Some Timber-Framed Houses in the Kentish Weald

( 169 ) SOME TIMBER-FRAMED HOUSES IN THE KENTISH WEALD. BY H. S. COWPER, ESQ., P.S.A. INTKODUCTOEY. IN the great clay plain which traverses Kent from west to east, and lies wholly within the Weald, there are perhaps two features which are especially characteristic. One is the extraordinary number of ponds which dot the map, and the other is the timber-framed houses and farm buildings of various dates, into the construction of which as a general rule brick does not enter, and stone only for foundations. The connection between houses and ponds may not at once be apparent, but the number of the latter has never been completely explained, and it is possible that many of them have been dug for the marly clay, from which the so-called loaming, which, filled the panels of these timber houses, was made. When one considers that in every house and barn not only the outer walls, but the inside partitions were largely made up of this filling, it will be recognized that a large supply was required. The timber houses themselves are so often disguised by tiling and weather boards, or have been subject to structural modification and modernizing, that it is difficult to realize how numerous and interesting they are. Tt was the purchase of the old timber-framed residence of Loddenden, Staplehurst, that turned my attention to these buildings, and I now venture to put before the Society some notes, plans, and details of a few in this part of the Weald. '' The study of these houses is a fascinating one, for anybody who cares for old domestic work, On examination it voi,. XXIX, H" 170 SOME TIMBER-PRAMED HOUSES is possible to group them into types; but it seems to me, that although these unpretentious dwellings have received some notice from antiquaries and architects, sufficient attention has not hitherto been paid to the development of the ground plan, which probably is the best way of classifying th.em; The difficulties in the way of dating them by the means of detail are very great, owing to the overlapping of styles during the- sixteenth century; and this difficulty is increased by the fact that in certain areas the houses appear to have originated for different purposes. By this I mean that some of these houses were erected as manor houses for the small manors which were characteristic of Kent, some for the larger yeomen, and some for influential clothiers' families; and the character and finish of the work put into them was, I think, influenced by these facts. Again, in dealing with the houses by detail, one is largely handicapped by the process of decay and reconstruction, since the first has often caused the removal of the original windows, barge boards, and sometimes the fascia boards protecting the joist ends. Reconstruction, weather tiling, and boarding, have covered up features right and left; but in most cases a survey, if done with sufficient care, will reveal the original plan. Still further, I believe that a study of detail and mouldings alone will be found very confusing, identical mouldings being used long after their first mtroduction. The overlapping of styles also appears to have caused the use of detail that in more pretentious buildings would probably have been quite out of fashion. There are indeed so many points to consider in discussing rural architecture, that probably only a writer thoroughly versed in local history and trained as an architect can treat it adequately, so that I feel some diffidence in approaching the subject. Vet the desirability of recording ground plans must be my excuse. When, hunting for precedents, I began, to examine these houses I was astonished to find how many houses still exist which have been constructed on the mediseval open-roofed hall plan, So numerous are these, that probably in many IN THE KENTISH WEALD. 17 1 parts of the Weald it is impossible to go a mile in any direction without finding one. In no case, however, have these halls been left-open to the roof, for at some subsequent date a floor has been laid to make bedrooms over, and other structural alterations have generally been carried out at the same time. These inserted floors have of course always remained, except in one or two instances where a house of this character has been acquired for the purpose of bringing out the ancient features. JSTow in many parts of England such a thing as an openroofed hall hardly exists, even in manor houses, much less in yeomen's homesteads ; and such is the case in Cumberland and the Lakes, which were formerly largely owned by statesmen (estatesmen) or yeomen, and where very hard stone formed the building material. This makes it more interesting to find them so numerous in a district where timber alone was obtainable. Eeverting to the question of dating timber houses, I have ventured to say that the plan and general arrangement appear to have been neglected. Certain suggestions have indeed been made as to guides in the date of a building, among which we find— 1. If the upright intermediate posts (which were in general use in the home counties) are placed close together the building is early. 