Description

TQ 53 37 SPELDHURST THE WALKS, OLD GROOMBRIDGE

16/600 The Crown including service
20.10.54 buildings adjoining to north
(formerly listed as No 1 The
Crown Hotel)
GV II*

Public house. Mid/late C17 with some C19 and C20 modernisations. Timber-
framed on coursed sandstone footings; most is hung with peg-tiles but front
wall is rebuilt (or faced up) with Flemish bond red brick with decorative
burnt headers. Brick stacks, the east one with a tall stone base, and brick
chimneyshafts, the west one of early brick, tall with divided shafts. Peg-
tile roof.

Plan: 3-room plan building facing south used as a public house. Although
most of the ground floor partitions have been moved or knocked out to create
larger bar space the original layout is clear. Unheated central entrance
hall. Maybe the original staircase was here; present staircase is C20 to
rear. Left (west) room was the kitchen and has an end stack. Right (east)
room was the parlour with a projecting gable-end stack. The main block is the
oldest part of the building. One-room rear block at right angles of the
parlour shows no sign that it is any earlier than the C19. It has a rear
gable-end stack.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and various secondary outbuildings to
rear (described below).

Exterior: Attractive irregular 3-window of C19 sash windows (some are horned
replacements. Ground floor left is a wide 15-pane sash. The rest are 12-pane
sashes, those at the right end in tripartite sashes. Front doorway is left of
centre. It contains a C20 plank door in a C19 frame under a flat hood on
shaped brackets. Roof is gable-ended and includes 3 front hip-roofed dormers
containing casements with diamond panes of leaded glass. Rear contains C20
casements. Part of the lean-to outshot is built of coursed sandstone
suggesting that it is early, if not original.

Interior: Apart from the ground floor partitions the original structure
appears to be well-preserved. All the ground and first floor rooms have
chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beams. Both ground floor fireplaces are
brick with chamfered oak lintels, mostly with scroll stops. Similar fireplace
to the parlour chamber and its hearth is supported on a pair of timber plates
projecting from the chimneybreast and they have shaped ends. Roof of 3 bays
carried on tie-beam trusses of relatively large scantling timbers. A-frame
trusses with clasped side purlins and queen struts.

Parlour chamber is lined with C17 small field oak panelling and has a C17
moulded plaster cornice. Also early doorway into this room (now blocked) has
a bead-moulded solid frame.

Rear outbuildings: Behind the rear block a single storey service wing
continues at right angles to the main house. It has a 2-room plan with a
brick axial stack between. It is built of brick, the front room is old but
the rear one was rebuilt in the C20. Behind this wing an L-plan stable block.
Most is weatherboarded but the south wall of the east wing is coursed
sandstone. Both wings have half-hipped peg-tile roof.

The Crown is an attractive and interesting building in its own right. However
it is more important as a mid/late C17 building associated with Groombridge
Place (q.V.) which was itself rebuilt circa 1660-1670 and also forms part of
one of the best groups of unspoilt buildings in Kent as part of old
Groombridge.

Listing NGR: TQ5304637720

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547593

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)