The Grange

THE GRANGE

House, circa mid-16th century, possibly a remodelling of an earlier house, with late 19th-century restoration and additions.

The main block is of close-studded timber-framed construction on a stone plinth. The rear wall of the main block is underbuilt in brick on the ground floor and tile-hung on the first floor. The late 19th-century addition is clad in imitation close studding with some tile-hanging. The building has a peg-tile roof and brick stacks.

The main block faces north and follows a 3-room lobby entrance plan, with the hall and lower end room positioned to the right (west), both heated from back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack. The inner room was originally unheated, with evidence of a former stair that rose against the front wall. The lower end was probably a parlour; the position of the 16th-century kitchen is unclear. In the late 19th century, the house was restored and extended. A rear wing was added at right angles, containing a new stair and principal room, with a service wing parallel to it and another at right angles.

The exterior shows 2 storeys, the main block formerly 3 storeys at the right end. The peg-tile roof is gabled at the left end, with an axial stack featuring a corbelled brick cornice. The front elevation is asymmetrical with a 3:1 window arrangement; the right hand end of the house, roofed at right angles, is gabled to the front. The house is jettied to the front and returns with a richly-moulded fascia board to the jetty. There is a 19th-century front door with strap hinges in a repaired 16th-century Tudor arched chamfered doorframe with scroll stops. To the left of the front door are 2 ground floor 5-light oriel windows, which may be 19th-century, though some of the mullions, glass and window furniture are original. Three 19th-century first floor oriels sit on brackets. The gabled bay to the right has a heavily-repaired 16th-century 5-light mullioned and transomed window with moulded mullions, with a similar first floor oriel above featuring a cove. A 2-light 19th-century timber window lights the gable, which has curly 19th-century bargeboards. The left return is tile-hung on the first floor and has a 19th-century door. Evidence of one blocked window survives on the ground floor. A second window, remodelled as a 19th-century 4-light transomed oriel, preserves sockets in the inner lintel for massive, diagonally-set mullions. Two 19th-century first floor oriels flank this. The right return has 2 ground floor 19th-century windows and 2 first floor windows, all in a free 16th-century style. The rear elevation displays similar 19th-century windows and a 19th-century lateral stack with a divided chimneybreast and tall shaft featuring a corbelled brick cornice. The 19th-century rear wing matches the main block in style, with jetties on the inner (east) side and south end. Its windows have square leaded panes, and it contains a lateral stack with a tall shaft with corbelled brick cornice. A 19th-century garden door on the east side has glazed panels round the doorframe.

The interior preserves well-preserved high quality carpentry in the early block. The hall features richly-moulded intersecting beams and a contemporary open fireplace with moulded stone jambs and a moulded lintel. An 18th-century salt cupboard with cockshead hinges is set into the fireback. A chamfered and moulded Tudor arched doorway leads into the left hand room, with step stops and triangular lozenges carved in the spandrels, with an original plank and stud door with strap hinges. Both the left and right hand rooms preserve their exposed, moulded ceiling beams with stopped dragon beams. The fireplace in the right hand room is rebuilt. The internal framing is well-preserved with massive jowled wall posts and large tension braces. The first floor chamber at the west end is now open to the roof timbers, the former attic floor having been removed. The 19th-century rear wing preserves original joinery, a stair with moulded balusters and original chimney-pieces.

The roof over the west end room of the main range is a clasped purlin roof with a tier of windbraces. The remainder of the roof was not accessible at the time of survey in 1989.

A 19th-century drawing of a 16th-century doorway at The Grange (formerly called Church Farm House) by J. Fremlyn Streatfeild after Charles Bailey is reproduced in Kenneth Gravett's Timber and Brick Building in Kent (1971). There is said to be a model of the house in the Tunbridge Wells Museum.