Summerthorn Farmhouse

Summerthorn Farmhouse, Lower Street, Hildenborough, Tonbridge Kent, TN11 8PT

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1248178
Date first listed:
19-Feb-1990
List Entry Name:
Summerthorn Farmhouse
Statutory Address:
Summerthorn Farmhouse, Lower Street, Hildenborough, Tonbridge Kent, TN11 8PT
Upper story and roof of Farm House as seen from the North West in Lower Street
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Date:
2005-06-22
Reference:
IOE01/14447/03
Rights:
© Mr Ron Garvey. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1248178
Date first listed:
19-Feb-1990
List Entry Name:
Summerthorn Farmhouse
Statutory Address 1:
Summerthorn Farmhouse, Lower Street, Hildenborough, Tonbridge Kent, TN11 8PT

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

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

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

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

Location

Statutory Address:
Summerthorn Farmhouse, Lower Street, Hildenborough, Tonbridge Kent, TN11 8PT

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

County:
Kent
District:
Tonbridge and Malling (District Authority)
Parish:
Hildenborough
National Grid Reference:
TQ 54571 48176

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 4 July 2022 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

TQ 54 NW
4/144

HILDENBOROUGH
LOWER STREET (south side)
Summerthorn Farmhouse

(Formerly listed as Lower Street Farmhouse)

GV
II

Former farmhouse. Late C17 with C18 alteration and a C19 rear addition. Framed construction, the main range underbuilt on the ground floor in Flemish bond brick with blue headers, a moulded fascia board at first floor level and the upper storey tile-hung with bands of scalloped tiles. Rear wing nogged with brick to the ground floor, C19 addition tile-hung on the first floor with brown shaped tiles; peg-tile roof; brick stacks.

Plan: Sited end on to the road, facing east. The framed building is L plan, the main block two-rooms wide with an entrance into a central passage containing the stair, parlour to the left (south) kitchen to the right, with an unheated rear right service room. In the C18 the house was refurbished, re-windowed and may have been partly underbuilt in brick at the same time. In the C19 the house was extended by a heated kitchen wing filling in the rear left corner, roofed on a north south axis and effectively giving the house a double depth plan and involving the re-use of the old kitchen as a second parlour.

Exterior: two storeys, attic and cellar. Roof hipped at right (north) end of the main range, gabled at the left, gabled at the rear of the service wing; massive projecting right end double stack, serving the old kitchen fireplace. Slightly asymmetrical three-window front with steps up to an almost central C18 six-panel front door with an overlight and flat porch hood on brackets. Two ground floor tripartite sash windows, possibly C18 in origin but reglazed with C19 four-pane sashes. The three first-floor windows have C18 moulded architraves and are glazed with C19 four-pane sashes. Three first floor attic dormers with hipped roofs and probably C19 two-light casements with glazing bars. The rear elevation has C20 windows.

Interior: Chamfered stopped ceiling beam to the two ground floor rooms, the right (north) room in the main range has a massive kitchen fireplace, almost the whole width of the room, with an oak lintel and a brick strainer arch in the chimney breast. C19 dog-leg stair. Jowled wall posts to the wall-framing visible upstairs. Some C18 joinery survives on the first floor including two-panel doors and a fitted wall cupboard.

Roof: Inaccessible at time of survey (1988) but the rear wing retains old rafters.

Summerthorn Farmhouse is said to have been the home of the Children family, one of the most successful yeoman families of the district, from at least the C13 ('Dachurst Manor and Selby's Farm', text of a talk by J.M. Edwards to the Leigh Historical Society, 21.2.86).

Group value with listed farmbuildings on the site.

Listing NGR: TQ5458948148

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
179580
Legacy System:
LBS

Legal

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

Ordnance survey map of Summerthorn Farmhouse

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 15-Jun-2026 at 10:55:55.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

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.

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