2. That if the joist ends which project to carry the floor of the oversailing, or jetty storey, are covered with a fascia board, the building, belongs to a later type, since this was done to hide the joists, which were becoming lighter as timber got rarer.* 3. Exactly the reverse of the above, viz., that it is a sign of early work if the joists are covered with a fascia board.f Prom my own observation I feel much inclined to doubt any of these rules, at any rate for this part of Kent, and I think it would be easy to point out both early and late * R. Nevill, Old Cottage and Domestic Architecture in S. W. Surrey, 1889, p. 36. f P, H- Ditohfleld, The Manor Houses of England, p. 69. If 2 172. SOME. TIMBER-PRAMED HOUSES houses in which,the fascia board is used, and late ones in which the timbering is close. As a matter of fact this close timbering was generally used only on the front elevation, and was I believe chiefly decorative, and it was simply a question whether the original builder cared for the appearance of his house and could afford it. ;. I would prefer to adopt the following criterions of date :— 1. The ground and sectional plans as first built. 2. The measurements of main posts and corner posts and measurements and sections of girders. But even in an external examination there are certain rules which may be taken as almost definite :— .. 1. A house which oversails or overhangs at each end of the front, but not in the middle, is early. . 2. A house that oversails at the first floor the whole length of its elevation is later. 3. A house that has no oversailing storey at all is generally late. 4. A house supported on four corner posts is probably early and untouched externally. The reasons for these propositions will be apparent in this Paper, but it may be pointed out here that, in the first, the fact that it oversails at each end, but not in the middle, is an almost certain indication of the open-hall type, because the oversailing storeys shew that floors are laid at each end of the building of which the joists project, and that such joists are absent in the middle, which means usually that there was no floor originally laid there. Of course the open-hall type, of which I shall describe two examples, takes precedence of the others as a type. But the question is, At what date did the erection of this type come to an end?. And also whether open-hall houses were ever erected after the fashion for building with rooms over the hall, and for inserting the floors, had set in. The Renaissance began about 1516, affecting at first the detail of houses and not the plan,* and may be said to have been fully # Crotch, Growth of the English House, pp, 134, 136, IN THE KENTISH WEALD. l7 3 established in the time of Inigo Jones, say a hundred years later, i.e., 1616. I think therefore it is reasonable that we may, when not treating any individual example, class roughly the open-hall type of homestead as a fifteenth-century type, while those built with rooms over the hall may be sixteenth century or later. It is only by examination of numerous examples that we -can ascertain if the fifteenth-century type houses were often erected in the sixteenth century, or if any of the later type were erected before the conclusion of the fifteenth century. Inthe majority of the older timber houses of the Weald I have come to the conclusion that for safety's sake the cooking was done in a kitchen built quite separate, beside or behind the offices which always adjoin the hall. At any rate, in no single instance that I have been able to examine is there any trace of an original kitchen as part of the structure. These out-of-door kitchens have now disappeared, and it is pretty evident that with the disuse of the hall it sometimes became the kitchen. Therefore inside these houses the only original fire was the central hearth, from which the smoke escaped through a roof vent, and doors and windows. The same change of habits and new wants which made them build in floors for extra bedrooms, called for brick fireplaces and flues, and these were generally obtained by erecting an enormous chimney of brick within the house from eight to ten feet in width in order that it should carry four flues, one from the much curtailed room formed from the hall, one from the room behind the hall—either the old parlour or else a new parlour made out of the old offices—and one from each of the bedrooms