Ayshford Court

Ayshford Court is a manor house now divided into two dwellings. The main historic structure was built by various members of the Ashford/Ayshford family. It dates from the late 15th to early 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements, the parlour wing possibly dating to 1607 according to a secondary datestone. It includes plasterwork dated 1631 and some agricultural additions of around 1910.

The original section has plastered walls, probably cob on stone rubble footings. The early 17th century parlour wing is constructed of coursed blocks of local chert with Beerstone detail. 19th century extensions are of stone rubble and brick, much of it plastered. The house has stone stacks and chimneyshafts, two of them in Beerstone ashlar, with slate roofs.

The plan is essentially L-shaped. The main block faces east-south-east, say east. At the left (north) end is a two-room plan former service extension of around 1910. There is an axial stack between the two rooms and a third room projecting at right angles to the rear. Part of this extension was probably servant accommodation but some was in agricultural use and includes a first floor granary.

The rest of the main block comprises the historic house. Adjoining the extension is a kitchen with its large axial stack backing onto the extension. Next is an unheated dairy between the kitchen and through passage. At the right (south) end is the former hall with a gable-end stack. The parlour block projects at right angles to the rear of the hall and has an end stack; the chamber above has an outer lateral stack. To the rear, the passage was extended through a probably 17th century stair block built in the angle of the two wings, and alongside, behind the dairy, is a small brick extension of around 1910. The house is now divided: the main block in one occupation, the parlour wing and stair in another.

This is a house with a long and complex structural history. Disregarding the around 1910 extensions, the house is essentially that of around 1650, perhaps even around 1610, although the stairs were renewed in the 19th century. The roof of the main block is smoke-blackened from end to end, indicating that the late 15th to early 16th century house was an open hall house divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. However there is not enough evidence exposed to determine the precise layout of the original house, nor is there sufficient evidence to chart the evolution of the house to its present form. It may once have been a larger house. Indeed one jointed cruck truss does survive in the around 1910 extension, suggesting that part at least was included in the 16th century house.

The house is two storeys with disused attics over the parlour wing. The main block, including the extension, has an irregular five-window front of mostly 19th century casements with glazing bars. However, just right of centre to the dairy, is a Hamstone three-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions and a hoodmould, mid or late 17th century in date. The passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a 19th century six-panel door behind a late 19th to early 20th century slate-roofed porch containing a round-headed timber outer arch. The roof is gable-ended. The right gable-end is blind and a straight join shows in the exposed masonry between the main block and parlour wing.

The parlour wing is taller and has irregular fenestration: two ground floor windows and three first floor windows. The ground floor right one has been enlarged to a 20th century French window. The rest however are early 17th century Beerstone three-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and all except first floor right have hoodmoulds. The lateral chimneyshaft on this side is Beerstone ashlar with a frieze of carved quatrefoils and is inscribed to the effect that it was built in 1607 and rebuilt in 1910. The roof is steeply-pitched and is hipped each end. The end chimneyshaft is ashlar with moulded coping.

The rear elevation includes a couple of late 17th century oak flat-faced mullion windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass, one of them on the stair block. The ground floor window of the kitchen is a mid 16th century oak two-light window with moulded mullion, Tudor arch headed lights and sunken spandrels. It also has its original vertical glazing bars and saddlebars. The passage rear doorway in the stair block contains a 19th century six-panel door. Alongside it is a stone inscribed with the date 1594. It may date the stair block but, since it is set close to the ground, it is thought to be reset.

The interior is of good quality. The oldest feature is the roof of the main block which is carried on a series of side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars which is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The oak arch-headed doorframe in the corridor alongside the dairy may well be original also but is not thought to be in situ. The other structural features exposed are thought to be early 17th century.

The kitchen and dairy have a continuous ceiling carried on three crossbeams of large scantling, all soffit-chamfered with lambstongue stops. The large kitchen fireplace has been altered a little but still has a massive chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel. The hall was refurbished in the 19th century when the fireplace was blocked with a grate. The soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam looks suspiciously like a 17th century style replacement. The parlour was refurbished about the same time and has been subdivided. The fireplace has also been blocked.

The parlour chamber has also been rearranged. Originally it seems there was a closet, a narrow unheated room, across the outer end but this has been enlarged to a bedroom by encroaching on the main chamber. This parlour now has its original fireplace off centre: a pretty Beerstone fireplace with moulded surround and Tudor arch head with sunken spandrels. This room also contains the remains of a good ornamental plasterwork ceiling probably of 1631. It has an enriched rib design around an ornate centrepiece and is enriched with moulded angle sprays.

The finest feature of the house is the coved ceiling of ornamental plasterwork in the chamber over the hall. It is a particularly fine example and is dated 1631. There is a projecting moulded frieze around the room. The coved ceiling has a single rib design enriched with moulded patterns in square panels. Above the frieze on each end wall is a moulded plasterwork arcade featuring the Ashford arms and floral sprays. The fireplace here is blocked but the oak doorframe into the room is contemporary with the ceiling.

From the left end of the main block front a tall rubble wall projects forward between the lane and garden.

Ayshford was mentioned in a charter dated 958. It is the Domesday manor of Aiseforda. For most of its history it was the home of the Ayshford/Ashford family and the parlour wing was probably built by Roger Ashford, who died in 1610. The plasterwork was probably commissioned by Arthur Ayshford. The refurbished kitchen may be contemporary. The owners have a transcript of a fascinating inventory of the place dated 1689 which shows the great wealth of the family at that time. The description of the rooms suggests that the house was a little larger then. It is difficult to identify the rooms mentioned with those there now, nevertheless identification of the great parlour and kitchen seems obvious. Much of the fabric is still hidden and great care should be taken during renovation work. The inventory for instance mentions a "painted chamber". Ayshford Court, with its chapel and farmbuildings, form a most attractive group of buildings.