Kiln Quay House

Kiln Quay House

A re-erected Wealden house, originally dating from the 15th to 16th century and relocated and rebuilt circa 1919 by Joan Beech. The building is constructed with an oak frame and lath and plaster panels beneath a hipped red Sussex tile roof. The roof is topped by brick chimneys featuring linked paired diagonally set shafts with cornices, and an axial cruciform on plan brick stack with cornice to the right of the central hall, with external dressed stone brought to course breasts at each end wall.

The house follows the traditional Wealden plan of hall, inner room with solar, and former service end with chamber above, though with the unusual incorporation of a through passage into the room to the right of the hall. The first floor is jettied at either end. A stair sits behind the right-hand side of the hall, with a two-storey service wing linked to a single-storey wing at right angles to the right, all timber framed and incorporating ship's timbers and possibly timber from an extension to the original building. The structure is two storeys throughout the main part.

The windows of the main part are 16th century with hollow-chamfered and bowtell moulded frames and mullions, fitted with 20th century leaded casements. Carved grown teazle posts stand at each corner with moulded bases and capitals, supporting dragon beams of the jetties and featuring moulded fascias concealing joist ends.

The south front was regularised during the 1919 rebuilding, though French windows were inserted to the middle of the hall window, leaving one light with transom at either side. A section of three lights was removed and resited in the back wall of the hall. The left-hand room features a three-light window with transom under the jetty, while the right-hand room has a canted three-light oriel with sidelights, adjoined by a four-centred arched moulded doorframe, both positioned unusually under the jetty. This arrangement closely parallels Pattyndenne Manor in Kent, and indeed the entire building is very similar in character. The first floor bays each have three-light windows, those over the hall sitting under projecting eaves continuing from the jetties and supported on replacement curved braces, the originals having been slightly smaller as mortices indicate.

The interior hall contains a large hearth incorporating 16th century bricks, with a moulded and stopped cambered lintel, probably 16th century, carried on two moulded corbels each of different design. A fine ceiling features complex moulding and stops to the cross beam supporting joists with similar moulding and a central bead to the windows. At either end of the beam, carved within a shield, are the initials A.J.B., with the dates 1919 at one end and 1922 at the other. The room to the left of the hall has an unmoulded axial beam with dragon beams jointed into it and wide joists. Between the hall and right-hand room at the rear stands a vestibule with four moulded Tudor arched oak open doorways, clearly never fitted with doors, comparable to the Old Pound House in Datchworth, Hertfordshire. The stair features two probably 17th century turned newel posts. The roof structure was unfortunately destroyed by fire circa 1980.

According to tradition, the house was moved from Sussex by Joan Beech, who met a sea captain and wished to live at Flushing. Despite its relocation and subsequent fire damage, this remains a fine Wealden house with much original timber and many original features, reconstructed with evident attention to detail and minimal timber replacement.