above. If they had put the chimneystack at the back of the hall instead of practically in it, it would have only given them two fireplaces, so that the other course was generally adopted. But this system set the example for the new houses, so that we find the great chimney-stack built in the same way inside the house and between hall and parlour, and taking up so much space that it made the frontage nine or ten feet longer than otherwise would have been necessary. The amount of internal space 174 SOME TIMBER-PRAMED HOUSES lost in the older houses by this building-in process was very great. Into the very interesting methods of construction, framing, and materials, etc., I do not propose to enter here, since it would occupy much space, and also because the subject has been well treated by Mr. Charles Baily, Mr. Ralph Nevill, and others.* Both methods and materials are indeed so utterly different to those in general use that the subject well deserves attention, especially as they are methods and materials which though of the utmost excellence can never be revived in England. The examples now to be described will no doubt illustrate sufficiently the above remarks. PATTENDEN, GOUDHURST. The ancient timber house of Pattenden nestles atthe bottom of Goudhurst Hill on the right hand of the road leading nearly due south to Bedgebury. • I t faces east, and its high pitched tile roof is a noticeable feature from the bridge crossing the line from Paddock Wood to Hawkhurst. It is now the pro - perty and residence of Mr. W. Dungey, who has lived here for many years, and I should like to say, before describing the house, that it is difficult to find a timber house which has been treated with better judgment. All old features have been reverently preserved and cared for, and where new features were absolutely necessary, they have been carried out with simphcity, and in the substantial manner which the old homestead deserves. Besides the acknowledgment which is due to Mr. Dungey for his care of an interesting relict of the past, I must add my thanks to him for the courtesy he shewed me personally. * Charles Baily, Remarlcs on Timber Houses (Surrey Arch. Collections, vol. iv.); R. Nevill, P.S.A., P.R.I.B.A., Old Cottage and Domestic Architecture in S. W. Surrey (Guildford, 1889, and a later edition). " PATTENDEN. GOUDHURST. !5H^entuTij KSYeTltuTlj 16 Century ? Blocked. AAA are |}roba,bly modern o"pe.Tunqs PRESENT KITCHEN ^^^^\^\S^\\\Vv\\\^ gj iinnuuiiiuinuuiuiiimniiuynnnunii Site of Stair. SifeofStahr. H A L L PARLOUR ^ _ _^mmiiji'iii»imiiimi mii11nitimnmi bum in HS.O.Fec.iaocj. IN THE KENTISH WEALD. 1^5 Pattenden is a fine example of the older type I have alluded to. The total frontage is 59 feet long; but while there is no overhang for 25 feet in the centre, there is a strongly projecting jetty storey on each side, that on the north being rather the wider. As this projection is continued round at side, front, and back, an additional four feet is added to the total length of the building, which on the first floor is therefore 63 feet. To describe the house as it was originally built we must picture the wide brick chimney-stack and the two floors cleared away from in and over the part marked " Hal l " in the accompanying plan. We see then that there was a fine hall extending from floor to roof and measuring 25 feet by 19 feet. The screens passage with its front and back doors was at the north end, and to the right of this lay the two usual offices. There is, however, an arrangement here which is not quite normal. In most timber houses the front and back door were actually in the hall, and if there ever was a screen at all it wai actually erected in the hall. At Pattenden, however, both the doors and passage between are in the north wing and under the floor of the bedroom; so that the screen, which I think no doubt actually existed at Pattenden, did not project into the hall at all, but must have stood flush with the north wall above it. The roof of this hall was supported by two fine main posts, from which, just above the level of the inserted first floor, spring heavy arched supports, and over which was a fine tie-beam carrying a king post. The position of this part of the truss is not central to the hall, being only eight feet from the northern end; and although this lack of symmetry is probably not unusual, it is a little difficult to see the reason, though here it may have been to give room for the wide window in the east -wall, of which the jambs nine feet apart can be traced, and which may originally have been a bay window. The main posts* themselves measure in their lower halves * The main post is sometimes termed story or storey-post, and the intermediates punohiou's, quarters, or studquarters. 