Details
TR 0446 0546 WYE HIGH STREET
(north side)
8/267 Wye College,
13.10.52 Cloister Quad-
rangle
GV I
College. Founded 1432, occupied by 1448. Founded by Cardinal Archbishop
John Kempe. Altered 1739. Timber framed on flint base and clad with red
brick, and structural flint and red brick. Plain tiled roofs. The original
college consisted of this cloister (domestic ranges and great hall) and
detached school house and service building, such as the surviving brewhouse
(see items 8 / 265 and 8 / 266 .). South (Old Entrance) front flint
ground floor with string course to red brick upper storey with hipped roof,
with stacks to centre left and centre right. Five glazing bar sashes on
1st floor, C15 Perpendicular cusped lights on ground floor, 1 pair, 1 triple
and 4 single. Central panelled door in pedimented porch with barley sugar
columns with bobbin-like capitals (the tomb of Lady Joanna Thornhill in Wye
College also has barley sugar columns - she refounded a school in the
college 1708). Left return (to churchyard) roughcast on ground floor with
3 light cusped windows to left and to right, with central arched doorway to
cloister garth. Glazing bar sashes on brick 1st floor. Other exterior
faces now within early C20 quadrangles, that immediately to east showing
the moulded arched doorway through to the cloister, with mullioned square
headed window over, and the Hall with 2 four-centred arched mullioned
windows of the C15, and full height canted bay with 3 tier mullioned and
transomed lights, the bay part of early C20 work. Cloister garth: the
east wall with 2 depressed arched windows to Hall with brick stack project-
ing between them (truncated shaft). Originally fully framed, the arcade
and gallery over rebuilt 1739 in red brick in English bond, with simple
arcaded ground floor, plat band and boxed eaves, with glazing bar sashes
on 1st floor. Within the inner wall the original, and fine, moulded C15
doorways survive, with C17 and earlier doors, C15 in some cases?
Particularly good the wave moulded doorway with plank and stud door to the
staircase. Interiors: Hall: renewed screen passage at southern end,
with C15 four centred arched doorways. Four centred arched stone fireplace
with fireback dated 1610, possibly the date also of the wainscotting
with fluted pilasters and cornice. Crenellated dais beam. Tall octagonal
crown posts on moulded tie beams. Fragments of stained glass (Kempe's
Arms) in bay window. Parlour (later library): to north of Hall, entered
also via cloister by linenfold panelled door in fluted surround to Ante
room, with painted wainscotting. Parlour with heavily enriched panelling
with foliated and scrolled pilasters, grotesque heads on bifurcated frieze
with dragon motifs. Heavily carved and enriched beams. Stone fireplace
carved in same manner as panelling with linenfold panel overmantel
Structurally C15, decoratively late C16, the bay window and bookshelves
c.1900 (and 1980). Staircase: (in the north range) C17 open well with
half-landing, with heavily moulded rail on turned balusters with moulded
string, and great doubled newels, acting as pedestals for statuettes (nearly
naked figures now kept in other rooms in the old part of the College).
The top flight becomes a newel stair. The timber framed structure
apparent in the upper floor, with crown posts throughout, with octagonal
capitals and bulbous bases. Upper rooms with double arcaded panelled
overmantel and bead moulded wainscotting with strapwork frieze (over the
Parlour range). Modern chapel formed at west end of range, behind the
stair. South cloister range: Senior common room. Enriched stone fire-
place and moulded beams. Simple C18 stair (to pedimented south entrance
doorway), with wreathed rail and geometric plan. Northbourne room:
decorated C18 with doors of 6 raised and fielded panels, with wainscotting.
Stained glass dated 1346, 1546 and HW 1635. Upper rooms (offices and
bedrooms) with simple C18 and C17 panelling (arcaded overmantel, fluted
pilasters and carved plinth in office). Some exposed panelling. The
college founded by Kempe was for a Master, a Master of Grammar, 6 clerks
and 2 choristers. Dissolved 1545 and sold to private hands, always with
the proviso that the Grammar School be maintained (see the Latin School),
item 8/266 ), the south side of the cloister was used as the Master's
residence. From 1708 the northern half of the College was used for Lady
Joanna Thornhill's Charity school. In 1724 the 2 schools were devided
the buildings, bought 1892 (and expanded) by Kent and Surrey County
Councils as agricultural college, now the Agricultural Department of the
University of London. (See B.O.E. Kent II 505-6; Hasted VII, 354 ff).
Listing NGR: TR0547446856
