Oasthouse at Budd's Farm Situated to North of Farmhouse

Details

WITTERSHAM BUDD'S LANE

Oasthouse at Budd's Farm situated to north of Farmhouse TQ 8927

21/427A II

Oasthouse, early or mid-C19, converted to residential use 1982.

MATERIALS: Brick with tiled roofs and weatherboard cladding to first floor of former stowage barn.

PLAN: Rectangular stowage barn with two cylindrical drying kilns inset into the north-east elevation. All converted.

EXTERIOR: Both drying kilns have tiled bottle-kiln shaped roofs with small bell shaped caps topped with finials; that to the south-east also has a weather vane. The former stowage barn has a brick built lower storey and an upper storey faced with weather boarding. The roof is hipped and tiled, with a gabled dormer containing an eight-over-eight-paned sash window in the north-west elevation. The ground floor kiln windows have segmental arches. The three first floor windows in the north-west, garden facing, elevation are modern casements, the ground floor to the west of the door has one casement window under a segmental arch and two round arched windows: there are a further seven windows on the south east-elevation, all modern casements.

INTERIOR: The main entrance into the house is through a door in the south-east kiln, which leads directly into a hallway with staircase leading to the first floor landing. The north-west kiln contains the kitchen, with bathroom and dressing room above. The main part of the house, once the stowage barn, is subdivided downstairs into lobby, living room and smaller utility rooms and cupboards, while upstairs there are four bedrooms, a bathroom, landing and cupboard. There are exposed beams in the ceilings downstairs, while upstairs four regularly spaced parallel beams across the width of the building are suspended below the ceiling; these can be seen to rest on the wall plate. Both wall plate and timber framing are visible in the landing and bedrooms. The roof space is lit by the dormer window: the roof, which is of king post construction, seems to be new.

HISTORY: The Tithe Award, completed by 1848, describes the extensive holdings of Budd's Farm, which included 'house, gardens, yards etc': no reference is made to an oasthouse, but nor are other oasthouses referred to on any other holding. At the time of the award the farm was owned by Earl Thanet and tenanted by William Knight. The farm appears on the 1877 and 1882 OS maps as a house with separate farmyard consisting of ranges of buildings set around a courtyard: to the south-west of the yard is the oasthouse. This was the period when Kent's hop growing and processing industry was at its height, and in the following years a third, larger round kiln (later demolished)was added to the north-west elevation immediately to the west of the existing kilns. This appears on OS maps of both 1898 and 1908, at which time the farmhouse and farmyard still formed a single unit. At some time in the early C20 the farmhouse was much enlarged, with gardens laid out by Colonel Charles Grey. The oasthouse seems to have been used in part as a garden store until its conversion, with listed building consent, into a dwelling in 1982. Of the farmyard buildings, one has been converted into a dwelling and the remainder have been demolished.

SOURCES: Kent Archaeological Society website: http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Maps/WIT/01.htm UK Database of Historic Parks and Gardens: http://www.gardenhistory.org.uk/ukpg/default.htm

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The oasthouse at Budd's Farm is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * As a largely intact example of an early to mid-C19 Kentish oasthouse, with both drying kilns and stowage barn surviving; * The possible modification of the kilns in the early-C20 as part of the landscaping of the gardens for the enlarged Budd's House adds architectural and historical interest. * It contributes to the distinctive character of the Kentish landscape.

Listing NGR: TQ9019826613

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

180458

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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