Bell Farm House

Bell Farm House, East Street, Harrietsham, Maidstone, ME17 1HJ

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1086145
Date first listed:: 20-Oct-1952
List Entry Name:: Bell Farm House
Statutory Address:: Bell Farm House, East Street, Harrietsham, Maidstone, ME17 1HJ

Taken 19/09/2023 from the Northeast. — Uploaded by Trevor Hayman This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Date:: 2004-04-13
Reference:: IOE01/10862/19
Rights:: © Ms Lesley Feakes. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1086145
Date first listed:: 20-Oct-1952
List Entry Name:: Bell Farm House
Statutory Address 1:: Bell Farm House, East Street, Harrietsham, Maidstone, ME17 1HJ

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Bell Farm House, East Street, Harrietsham, Maidstone, ME17 1HJ

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Kent
District:: Maidstone (District Authority)
Parish:: Harrietsham
National Grid Reference:: TQ 87130 52394

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 4 October 2023 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ 85 SE 4/30

HARRIETSHAM EAST STREET (southwest side) Bell Farm House

(Formerly listed as The Old House)

20.10.52.

GV I Farmhouse. Circa 1500. Timber framed with plaster infilling and plain tile roof. Wealden; open hall of two unequal bays with storeyed bay to either end.

Two storeys. Close-studded, except ground floor of right bay of hall and right end bay which have broadly spaced studding. Right and left end bays jettied, with moulded bressumers. Jetties and moulding continue round side elevations on moulded dragon posts. Moulded fillet across front, along left side and formerly along right, half way up first floor. Close-studded coving to flying wall-plate, springing from fillet. Cross-passage delineated by bracket to coving towards right end of hall. Hipped roof, with gablet to left. Multiple brick ridge stack with fillet, in front slope of roof off-centre to right, and small projecting stack to left end. Irregular fenestration of one small four-light ovolo-moulded mullioned casement with leaded panes to each outer bay. Two storey canted bay, probably the original hall window, to larger, left-hand bay of hall, extending through coving almost to eaves. Ground floor of bay has six-light early C20 casement, first floor filled in and painted to resemble close studding. Hollow-chamfered four-centred arched door head with carved spandrels to right end of hall, with moulded brattished bressumer above. Ribbed door, probably original. Original, blocked, door opening on first floor to rear of left side elevation (possibly for garderobe?). Weatherboarded lean-to to right end.

Interior: moulded and brattished screens and dais beams, two 4-centred arched service doors with hollow spandrels and hollow-chamfered jambs, and plain opening to 'service' end stairs. 'Service' stairs original. Moulded central truss posts and tie-beam and moulded octagonal central crown-post. Other crown-posts plain. Original smoke-blackened hall wall to right on first floor. Internal tension braces and rebated corner posts. Unusual survival of original vertical stud, lathe and daub wall concealing coving from inside hall. Hall floor and stack circa 1600. An "unusually sumptuous C16 Wealden house, unusually well preserved, i.e. not restored." (J. Newman: Buildings of England Series, North East and East Kent, 1969). Eric Mercer, English Vernacular Houses, 1975.W. Galsworthy Davie and E. Guy Dawber, Old Cottages and Farmhouses in Kent and Sussex, London 1900 Pl.6.

Listing NGR: TQ8713052394

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 173763
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Galsworthy Davie, W, Guy Dawber, E, Old Cottages and Farmhouses in Kent and Sussex, London, (1900)
Mercer, Eric, English Vernacular Houses, (1975)
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent, (1969)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.