Hemsted House Benenden School Including Attached Terrace Wall

Hemsted House is the main building of Benenden School, a large mansion built between 1859 and 1862 by architect David Brandon for Gathorne Hardy, later Earl of Cranbrook. The house was designed in Elizabethan style and substantially altered around 1912 by Lord Rothermore, who added crenellated battlements, removed the original spire from the tower, inserted oriel windows, and added a rear loggia.

The exterior is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with black brick diaperwork and stone dressings, topped with a tiled roof and clustered brick chimneystacks. The roughly rectangular main house has a projecting three-storey entrance porch with tower and an attached two-storey rectangular service wing. The front elevation features two gables with square bays rising through three storeys, each containing six-light mullioned and transomed windows. These are insertions by Lord Rothermore that cut across the earlier diaperwork. The central entrance porch has a three-storey projection with a two-storey oriel window with stone panels and shields between storeys, and below it a Tudor-arched doorway with fabulous beasts in the spandrels and a studded door. To the left is a tall six-light staircase window. On the right stands a four-storey square tower with crenellated parapet, featuring one-, two- and three-light mullioned windows with hood moulding and a smaller arched doorcase with hood moulding and fabulous beasts in spandrels. Three groups of six Tudor-style chimneystacks crown the structure, with decorative lead rainwater heads throughout.

The garden front is symmetrical across three storeys and attics with five windows. End gables feature three-storey six-light canted bays crenellated above. The centre section has a crenellated parapet, moulded stone cornice, and three mullioned and transomed windows (the centre with four lights, the end ones with three lights). At the centre ground floor is a recessed loggia in lighter-coloured stone with strapwork motif cornice, supported on four Tuscan columns and two pilasters with strapwork design to the base. This loggia probably represents a Rothermore alteration, as David Brandon's original plan shows a loggia with six columns and two pilasters on a square plan. To the left is the four-storey tower with crenellated parapet and one three-light mullioned and transomed casement. The ground floor features a four-centred arch with shield above, formerly the luggage entrance. Two ranges of Tudor-style brick chimneystacks are present. An attached two-storey service wing of six bays has end gables with seven-light canted bays crenellated above, and a centre section with crenellated parapet and four three-light mullioned and transomed windows. A further two-storey portion to the left, probably a Rothermore alteration, is followed by a Neo-Georgian extension of 1961-65 by T.E. Heysham.

Attached to the garden front is a terraced wall of 1862. It consists of a battered brick base of seven courses topped with a stone wall featuring interlocking circles with square piers decorated with diamond motifs at regular intervals. Opposite the centre of the garden front stand two large square piers with diamond motifs supporting elaborate stone urns with floral swags.

Interior

The porch contains late 19th-century wide linenfold panelling and a chamfered spine beam with lamb's tongue stops. The staircase hall has a fine well staircase, probably designed by David Brandon, featuring curved shields and other emblems of battle, with a plaster ceiling of square panels. The staircase window contains armorial glass, some of which is German or Flemish. A large stone armorial fireplace bears the motto "BENE QUI SEPULO". Beneath the staircase is a late 19th-century inserted cloakroom with tesselated tiling.

The library was extended in 1920 and features a fine plastered ceiling with strapwork design and deep plastered cornice decorated with stags, cornucopiae and doves. A stone fireplace has blank shields in the spandrels and a Tudor rose and diamond frieze, with a wooden arched and pilastered overmantel above. The former drawing room (now the girls' common room) is decorated in Edwardian Queen Anne style with deep oak panelling, two panelled doors, and a carved pedimented doorcase with swags. Its plaster ceiling has a deeply carved floral wreath, and above the marble fireplace are two deeply carved swags with cherubs, possibly dating to the early 18th century.

The girls' study, formerly the saloon, is also decorated in early 20th-century Queen Anne style. It features a deep eaves cornice with floral wreath, eight panelled doors with bolection moulding and elaborate eared architraves, dado panelling, and a marble fireplace with some early 18th-century carving above.

The Hemstead House Study, formerly the dining room, contains genuine early 17th-century plank and muntin panelling that has been copied to panel the entire room. Fluted composite pilasters and strapwork decoration panels the walls. An elaborate pictorial plastered and coloured frieze depicts pastoral scenes including boar hunting, herding sheep, resting in meadows, and hawking. An early 20th-century stone fireplace features elaborate carved spandrels and an overmantel with two atlantes and two caryatids, a shield, and strapwork pilasters.

The billiard room has a fine stone four-centred fireplace with blank shields in the spandrels, a frieze with swags, cherubs, strapwork and floral design, and a carved overmantel with two atlantes, two caryatids, strapwork motif and lions' heads. Very fine early 20th-century panelling features arches, pilasters, strapwork and marquetry inlay, with a fine plastered cornice decorated with griffins and grotesque masks. An adjacent cloakroom to the east retains early 20th-century green and blue tesselated walls. The former business room, now an office, features a wooden Jacobean-style fireplace with elaborate Ionic pilasters.

On the first floor, a bedroom on the north west side has a four-centred stone fireplace with plasterwork above. The walls are panelled to the lower half with early 20th-century plank and muntin panelling and above plastered with moulded boars, lions and pelicans. Lord Rothermore's bedroom (now a dormitory) has a large stone chimneypiece with doves and griffins, early 20th-century plank and muntin panelling, and a 17th-century cast iron fireback with fluted pilasters. A bathroom features green marble walls and original Boulton fittings. Lady Rothermore's room (now a dormitory) is panelled throughout with some strapwork pilasters, a stone fireplace with human mask, griffins, dogs and stags, and a 17th-century cast iron fireback with fleur-de-lys. The overmantel has marquetry inlay depicting architectural perspective. Another dormitory has a stone fireplace with lions' masks and mermaids. The headmistress's room features late 19th-century linenfold panelling and a plastered cornice. The kitchens retain their original slate shelves.

An earlier Elizabethan hall called Hemstead Hall stood on or near this site and was demolished when the present building was erected.