3, 4, 5 AND 6, THE WALKS

Nos 3, 4, 5 and 6, The Walks, Speldhurst

Four cottages built in the late 17th century, with late 18th or 19th century alterations and little 20th century modernisation. The building is timber-framed on coursed sandstone footings. The ground floor front is weatherboarded and the upper frame is hung with peg-tile. The rear is variously weatherboarded and tile-hung. The cottages have brick stacks and chimneyshafts, and a peg-tile roof.

The row of four cottages faces south, numbered 3 to 6 from left to right, and were once part of a building that included some shops. The cottages have irregular plans suggesting they may have been created by subdividing a larger house, though later works have obscured the earlier layout. It is unclear whether there was originally one, two or three houses here. However, the entire building, including the rear blocks, was constructed in one phase.

The plan of No. 3 includes the left two-room section of the main block with a one-room projection to the rear. No. 4 comprises the adjoining one-room section of the main block, with an axial stack between Nos. 3 and 4 serving back-to-back fireplaces. No. 5 occupies the next two-room section with a larger right room containing a rear lateral stack. No. 6 comprises the right end one-room section of the main block and a separate one-room rear block with a gable-end stack. The most irregular arrangement occurs between Nos. 5 and 6, where No. 5 has the entire first floor to the right end whilst No. 6 has the ground floor and attics, suggesting complex subdivisions and flying freeholds.

The cottages are two storeys with attics in the roofspace, with secondary lean-to outshots to the rear. The attractive front elevation is six windows across. All first-floor windows and dormers contain 19th-century casements with diamond panes of leaded glass, some frames possibly earlier. At ground floor level, right of centre (No. 5), is a pair of canted bay windows with 20th-century glazing bars, formerly shop windows. A monopitch roof spans between them, forming a hood over the doorway to No. 5. This doorway contains a four-panel door with applied panelling over a probable 18th-century two-flap plank door. All other front doorways have four-panel flush-faced doors with shallow hoods on shaped timber brackets. No. 3 has a pair of doors, one to the house and another alongside into the former shop. The main roof is gable-ended to the right and half-hipped to the left. Other ground floor windows are 19th-century casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass, with a shop window at the left end corner (No. 3).

The rear elevation is equally attractive if less regular. The roof is carried down continuously over the rear outshots, which contain a couple of hip-roofed dormers. Most windows are 19th-century or earlier casements with diamond or rectangular panes of leaded glass. The outshots are mostly built of coursed sandstone; the ground floor sections of the rear blocks are similarly constructed, though the eastern one (No. 6) also includes Flemish bond red bricks. Framing above is tile-hung on the west block and weatherboarded on the east. Both rear blocks are the same size with half-hipped roofs.

The interiors appear well-preserved, though much carpentry is hidden by later plaster. The exposed carpentry is plain but of relatively large scantling. Beams and fireplace lintels are plain-chamfered for the most part, although the crossbeam in No. 4 has scroll stops. The roof comprises tie-beam trusses with staggered butt purlins. Throughout all four cottages there is a considerable amount of old joinery detail, mostly plain but of good quality. None of the staircases appear to be early.

This row of cottages represents a well-preserved late 17th-century and early 18th-century building. It is the dominant building on The Walks and plays a very important visual role in the superlative group of buildings associated with Groombridge Place, which together make up Old Groombridge, probably the most unspoilt village group in Kent.