Description

HADLOW CARPENTERS LANE
TQ 65 SW
3/16 Spring Place
20.10.54
II*

Farmhouse. Mid/late C15, altered and extended in the late C16/early C17, the
hall bay window and gable are dated 1634. The house was divided into 3
cottages, probably in the early or mid C19; reunited to one house and
refurbished circa 1950 and minor modernisations circa 1968. This is
essentially a timber-framed structure but much of it has been underbuilt or
faced up with brick (some of the ragstone footings survive internally); a
small part is clad with peg-tile; brick stacks and chimneyshafts; peg-tile
roof.

Plan and Development: The house faces north east, its layout a developed 3-
room-and-through.passage plan. The hall is in the centre with crosswings each
end, both projecting to rear. The passage is at the right (north west) end
and is now blocked by a C20 stair. The passage front doorway was also blocked
in the c20. At the right end is an unheated service room, maybe a buttery,
with a parlour behind served by a projecting lateral stack in the outer wall.
A large axial stack at the upper end of the hall serves back-to-back
fireplaces. The left end inner room was a kitchen with an unheated service
room behind. This wing was somewhat rearranged circa 1950 when the main
entrance was moved to the centre of the outer wall. The former kitchen has a
passage through to the hall and the rear service room is now used as a
kitchen. The main stair projects to rear of the hall fireplace. It was
enlarged circa 1960. On the first floor there is an original corridor along
the back of the hall chamber from the main stair to the parlour wing.

This plan is essentialy that of the late C16 early C17. The remains of the
late medieval house are confined to the left (south eastern) crosswing. it
originally extended further back. The front bay was a storeyed end (probably
the inner room or solar end). The late C16/early C17 kitchen beam was
originally part of a full height crosswall which still survives above. The
rest of the wing was the hall, open to the roof, and heated by an open hearth
fire. it is one wide bay and that seems to have been its full length. After
the house was enlarged in the late C16/early C17 the main block roof (over the
new hall) ran between the crosswings. In 1630 the front was altered when the
full height bay window with jettied gable over was built onto the hall.

House is 2 storeys with attics in the roofspace, and lean-to outshot to rear
of the kitchen wing.

Exterior: The gabled front is very attractive. The brick is Flemish bond
with burnt headers. 3-window front with an extra ground floor window at the
right end. The windows are of various dates. Those each end on the ground
floor are c20. The upper windows at the right end are C18 or C19 casements,
the first floor one containing rectangular panes of leaded glass and the attic
one containing diamond panes. At the left end the first floor and attic
windows have late C16/early C17 oak frames with ovolo-moulded mullions, the
lower one with a transom. In the centre is the full height canted bay window
with an ovolo-moulded mullion-and-upper-transom window on each floor; the
first floor window contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. Each side of
these windows there are strips of later brick suggesting that there were
formerly ribbon windows on each floor. The gable above is carried on a
bressummer, Console brackets each end are carved with guilloche and floral
motifs and the bressummer itself is carved with a decorative frieze of
guilloche and crude egg-and-dart; the centre includes the date 1634 along with
symbols such as crescents, a lozenge and an upside down heart. The tile-hung
gable contains an original 4-light window containing ancient diamond panes of
leaded glass. The bargeboards here are original and although worn clearly
show the same carved ornamentation as the bressummer. At the apex there is a
pendant. The flanking gables are not jettied. Both are tile-hung with
bargeboards and the left end bargeboard and bressummer are late C16/early C17,
both carved with the same decorative frieze. The same carved ornamentation is
found on the bressummer and bargeboards in the jettied gable at the back of
the parlour crosswing. The passage front doorway is blocked. The roofs are
tall and steeply pitched. The main chimneyshaft is late C16/early C17 brick
and is shaped.

There are 2 other oak small late C16/early C17 windows, both at first floor
level on the left end wall, one 3-lights, the other 4-lights; chamfered
mullions and diamond panes of leaded glass. Below is a 3-light window with
Gothick tracery from Hadlow Castle (q.v.).

Interior: The late medieval work is confined to the kitchen (south eatern)
crosswing. Here the side walls and maybe the end walls are original timber
frames with large curving braces showing at first floor level. The original
partition between the hall and probable solar end survives above first floor
level. What is now a crossbeam was originally a rail in the frame and there
are a series of redundant mortise slots in its soffit (including evidence for
a doorway at the north west end) from the lower part of the partition. The
chamfers with scroll stops were applied in the late C16/early C17. The
ceiling joits in the front bay are of large scantling and original. 2 bays of
the medieval roof survive, one each side of the crosswall. The tie-beam is
supported on heavy wall posts with jowled heads and there are small curving
arch braces. Above is an A-frame truss with a crown post and downward-curving
braces. There was no crown purlin. The rest of the roof is carried on common
rafter trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The hall section is smoke-
blackened from the original open hearth fire. The front section (probably
over the solar) is clean nd there is here evidence of a gablet and original
hipped roof arrangement.

The rest of the house contains late C16/early C17 carpentry. Hall and kitchen
fireplaces have oak lintels with chamfered and scroll-stopped low cambered
arches and there is a smaller version in the hall chamber. The parlour
fireplace is similar but its lintel is ovolo-moulded and is carved with false
spandrels and rosettes and there is a similar fireplace in the chamber above.
Most of the floor beams are chamfered with scroll stops but the hall beam is
ovolo-moulded and the joists here are chamfered; all with scroll stops. The
parlour has the remains of a moulded plaster frieze. The doorways of the hall
to the passage and from the passage to the parlour have ovolo-moulded surround
with scroll stops. There is also some good early joinery in the house;
notably in the chamber over the hall where there is a late C16/early C17
panelled door to a small closet in front of the stack and the bay window has a
sill with oak panelling below which includes cupboard doors hung on iron
butterfly hinges,

The roof over the hall and parlour crosswing is carried on tie-beam trusses
with clasped side purlins, small wind braces and queen posts.

Spring Place is a well-preserved late C16/early C17 house with a late medieval
section. The quality of craftsmanship is high. It was apparently once known
as the Old Manor House. No documentary evidence has been found to suggest it
was a manor but it is certainly higher quality than most of its local
contemporaries.

Listing NGR: TQ6279251063

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17546978

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

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)