Description

TQ 53 37 SFELDHURST BIRD-IN-HAND STREET, OLD
GROOMBRIDGE
16/445 The Old Butchers
20.10.54

GV II*

House, once including a butchers shop. Mid C17, refurbished, enlarged and
rearranged in early/mid C18, some C19 and C20 modernisation, the latest in
1989 after a fire. Most of ground floor level is Flemish bond red brick with
burnt headers on coursed sandstone plinth. The rest is weatherboarded timber-
framing including part of the front and part at the back is hung with peg-
tile. Brick stack and chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: House faces east north east, say east, onto the Green. It has a double
depth plan 2-rooms wide and 2-rooms deep. An axial stack between the 2 front
rooms serves back-to-back fireplaces, parlour to the left (south) and kitchen
to the north. Smaller service rooms to rear. There is no main front
entrance. 2 front doorways give direct entry into each of the front rooms.
Both are now behind a large front porch which was also formerly used as a
shop. The present layout is essentially that of the early/mid C18 but part of
the building is mid C17. It is difficult to determine the extent of the C17
building since the roof has been replaced and much of the framing is plastered
over. Nevertheless it seems that the right (kitchen end) front and back room
is C17, possibly returning across the front. The present building work
(January 1989) uncovered the C17 front doorway and it is blocked by the
present stack. It would seem that ever since the C18 modernisation there has
been 2 front doorways as now.

House is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and a cellar under the
parlour.

Exterior: Nearly symmetrical 2-window front of mostly C19 and C20 casements
containing rectangular panes of leaded glass although some of the window
frames are earlier, e.g. ground floor left window has C18 flat-faced mullioned
oak frame. Large central porch (weatherboarded with hipped roof) has doorway
in right side containing a C20 plank door with coverstrips. To left of the
porch the brick ground floor wall returns from the end across the front only a
short distance. The window is contained in a weatherboarded timber-framed
section. Although the ground floor section to right of the porch is all
brick, a straight joint shows that this end was originally similar. Main roof
is gable-ended and contains 2 hip-roofed dormer windows. Parallel roofs with
M-profile and attics at right end have 12-pane sashes.

Interior: Well-preserved C17 and C18 work. C17 front doorway (blocked by C18
stack) is oak with ogee-moulded surround and some first floor framing
temporarily exposed by building works show that it is close-studded with
internal curving tension braces. The parlour is lined with C18 large-field
panelling in 2 heights and includes a contemporary corner cupbaord. Fireplace
is blocked by a later fireplace and the axial beam is chamfered. Former
kitchen has a large fireplace. Its sides have been relined but its oak lintel
is original. Plain chamfered crossbeam here and similar axial beam to rear.
First floor chamber over parlour has fielded panel wainscotting; it is a
little rearranged about the C20 chimneypiece. The front and back rooms over
the kitchen side have maybe C17 chamfered crossbeams with step stops. More
evidence of the C17 house from the rear end wall posts of the right rooms
which face inwards suggesting a crossroof end onto the street. The present
roof, an M-section roof parallel to the street and probably C18, was badly
damaged by a fire in late 1988 and at the time of this survey most of its
structure had been plastered over. The winder stair behind the stack is
probably C18.

The Old Butchers is an attractive and well-preserved house in its own right
but is given added importance by its position amongst a group of other equally
well-preserved buildings which make up Old Groombridge.

Listing NGR: TQ5301537652

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547143

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)