176 SOStE TIl&BER-PRAMED HOtJSES 16 inches by 9 inches, but they are apparently cut from a tree reversed, as they are shaped into broad corbels projecting inward at the upper ends to carry the tie-beam, and here they measure about two feet from front to back and about 15 inches wide. Externally the main post on the front of the house is worked into a buttress-like projection of perpendicular character, a form of treatment only found in better class timber houses; while internally we find the underside of the great curved braces moulded with a hollow chamfer and bold round (PIG. 1), and springing from a cap or corbel something like the capital of the king post which will be later described. These caps have been cut and tampered with, and it is not clear if they simply acted as brackets, or if they stood on columns or pilasters worked on the inner side of the main posts below, but which may have been chiselled off in subsequent alterations. The tie-beam on which the king post stands is 12 inches wide and 16 inches deep. The king post itself carries a horizontal beam on which are short tie-beams tenoned into the rafters, of which there are fourteen pairs clear within the hall roof, each eight inches wide. As usual in these houses there is no ridge piece. The king post is octagonal with well moulded capital and base, and measures 5 feet 3 inches high (EIG. 2 ) . Its character will be seen in my sketch, and as is usual in the roofs over these halls, both the king post itself and all the timbers above the roof are smoke stained. There is no trace left of any smoke vent or louvre. Before describing the sixteenth-century alterations it will be best to notice the other original features of the house. To begin with, as shewn in the plan, this house at both ends had a somewhat wide oversailing storey at the first floor, and this was carried round all three outside walls. Now, whenever this " overhang" was carried round two sides of a building it could only be effected by carrying a diagonal (or " dragon '•") beam anglewise over the corner, into which short joists could be mortised and project both ways ; and without which of course the joists could be only laid in one PATTENDEN, GOUDHURST. [Photo F. FRITH & Co. IN THE KENTISH WEALD, 177 direction, in which direction only? could there he an " overhang." This was accordingly done in two ways, and the dotted lines in the north end of the plan shew the methods. In one side the diagonal beam was carried right across the room from a main girder, but in the other side a secondary transverse girder was inserted, and a short " dragbn " beam carried from that to the angle. The object of this was undoubtedly to leave room for the short original flight of steps to the upper rooms, which undoubtedly existed here, and of which this .arrangement is now evidence. It will be seen that in houses of this character, where the hall filled up the centre of the house, there was no communication upstairs between the first-floor rooms at one end of the building and those at the other. This necessitated another flight of steps at the other end of the house, but the great inconvenience attending such an arrangement was probably one reason why the halls were invariably divided into floors when once the fashion had been set. Accordingly we find that at Pattenden there was another flight of stairs in the same position at the other end of the hall, although neither of these staircases have survived to the present day. ' ' ' These diagonal beams were laid on and mortised to four fine corner posts, each of which is about 8 | feet high and 144 inches wide, and the mouldings of which and general appearance are shewn in my sketch. (PIG. 3.) The existence of these four corner posts and the oversailing round both sides and ends of the structure prove with certainty that we have here a complete house of the period, and that all other offices, including the kitchen, were built separate. The original front entrance at the east end of the screen's passage has a Tudor arch with oak jambs measuring 14 inches by 12 inches, enriched by a bold moulding of hollow, ogee, and round. (PIG. 4.) The door itself is original, 6 feet 8 inches high, and 4 feet 4 inches wide, made up of six overlapping oak planks each 8£ inches wide worked into vertical ridges and hollows so as to conceal the joins, and have.something of the appearance of a bold linen pattern. The whole effect is solid and dignified. On the right are two doors 1*78 SOME TlHBER-PRAMED HOUSES with the original Tudor arches which entered respectively the offices commonly called buttery and pantry, though the east one has now become a small parlour. The third door which must have opened to the old stair has gone. There is a cellar under these rooms which is now approached from the later