The Old Vicarage Vicarage Cottage

Details

TQ 9549 CHARING MARKET PLACE

1155/22/3 The old Vicarage

14.02.67 II*


Includes: VICARAGE COTTAGE, MARKET PLACE
Two houses, formerly probably house and Court Hall, later vicarage. Complex structure comprising two formerly separate structures, to the north an early open hall of Wealden type, probably very early C15 (Vicarage Cottage), and at right angles a two storey three bay building with first floor hall (the Old Vicarage) which is probably a Court hall dating from the second quarter of the C16, both in the ownership of the Archbishop of Canterbury until 1546. Circa 1702, the buildings were linked and became a vicarage. The building was restored and refronted in 1885. Timberframed building, ground floor refaced in brick or roughcast, above tile-hung. The first floor oversails, Wide eaves overhanging on brackets. Steeply pitched hipped tiled roof Two storeys and attics to Vicarage Cottage .Irregular fenestration, mainly C19 sash windows with vertical glazing bars intact. Vicarage Cottage has a recessed second bay with triple casement, curved in the centre. Right side first floor window is an unusual triple sliding sash. The gable to right projects with strapwork design and date 1885. One hipped dormer to the west of this. Plank door. One off central brick stack of C19 brickwork and external stack to rear. This was a Wealden house with open hall of two bays. Interior has moulded dais beam and frame has braces of open truss springing from low down main posts. Jowled upright posts, shutter grooves and three panel plank door. The braces and tie beam of the open truss have quarter-round mouldings. Crownpost with four way braces. The Old Vicarage has two sashes to first floor of east or entrance front, one in central projecting two storey porch of C19 date with arched opening with wooden brackets and C19 plank door. South front of two bays has projecting bay to right and French window. West front has roof in three hips, external brick stack and four windows including two storey triple bay to right hand side. North front has C17 or early C18 brick gable hung with curved tiles which shows a blocked attic window internally. The Old Vicarage was originally jettied on the long east and west sides and the first floor is spanned by two open crownpost trusses suggesting a single open chamber. There is a fine arched brace with moulded pilasters and the top of an original doorhead. The ground floor probably had a single unheated chamber. This building is unlikely to have been a domestic building and is possibly a court hall of about the second quarter of the C16. In 1702 the building became a vicarage and improvements included a staircase of three turned balusters and scrolled tread ends , of which only the top survives, wide fireplace with wooden bressumer and possible breadoven to side, wooden fireplace to Dining Room with Gibbs surround and brackets, brick paving to Dining Room and some two-panelled doors. There are a series of fireplaces with C19 cast iron firegrates and some interesting C19 window shutters which fold vertically in three sections. Well is now incorporated in building, stone to top and brick lined below. Roof has original C16 rafters and tie beams, C18 collar beams and inserted purlins. In 1528, John Brent, who also held Pierce House in Charing, was granted a lease of the Archbishop's Palace, its appurtenances and certain other buildings which may have included the great hall. The Archbishop reserved all manorial rights, which meant that he would have required a Court Hall. The Wealden house may have housed the Archbishop's Steward and the other building may have been built as a Court Hall c1530. The building may also have been used for Church Ales with a Meeting Room on the first floor. The manor of Charing passed from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Crown in 1546.

[See RCHM Report on "The Old Vicarage and Vicarage Cottage" by Sarah Pearson June 1987.
RCHM "Gazeteer of Mediaeval Houses in Kent" by Sarah Pearson et al. P26.
Leland Duncan manuscript notebooks in K A S library in Maidstone Museum, Miscellaneous volumes and Vol IX (He was Vicar of Charing from 1883) transcribed by Patricia M Winzar. ]



Listing NGR: TQ9553649439

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

180768

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pearson, S, Barnwell, P S, Adams, A T, A Gazeteer of Medieval Houses in Kent, (1994), 26

End of official list entry

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