Description

TQ 52 37 SPELDHURST THE WALKS, OLD GROOMBRIDGE

16/597 Nos 1 and 2 (formerly listed as
20.10.54 No 1 The Walks Cottage)

GV II*

Former house, now divided into 2 cottages. Probably early C18 with some C19
modernisation associated with the subdivision of the original house. Timber-
framed on coursed sandstone footings. Ground floor level is weatherboarded,
the rest is tile hung. Brick stack and chimneyshaft. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: House was probably built as a 3-room lobby entrance plan house facing
west onto Bird-in-Hand Street. Axial stack between the centre and right
(south) end room serves back-to-back fireplaces. The right room was probably
a parlour, the centre one a hall/kitchen and smaller unheated service end at
the left (north) end. Doorway to No 1 could be the original lobby entrance
and it occupies the service room and most (at least at ground floor level) of
the central hall/kitchen. No 2 has its doorway in the south end onto The
Walks. It occupies the former parlour and some of the hall/kitchen.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and cellar under the south end. Lean-
to outshot to rear (east side) has end corner stack.

Exterior: The west front has a 2-window front all serving No 1 and front
doorway right of centre. South front (No 2) has a symmetrical 2-window front
and central front doorway. All are old casements containing rectangular
(ground floor) and diamond (first floor) panes of leaded glass. Both doorways
contain plain panelled doors under shallow timber hoods with moulded edges.
Main roof is half-hipped to left and hipped to right (south) where there is a
hip-roofed dormer window. The north end includes a larder window; unglazed
but covered by a timber trellis.

Interior: Only No 2 was available for inspection at the time of this survey.
The ground floor fireplace is brick with a chamfered oak lintel. The room on
each floor has plain axial-joists. The roof of tie-beam trusses, A-frames
with staggered butt purlins.

It seems that this house was built after adjoing Nos 3-6 The Walks (q.v.).

Nos 1 and 2 The Walks is one of the exceptional group of C17 and early C18
buildings that make up Old Groombridge.

Listing NGR: TQ5299237724

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547503

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

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)