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© Mr Gordon Archer
IoE Number:
433308
Location:
SYNYARDS AND PATH BETWEEN FRONT DOOR AND ROAD, OTHAM STREET (east side)
OTHAM, MAIDSTONE, KENT
Photographer:
Mr Gordon Archer
Date Photographed:
12 June 2005
Date listed:
25 July 1952
Date of last amendment:
25 July 1952
Grade
I
The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incorporate subsequent amendments to the list. For the statutory list and information on the current listed status of individual buildings please go to The National Heritage List for England.
OTHAM STREET
TQ 75 SE OTHAM
(East Side)
3/225 Synyards, and
path between front
25.7.52 door and road
GV I
House. Later C15, C16 and circa 1663. Restored 1905 by P.M. Johnston.
Timber framed with plaster infilling. Plain tile roof. Wealden, with
open hall of 2 roughly equal-length timber-framed bays and storeyed end
bays, that to left longer. Both end bays formerly subdivided into 2 rooms
on ground floor. 2 storeys, attic and cellar on stone plinth. Right and
left end bays jettied, left jetty returning on moulded dragon post. Close-
studded. Higher midrail to right hall bay. Broad low window cill across
left hall bay. Short arch braces; to each end of flying wall-plate, and
springing from each side of an unusual central post under the plate. Post
jowled towards house, clasping plate, and resting on short bracketed spur
protruding from central truss post just above midrail. Steeply-pitched
hipped roof with gablet to right. Multiple brick stack in front slope of
roof, to left end of hall. Later filleted brick stack in front slope of
left end of right end bay. Gabled dormer resting on flying wall-plate
over right hall bay, sides rising to moulded tie-beam and fillet. Moulded
bargeboards. 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window, with inverted heart
and date 1663 painted on plaster. 5-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window
with carved fillet over, between tie-beam and flying wall-plate. Irregular
fenestration of 3 windows; one 2-light latticed casement to centre of each
end bay, and window to centre of left hall bay of 6 narrow round-headed
lights, 3 with ogee-moulded mullions to each side of central stud, and
with deep plain wooden head. Similar, but smaller, 6-light window to
ground floor of left end bay. 4-light ogee-moulded mullion window to right
of left hall flay. Blocked 4-light diamond mullion window to ground floor of
right end bay. Further diamond and ovolo-moulded mullioned windows to
gable ends and rear. C16 rectangular bay window on chamfered stone base
towards front of left gable end, with 6-light ogee-moulded mullioned and
transomed window with side-lights. C16 canted 8-light ovolo-moulded
mullioned and transomed bay window on stone base to right gable end,
brought from a Maidstone house in early C20. Broad boarded door in moulded
4-centred arched architrave with hollow spandrels, and with brattished and
moulded fillet over, to right end of hall. Short C19 rear return wing to
right, ground floor red brick in Flemish bond, first floor weatherboarded,
with hipped plain tile roof. Interior: exposed framing. Moulded 4-centred
arched doorway with hollow spandrels to rear of cross-passage. Pair of
similar service doorways with ground-cill retained under them to right end
of hall, within close-studded partition under moulded end-of-hall beam.
Moulded, brattished left end of hall beam with plank-and-muntin partition
under. Long moulded cill to hall window. Evidence for stairs to rear of
each end bay; later cellar stairs now in that position in left end room.
Chamfered midrails and chamfered window cill to left end room on both floors.
Moulded principal posts to central truss, but tie-beam moved into left hall
bay to avoid 1663 dormer window. Tie-beam cambered and hollow-chamfered,
morticed for braces towards centre.Crown-post, with restored moulded
capital, transferred to inserted axial tie-beam. Inserted floor to hall with
chamfered beams. Hall fireplace with chamfered stone jambs, low vase stops
and cambered chamfered bressumer. Brick chimney breast with tapering inset
straight-joints. Moulded 4-centred-arched stone fireplace with rose, leaf
and knot to spandrels, to ground floor of left end room. Differently-
moulded 4-centred-arched stone fireplace with hollow spandrels to first
floor of left end room, with wall-painting to chimney breast of lion and
dragon facing each other over vase of fruit and foliage. Further concealed
wall-paintings to north and west walls of same room, said to depict merman
and mermaid. C16 panelling to various parts of ground floor. Path:
ragstone path about 5' wide and 70' long between front door and road.
(P.M. Johnston, Synyards, Otham, Kent, and It's Restoration, in Country
Life, 13.9.1919).