Summary
Farmhouse. Early to mid-C19. Probably altered in the late-C19 when briefly converted to two cottages. Late-C20 extension and alterations.
Reasons for Designation
Mileham Farmhouse, Gravelly Ways, Yalding, Kent, a former farmhouse of early to mid-C19 date, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a good-quality, brick-built farmhouse typical of the Low-Weald;
* despite later alterations, the building retains a significant proportion of its historic fabric.
Historic interest and group value:
* with the adjoining Grade II-listed C17 barn with which it forms a cohesive group, illustrative of the history of the farmstead and providing evidence of the agricultural history of the area.
History
The Ordnance Survey One Inch map of 1819 indicates a farmstead on the site but shows only one building which may be the C17 barn. However, the farmhouse is likely to date from the first half of the C19. The house and barn are shown on the OS first edition 1:10,560 scale map of 1872 but are not shown in any detail until the 1894 1:2,500 OS map. This shows the farmhouse marked as a single dwelling with a southern outshut, directly to the north-west of the barn. On the 1897 edition the house is shown as partitioned into two dwellings and outbuildings have been added to the east and south of the house. By the time of the 1908 edition the house seems to have reverted back to a single dwelling, as it is also shown on the 1937 edition.
In the mid-1980s a two-storey extension was added to the north elevation of the farmhouse and in 2000 the barn was converted and connected to the farmhouse by a short link.
Details
Farmhouse. Early to mid-C19. Probably altered in the late-C19 when briefly converted to two cottages. Late-C20 extension and alterations.
MATERIALS: red brick with burnt headers laid in Flemish bond. Slate roofs.
PLAN: the original building consists of a square-plan, two-storey, hip-roofed range with a single-storey side outshut with a catslide roof on the southern end. The late-C20, two-storey extension on the northern side of the building is in the same style as the original building, slightly recessed on the front elevation and projecting to the rear. The north end of the southern outshut adjoins the separately listed Grade II barn.
Internally, the main range has an altered double-pile plan. The two front rooms now comprise a large single room with a wide repositioned staircase facing the main entrance and a deep niche created by the extension of the room to the rear in the north-east corner. The rear rooms comprise a large kitchen and smaller utility room. The outshut has a main room with a small lobby to the east giving access to the kitchen and to the north-west corner of the barn. The modern extension has a single large room.
The first-floor has two front bedrooms and a rear bedroom and bathroom (partitioned to create an ensuite bathroom for the eastern of the two bedrooms in the modern extension), all reached off an axial landing.
EXTERIOR: the main range has a symmetrical principal (west) elevation with a central entrance flanked by two windows and two windows on the first floor. These are eight-over-eight timber sash windows in square-headed openings with timber sills. Those on the first-floor are directly under the flat eaves soffits and the ground-floor ones have rendered splayed lintels. The entrance has a four-panelled door with four glazed lights at the top. There is a pair of red brick gable end stacks. The southern outshut has paired eight-light timber casement windows with a flat stone, or rendered, lintel. The 1980s two-storey northern extension has sympathetic fenestration broadly matching the main range but some of the sash windows have double-hung sidelights.
The fenestration of the rear (east) elevation is irregular. A central entrance with modern timber stable doors is flanked to the south by modern timber triple-casements with a timber lintel, possibly in an original opening, and to the north by a pair of six-pane casements in an opening with a brick segmental arch. This appears to have been inserted into a larger original opening. There is evidence of a blocked doorway between the window and the late-C20 extension. The outshut has a small window with a painted lintel. The fenestration of the first floor is limited to two small square timber casements at the north end of the elevation. Evidence of a tall, centrally placed, staircase window survives in the brickwork. The southern elevation is whitewashed with the outshut having a pair of single-pane modern timber casements and the first-floor has triple, six-pane timber casements.
INTERIOR: the closed-string stairs are not original and have been repositioned. They consist of a straight run up to a landing with opposing short flights at the top. In the front room the two plain brick fireplaces have gauged brick segmental arches with modern hoods and grates. The outshut is exposed to the roof with cross beams, rafters and purlin. Doors are mainly modern plank doors but some original plank and batten doors survive to cupboards in the kitchen and in the door between the kitchen and utility room. A substantial angled iron support to the structure of the stair is present in the kitchen.
On the first floor the two fireplaces have fluted timber surrounds and cast iron grates but most of the joinery is modern. The roof structure is largely original with some alteration to the northern hip to accommodate the intersection with the roof of the late-C20 extension.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a brick farmyard boundary wall with piers with angled stone caps runs east from the south east corner of the outshut to the garage. The garage retains much of its late-C19 brickwork but has a late-C20 tile-covered roof with bargeboard covered gables.
