St Michaels

Details

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST BURRSWOOD, OLD GROOMBRIDGE

16/469 St Michaels (formerly listed as 18.1.77 St Michael's Wing)

GV II

House, in use as a healing centre. 1831-38, built to the designs of Decimus Burton for Alderman David Salomons, who later became High Sheriff for Kent and Sussex (Lee, p.24); C20 alterations associated with the present use of the building, including additions. Local sandstone ashlar; slate roofs with lead rolls; stacks with stone shafts. Although described as Tudor in the Old List Description, the fanciful detail is closer to C18 Gothick.

Plan: Long, irregular, approximately rectangular range with a garden elevation facing south south east, say south, entrance on the north side. The principal rooms face south, services to the east. The internal plan has been altered, including the removal of the principal stair. 1950s chapel addition at the west end.

Exterior: 2 and 3 storeys. Coped gables with kneelers and moulded stringcourses to the verges, some of the gables false but windowed to give an impression of an extra storey. Various Gothick window forms: some with Tudor arched heads, some square-headed, some with triangular hoodmoulds, some lancets. The original glazing, which survives in some windows, was small-pane casements. Some unfortunate C20 replacement. Hipped and gabled slate roofs; stacks with very tall grouped shafts with moulded bases and corbelled caps, some of the stacks octagonal. Asymmetrical 9-window entrance (north) elevation made up of various blocks of different heights. 2-bay entrance block to right of centre with a projecting coped gabled porch with kneelers and a Tudor arched doorway. 2 gabled dormers with Tudor arched windows with original glazing and hoodmoulds. Square-headed 2-light window to the left of the porch with a high transomed small-pane casement with a hoodmould. To the right of the entrance block a rather altered 4-bay block has a parapet and projecting lateral stack, the chimneyshafts unfortunately rebuilt. 3 first floor small-pane 2-light casements with hoodmoulds, ground floor windows altered in the C20. 2 attic dormers with segmental arched roofs. To the left of the entrance block 3 gabled bays, each with symmetrically-arranged windows of various different designs and false gables, the 2 left hand gables with respectively, a bullseye window and a 2-light Tudor arched window with a hoodmould, glazed with stained glass. The service wing, set back to the left, continues in the same style. The garden (south) elevation of the main block is more regular. A projecting 4-bay block to the right (east) has 4 gables to the front, and a moulded string at sill level of the first floor windows, which have square-headed hoodmoulds except the left hand window, which is Tudor arched. 4 tall ground floor windows, the 2 centre windows paired, all with hoodmoulds. The left and right returns of the projecting block have canted bays with end stacks, the flues apparently divided on the ground floor on either side of a ground floor window with a hoodmould and carved label stops. To the left the range is set back: 2 bays with 2-light first floor windows with hoodmoulds, attic dormers with segmental arched roofs, C20 flat- roofed single-storey addition on the front. Gabled block set back at the right end with a Tudor arched first floor window with a hoodmould.

Interior: Considerably re-arranged in the c20. The entrance hall has a fine cantilevered winder stair with stick balusters and a ramped handrail, said not to be the original stair. Principal rooms retain C18 style panelling and chimney-pieces. Considerable C20 refurbishment, including a small oratory.

Sources Colvin, H., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (1978 end.), p.173. Lee, Barbara. Groombridge Old and New (1978), p.24.

Listing NGR: TQ5209037732

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

438767

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Lee, B, Groombridge Old and New, (1978), 24
Colvin, H M, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), 173

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.