Knowlton Court

Details

TR 25 SE
3/66

GOODNESTONE
KNOWLTON
Knowlton Court

13.10.52

GV
I
House. 1585 for Sir Thomas Peyton, altered and extended 1715 for Sir Thomas D'Aeth, part remodelled and gardens laid out 1904 by Reginald Blomfield, and Drawing room (and gate lodge) by Edwin Lutyens 1912, both for Major Elmer Speed.

Red brick in English bond on flint base with plain tiled plat bands and cornice in two levels, not carried over end right bay. Seven bays wide, two end left projecting and with pilaster quoins, centre three recessed, projecting sixth bay and recessed end right bay, also set on higher base than the rest of the front. Kneelered gables to each bay except the centre three, topped by wide, shallow pediment. Stacks to left, end right and cluster of seven moulded flues to centre. The central area remodelled 1715, with two round windows and semi-circular headed glazing bar sash in centre on second floor, and three glazing bar sashes on first floor, the centre with a pediment, and two on ground floor. The mullioned and transomed windows to the two right end bays largely original, those to the two left of 1904. These two end bays were also remodelled in 1715 with Dutch gables and sashes, but made to match the C16 work by Blomfield.

Basement opening to left. Central half-glazed door in rusticated stone surround with four moulded steps. Service wing to rear left facing the Church of St Clement added 1715, of two storeys and attic with plinth and panelled parapet to hipped roof with four dormers and stacks to left and to right. Five cross windows and one blank space on first floor and five cross windows on ground floor all with flying cornices with central double half-glazed doors with rectangular fanlight, with three (originally four) cross windows on right return.

Interior: hall, with wainscotting of 1904 and cross-beamed ceiling of same date. Fire place of stone, lugged, with scrolled frieze carved with festoon in relief supporting a pediment containing arms of D'Aeth, and possibly of c.1715 rather than C20, the foliated frieze in the style of Gibbons, C16 fireplaces elsewhere. Main stair C20 in C16 style of heavy turned balusters.

The White staircase is early C18, three storeys around an open well, with turned balusters with square knops and open string on brackets, with double ramped and wreathed handrail and ramped dado panelling. Drawing room, by Lutyens, 1912, in late C17 manner, with panelling, fluted Corinthian pilasters (6 on the long sides, four on the short sides) with a frieze encircled with Gibbons-style festoons and swags and modillion cornice to enriched plaster beamed ceiling (based on original in the Victoria and Albert Museum). Lugged bolection moulded fireplace with swags, festoons and palm fronds and relief arms of Charles II, a copy and pair to that in the Church of St Clement, Knowlton, the frieze over with a pair of winged cherubs. Heraldic glass from the church, mostly of the Peyton family (the last died 1686). Edward Lord Wootton lived and died here 1628.

Listing NGR: TR2813653331

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

177927

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hasted, E, History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, (1797), 87-92
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent, (1983), 368-369
Knowlton Court in Country Life, Vol. 39, (29 April 1916), 534ff

End of official list entry

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