Badsell Manor Farmhouse

Details

TQ 64 SE CAPEL BADSELL ROAD

6/208 Badsell Manor Farmhouse 20.10.54 GV II

Moated farmhouse. Medieval origins, rebuilt in the late C16 and C17, extensively remodelled in the mid/late C19. Whole house is built on a plinth faced up with large coursed blocks of local sandstone. Most of the ground floor is C19 Flemish bond red brick including burnt headers and most of the first floor level is timber-framed and hung with C19 tile including bands of scallop-shaped tile. The south east front section is late C16/early C17 English bond red brick with sandstone ashlar quoins; brick stacks, most in late C16/early C17 brick with contemporary chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.

Plan: Large house facing south west with an irregular kind of double pile plan.' Front and back ate 4 rooms wide. Entrance hall set between projecting parlours. The left end parlour has a projecting end stack and the right parlour has an axial stack backing onto the left end room. This stack is joined to the front lateral stack serving the left room. Dining room rear left end with axial stack backing onto a small unheated room, probably a buttery. Next to it is the main stair and kitchen rear right end has a rear lateral stack. This is a complex multi-phase house, its development confused by the extensive reuse of old timbers. The roof structure seems to suggests that the rear pile is the oldest part of the house and that most of the front part was added in the late C16 and first half of the C17. The front stacks all date from that time.

House is 2 storeys throughout.

Exterior: Attractive house. 4-bay front rising from the moat. The left 3 bays have a symmetrical 1:1:1-window front of C19 casements with glazing bars. The centre bay, containing the main doorway is recessed and there is a platform in front with access across the moat by means of a C20 bridge. Doorway contains a C19 9-panel door with overlight under a low segmental brick arch. The moulded beam above may be C17. Each bay has a separate roof running back into the main roof. The centre roof is half-hipped to the front and the flanking roofs are hipped. The right end front bay is also recessed. It is a particularly impressive section of late C16/early C17 masonry and brickwork incorporating 2 adjacent stacks. The stone plinth has an irregular top and also a pronounced batter on the end corner. There is a straight join between the 2 main flues and they have separate chimneyshafts. The right flue is decorated with a diaper pattern of burnt headers. On top is a pair of tall octagonal shafts with a star-shaped cornice. The left flue has a tall chimneyshaft with an attractive but irregular angular section.

The right (south eastern) end wall is now the main entrance front since the moat has been filled on this side. It has a 2:1-window front under 3 gables. The left 2-window section is early brick but the sandstone 2-light windows with segmental headed lights are probably C19. The right hand one-window front is wholly C19 except that the ground floor window is a C20 replacement. All 3 gables have C19 bargeboards with apex pendants and the right hand gable is jettied. Most of the windows in the rear and end walls are C20 replacement casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass.

Interior: Largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations and some exposed beams are probably reused, e.g. the crossbeam in the rear dining room. Both front parlours, and the first floor chamber front left end have sandstone ashlar fireplaces with Tudor arch heads and the same chamber includes sections of a moulded wall plate. Good mid/late C17 stair with closed string, square- section newel posts, moulded flat handrail and turned vase-like oak balusters. The roof structure is a complex arrangement and was much mended in the C19. The clean roof of common rafter A-frame trusses over the main rear part may be medieval if the mortises are from missing soulaces. The roof over the front right hand parlour is late C16 or early C17; common rafter A-frame trussed with curivng arch braces nailed on to provide the shape for a coved plaster ceiling over the parlour chamber.

According to the owners research the earliest documentary mention of the place dates from 1259.

Sources. The front stack is illustrated in K. Gravett. Timber and Brick Building in Kent (1971) plate 107.

Listing NGR: TQ6578344728

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

433854

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gravett, K, Timber and Brick Building in Kent, (1971)

End of official list entry

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