Oxen Hoath

Details

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TQ 65 SW
1/13

WEST PECKHAM
OXENHOATH ROAD
Oxen Hoath

(Formerly listed as SCHOOL ROAD (south side) Oxon Hoath)

1.8.52

II*

Some remains of late C16 house on site that had been occupied earlier. House extensively remodelled after 1757 and c 1846 by Anthony Salvin. Further additions by Burn & McVicar Anderson, 1878. Coursed rubble stone throughout, slate hipped roofs.

Entrance front. Rusticated and painted rendered ground-floor. Painted rendered plat-band and quoins. Eaves cornice with four small pediments to sides, one larger over centre. Three storeys, 55 bays, glazing bar sashes in painted moulded window surrounds with sills. Central bay projects slightly with segmental pediment on brackets over central first floor window. Central arched doorway with fanlight and half-glazed double-doors, balcony over with balustrade resting on console brackets carved with masks. Earlier two-storey wing to left with blocked Elizabethan six-light transom and mullion window on ground floor to right. Irregular fenestration of tripartite and single sashes. Now masked by shrubs and trees.

South front. Two storey fenestration, with three storeys internally behind left-hand two bays, visable in upper part of two left-hand ground floor windows. Eight bays, with 2-3-2-1 rhythmn three bay bow and right-hand one bay tower. Eaves cornice with small windows to sides of central bow. Octagonalised Mansard roof over bow woth shallow dome above and wrought iron railings to platform over. Three storey, one bay tower to right topped by very tall and steep square Mansard roof. Arched windows in arched recesses to both south and east sides of tower, the surrounds in rusticated render. Balconies over on heavily decorated console brackets. One storey billiard room extension to east by Burn & McVicar Anderson. East side of house, partly hidden by extensions, but with four pediments on eaves cornice and irregular fenestration of single and tripartite sashes.

Interior. Mixture of C18 and C19 rooms and motifs. All doorcases late C18 with flat hoods. Hall with screen colonnade of fluted composite columns. C18 chimney-piece. Central stair-hall. Two storeys with coved ceiling and central square lantern light. Central acanthus bass, lion brackets at sides. Gallery on two sides of stair-hall with Ionic columns and pilastered piers, balustrades between coming forward. Chair-leg balusters throughout. Three flight square-well stair-case in centre.Two tall arched entrances to stairhall to east and west under south landing. Library with panelled bow. Bookshelfs in heavy neo-Jacobean style, carved in wood. Carved two storey fireplace with earlier, probably C17, central panel of angels. Louis XV style pelmet-hoods. Deep, lush, but delicate cornice and thin-ribbed ceiling.

South-west room. Painted acanthus cornice. Later C18 French fireplace of carved wood in Marie Antoinette rustic shepherd style, painted realistically. Dining Room. Late C18 cornice incorporating military cartouches. C18 wooden chimney-piece. Drawing-room. C18 chimney-piece with relief of Oedipus and the Riddle of the Sphinx in panel below mantelpiece. Heavy ribbed ceiling and Louis XV-style pelmet-hoods.

This house has a II* rating for its interest as a building known from the sources to have been remodelled three times and because of its interesting interiors. View of Jacobean house by Kip: 'THE HISTORY OF KENT IN FIVE PARTS', John Harris, London, 1719, Vol I, Book II, page 235. There is a view of the house in the later C18, before the Salvin alteration, from the south-west, in the house.

Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 'S', London, 1976, 14. Details of the three preliminary exterior sketch perspectives by Salvin and the sketch elevation of the Library interior, all c 1846, that survive in the RIBA Drawings Collection.

Listing NGR: TQ6304852140

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

178969

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Harris, J, The History of Kent in 5 parts, (1719), 235
Catalogue of the Drawings Collection in Catalogue of the Drawings Collection, Vol. 14, (1976), 14

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 24 Kent,

End of official list entry

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