 16th-century style are set within a Classical porch on the projecting ground floor, featuring banded attached columns, a pediment bearing an achievement, and a keyed arch.

To the right extends the ballroom wing, added 1904–6, which carries over the architectural details of the main range. It features a semi-dormer to the left and a central shaped gable, with a canted bay on the ground floor dressed with a pierced balustrade and a full-height mullioned and transomed window. An identical bay window to the right return is topped by two shaped gables and a central segmentally-headed gable bearing an arms cartouche. The garden elevation displays shaped pilastered gables, a semi-dormer, two central dormers, ground-floor bow windows, and an Ionic-columned canted bay to the ballroom with half-glazed doors and fanlights.

A two-storey service wing stands to the left of the main front, with a built-out ground floor, moulded stacks, a four-bay front, and a gabled wing to the left. Garden terraces extend to the right return and to the rear, constructed of red brick with regular buttress piers capped in stone. These terraces are accessed by stone steps to the right of the main front, bordered by a pierced stone balustrade.

The interior of the earlier main range is richly panelled throughout, with four-centred arched doorways notably in the entrance hall. An openwell stair with landing features a ramped handrail on iron-twist balusters; a rear stair employs sugar-barley twist balusters. The dining room (now library) is fitted with wainscotting and a columned overmantel. Plaster ceilings are found throughout the earlier range.

The ballroom and adjacent en-suite bedrooms are finished in a rich late 17th-century Classical style. The ballroom displays pilasters and free-standing columned corners supporting a cross-beamed ceiling with a central roundel. A stepped main entry rises from the house interior. The whole is richly enriched with fluted columns, a scaled pulvinated frieze, and enriched beams. The ceiling is painted in the Italian manner, as are the ceilings of the en-suite bedrooms, bathroom, and bar-room, all of which feature enriched door surrounds, marble fireplaces, and elaborate cornices.