kitchen, but which originally may have been entered from under the staircase. The only other original features existing, or perhaps we should say exposed, are the moulded door frame opening at the back end of the screens passage, the frame of the door at the south or dais end of the hall opening originally to the destroyed staircase, and the boldly moulded fascia boards which cover the projecting joist ends of both jetty storeys on the front. (EIG. 6.) There is also one window left, which must be Original, though its position is peculiar; it is of two lights without transoms, but as far as can be seen from the garden a hollow chamfer and segmental heads to the lights. This little window (which indoors is now hidden in a cupboard) was high up on the east wall of the hall, and fnay have been intended to light a small gallery above the screens passage; if so, this gallery was probably reached from the adjoining bedroom.* The original house, therefore, consisted of the hall with * I have omitted above the jambs of the hall window, whioh are presumably original. (Pig. 5.) HI III fl iri.lW mviiifja PIG. 3. 13,3V __i Stone Hrejplace.p FroTit Door Jamb, <• 'V •" Vl ' i i ' i -g...> MuUicris: PCLTIOUT | Jamo HaU window £ (J nside.) 2. Hall Joist, PATTENDEN DETAILS. IN TH& KENTISH WEALD. . 179 two offices behind the screens, and at the opposite end a parlour which, when the stairway existed, was only fifteen feet square. Above on each side were two bedrooms of larger area than the rooms below by the width of the " overhang." This was all the accommodation within the house, whatever else was outside. When the owners became dissatisfied with these arrangements they carried out their alterations in a substantial way. They built in a large chimney-stack with its back to the screens passage which was retained as a passage, and put in two floors over the hall. This work was well done. They threw a great oak girder across the hall fixed by mortise and tenon to the upright main posts, and from it two secondary girders, one central to the hall and the other to one side, in order to let its end rest on the brick jamb of the fireplace. The main girder is 15 inches across, and the secondary ones about 14 inches, and all are richly moulded, the main girder having eleven rounds and hollows on each side above the lowest. The other girders are similar, and even the common joists are moulded as shewn in my sketch. (FIG. 7.) The great beam over the chimney opening is similar, and the whole effect of this room now, with all the woodwork carefully oiled and polished, is very good. Upstairs we find in the room over the hall, instead of an ,oak lintel to the fireplace, a stone one of the design shewn in the drawing (FIG. 8), and the end of which (not sketched) is carved with an oak or maple-leaf. There is a late Gothic character about this, but it is built into the brick chimneystack, and there is no reason, I think, to doubt that it is of the same age as the other inserted features. Above this fireplace, on the ceiling, there is some reeded " panelling," which is evidently a portion of that described briefly in Parker's Glossary of Gothic Architecture (1840).* " In the principal room upstairs of a timber house, Pattenden near G-oudhurst, the walls and- ceilings are lined with oak boards reeded with mouldings of the linen pattern, but * P. U. 180 SOME TIMBEB.-PRAMED HOUSES not panelled. In one of the other rooms in the same house there was a ceiling similar to that before mentioned at Sherborne Abbey."* I t has been said that practically all original windows have gone, but good oak-framed windows with transoms exist in several rooms and have well moulded mullions of the type shewn in my sketch. (FIG. 9.) These are to be found in the small north parlour, the larger south parlour, and, if I remember right, there is one (closed) in the west wall of the hall. All these are of the date of the alterations, but the combination of hollow and round mouldings appears to be purposely chosen to match the mouldings of the fascia boards under edge of braces, etc., which must all be of the earlier date.f In the hall window there are four quarries of stained glass of yellow tint:— 1. A monkey drinking. 2. A pomegranate crowned. 