Details
RE 24 NW SHEPERDSWELL & COLDRED
1/86 West court( formerly
27.8.52 listed as "West
Court Farmhouse")
II*
House. Early C14 and rebuilt and extended C16, particularly 1587 for John
Parker. Timber framed, part exposed close studding with plaster infill,
part rendered and part clad and extended with painted brick. Plain tiled
roof. Hall house in origin, extended C16 with new ground-floor hall with
jetty, with brick towers to west (dated 1587) and south west, the framed
C16 portion possibly earlier than the brick towers. A sizeable mansion
house was the intention, but seems never to have been completed. Entrance
front: two storeys, of varying levels, with projecting 3 storey tower to left.
Right hand section with plinth and plat band with hipped roof, stepped up
to centre, with painted flint base and jetty, with close-studding and mid-rail
frame exposed. Two storey brick wing projecting at end left and terminating
in 3 storey bay/tower, with plinth, moulded string and cornice. The brick
is in Minster Bond, a garden wall bond variant. Tower;4 light brick
mullioned and transomed windows with label hoods on each floor, of 2 lights
on return sides, with boarded door to right side, and sash window in
connecting wing. Main range with 3 light wooden casement to left, and
blocked mullioned sidelights, and 2 wooden casements and horizontally sliding
glazing bar sash to right on first floor, and 2 glazing bar sashes, canted
bay and wooden casement on ground floor. Door of 6 panels to centre right,
the top 2 glazed, in C20 brick porch slate roofed outshot to right. Rear
elevation with catslide outshot, projecting hipped staircase tower, with
brick mullioned and transomed windows, those on the upper levels cut off by
the roof and interrupted by later stacks, showing abandonment of building
programme. Jettied gable end of connecting wing to front tower, with
renewed mullioned and transomed oriel on original brackets. Garderobe
extension to right corner on first floor. The stair tower has a moulded
roundel inscribed 1587. Rebuilt lozenge-set moulded stacks. Interior:
P
reveals the gradual development of the house; early C14 hall with tall
moulded crown post roof, and smoke blackened roof timbers. Main entrance
leads into screens passage. Service end rebuilt C16, with the close
studded extensions, with moulded ceiling joists supported on carved corbel
with cherub's head and strapwork motifs. Further C16 extensions with
stair tower, with open well staircase rising through entire height of house,
with moulded rail, solid baluster-panels, dado panelling and poppy head
finials. Upper room with small-panel wainscotting, with half-fluted
frieze and cornice. The door surrounds in this section moulded, with
diamond stopped chamfers and sunflower motifs. Moulded and panelled C16
doors survive. Clasped purlin roofs to these sections, with wind-bracing to
framed central block. Other features include C17 and early C18 fitted
cupboards and doors with strap and H-hinges and raised panelling. The
building was in origin a Grange;and possibly a rest-house, of the Canons
of St. Martin's, Dover, granted 1538 to the Archbishops of Canterbury.
Parker family were tenants here C16, and John Parker, whose initials are in
the 1587 datestone, was confirmed in a coat of arms, 1588. His ambitions to
gentrification reflected in his building works, the brick extensions with
towers is described in 1616 and 1648 surveys grandly as "a fair gallery with
three turrets leaded over"while the other accommodation was listed as a hall,
great parlour, little parlour, kitchen, buttery, lardyre, washhouse, milkhouse,
2 cellars, and 9 chambers over these rooms. (See B.O.E. Kent II 1983, 460;
Hasted, IX; Igglesden 20; History of West Court, printed by Kent County
Council, available at West Court, analysis provided by E.W. Parkin).
Listing NGR: TR2479547948
