Hawkwell Cottages

Hawkwell Cottages is a row of three cottages located on the south side of Pembury Maidstone Road, set back from the road and facing approximately north. The building originated in the mid to late 16th century as a farmhouse, was later used as a public house, and was finally divided into three cottages during the mid to late 19th century.

The structure is timber-framed. At ground floor level, the main block and front sections are underbuilt with 19th and 20th century facing bond brick, while above the first floor the timber-framing is clad with peg-tile. The rear blocks are plastered and partly timber-framed. One original stack may be timber-framed; other stacks date from the mid to late 19th century and all have brick chimney shafts. The roof is covered in peg-tile.

The cottages are numbered 1 to 3 from right (west) to left. Each property is 4 rooms wide and 2 rooms deep, with Cottage 1 occupying the right front and back rooms, Cottage 2 the centre two front and back rooms, and Cottage 3 the left end front and back rooms. The front end rooms have projecting end stacks, while the front room left of centre has an axial stack backing onto the left end room. The left rear room is unheated; all others have rear end stacks. Each cottage has principal rooms in the front block with service rooms behind. The original 16th-century house occupied the three-room section to the left—the front rooms of Cottages 2 and 3—and was probably a lobby entrance plan house with only the centre room originally heated.

The building is two storeys high with disused attics above Cottage 2. The left end room (Cottage 3) had its ceiling raised around 1700 and the attic floor removed.

The front elevation is regular with four windows of various late 19th and 20th century casements, mostly with glazing bars. All three cottages have plain plank front doors; the doorway of Cottage 2 has a segmental brick arch over it. All have 20th century gabled porches. Brick is exposed at ground floor level on the front of Cottages 1 and 2, while Cottage 3 is completely tile-hung, including the end wall. The main roof is gable-ended, with gable-ended cross roofs on each rear extension.

Interior features of note include the well-preserved structural carpentry of the 16th-century house, visible even at ground floor level. On the first floor are curving tension braces and a couple of blocked windows with diamond mullions. The main room in Cottage 2 has a roughly chamfered crossbeam towards the chimney breast and a similarly finished axial beam on the other side. The fireplace is blocked but its oak lintel is exposed. The left end room in Cottage 3 also has a roughly finished crossbeam thought to date around 1700, set above the main rail which includes a large disused mortise in the back wall, presumably for the original crossbeam. A winder stair in this room rises alongside the main stack, with an old plank door (probably circa 1700) and a cupboard door below the stair hung on butterfly hinges. The roof in Cottage 2 is carried on the much-mended remains of the original roof, comprising collared tie-beam trusses with evidence of clasped side purlins, queen struts and curving windbraces. The front room of Cottage 1 dates from the 19th-century alterations and has plain carpentry detail with a fireplace featuring a segmental brick arch. The crosswall between this room and Cottage 2 was clad with weatherboards until 1988. The 19th-century roof was not inspected.