3 and 4. A rose crowned. What the first signifies I do not know, but the others being the badges of Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon must be before 1533, and probably give us the approximate date of the alterations to the house. J Externally there is not much to notice except the generally picturesque aspect of the house. Like most other houses of this style, the tile roof is brought down over projecting wings and central hall as if all the front was in line. The plate is carried along from one projection to the other and supported by two large curved braces of oak,, and on the under side of this plate are large mortise holes which I. am unable to explain, unless a sort of barge-board wasoriginally * The allusion is to a ceiling at Sherborne Abbey, " a good timber one divided into squares with flowers oarved at the intersections": but there is nothing like this to be seen now. f There is a small window in the north -wall of the north parlour which was of the old unglazed type and probably original. No doubt there were others. X These badges might I think also be used by Mary I , the daughter of Catherine. But she used other badges as well as the pomegranate, and as they are both orowned here they muoh more probably represent Henry VIII. and Catherine. IN THE KENTISH WEALD. 18 1 fastened underneath it. The two chimney-stacks at the north and south ends are of uncertain date, but not original,* and so also is the kitchen, which is built of old materials. The back of the house is a good deal obscured by modern buildings, within which is the modern staircase, an excellent one of oak erected by the present proprietor. Just outside this there is a small length of wall which is old, apparently part of a sixteenth-century construction. Pattenden appears to have been both a dene, a borough, and a manor. As a dene it was held of Loose manor.f It was a borough under East Farleigh ;J and in the time of Edward I. there was a prison at Patyndenne in which G-oudhurst malefactors were imprisoned. § A summary of the descent of it is found in Hasted. It belonged to Pattendens from at least as early as the time of Edward I., and this family was returned in 1451 by Jervase Clifton's Commission as bearing Arma Antiqua. || One of this family alienated the estate to Sir Maurice Berkeley, standard-bearer to Henry VIII., Edward VL, and Elizabeth; and he by will, 1581, gave the manor to his fourth son Eobert, from whom it passed to Mr. William Beswicke, and afterwards to the Mariotts.l Sir Maurice Berkeley married Elizabeth, sister of Thomas Sondes, eldest son of Sir Anthony Sondes of Throwly, and the said Thomas alienated to him the manor of Boycot in Ulcomb.** There can be no doubt that Pattenden was built by the Pattendens, possibly about 1470, and the alterations were made by Sir Maurice Berkeley in the early years of the sixteenth * That at the north end has its lower courses of stone, and probably is sixteenth century. t Purley, History of the Weald,\\., p. 709. . X Hasted, vii., p. 77. § Furley, ii., p. 241. (Quo Warranto Rolls.) || I find the following in the Streatfield collection relating to Kent in the B.M. Add. MS. 33,883 :'PatteMen, Wm. dePatendenne 12 Bd. II., 10 Bd. III.; John his son 11 Ed.-III., 15 Ed. HI . j John Patynden 5 Hen. VI. The Pattendens had property in Goudhurst as late as the reign of Chas. I, See will of Pattenden, oik., dated 2 June 1643. ; if.'SasteU, vii:, p."77. ** Hftsted, v.; p. 393, 182 SOME TIMBER-PRAMED HOUSES century, and probably not later than 1533, when Catherine of Arragon was divorced, since her badge is in the hall window. There is a fire-back in the hall dated 1636 on which are two shields, each bearing the same coat, which is quarterly of nine, under a helmet, crest and mantling. It is so burned away that I was able to make little of it; in fact not one of the quarterings seems decipherable.* SMARDEN HOUSE (now CHESSENDEN), SMAEDEN. Smarden is one of the most picturesque and characteristic places in the Weald, and as it was anciently a market to wn, and has not suffered from development like some villages in this part, it still contains several houses worth study. The one I have selected is not rich in detail, but it affords a type which illustrates my present purpose. Smarden House lies a little way along the street from the church as you leave Smarden by the road to Pluckley and Charing. It is close to the road, and therefore faces about north-west, but for the purposes of description it will be treated as facing north. We have in it a house of the same type as Pattenden but of smaller dimensions, since the front only measures 471 feet, or, with the projecting ends measured in, just over 50 feet. In spite of the small size of the house, its hall, before it was cut down and floors inserted, measured no less than 23£ by 19 feet, or only 1£ feet shorter than Pattenden and of equal width. It was in the same way divided into two bays, the eastern one of which was 12^ feet and the western one only 10 feet. No reason is apparent for this inequality. * I made the following note : 1, On a ohevron three . . . ' . ( ? ) ; 2, Abend, or else two bendlets; 3, Looks like a wheel; 4, A bend raguly (?); 5 and 6, Both seem chevrons; rest quite undecipherable. CHIMNEY S 8UILT tN a mmm in II limn nm»nimiiunMit uimminn o