Description

TQ 64 NE CAPEL MAIDSTONE ROAD, WHETSTEAD

2/266 Ploggs Hall

GV II

House, former farmhouse. C17 origins, massively rebuilt in the late C18/early
C19, modernised in the early C20. Ground floor level is coursed sandstone
ashlar, chanelled rusticated and with a plinth and plat band at first floor
level. Above is timber-framed and clad at the back with peg-tile, elsewhere
replaced with scallop-tiles. Brick stacks and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.

Plan: Rectangular double depth plan house facing a little north of east.
Central front doorway to large entrance hall containing main stair. Principal
room either side at the front, both heated by rear stacks backing onto rear
kitchen and service rooms. Rear left room was probably the late C18/early C19
kitchen since there is said to be a large blocked fireplace backing onto the
front parlour. If so rear axial stack serving the same room is later. That
apart the present layout is a late C18/early C19 house. However the left
(south) front room section includes the remains of one cell of a C17 house;
the large fireplace shows it was then the kitchen.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace.

Exterior: Symmetrical 5-window front of probably early C20 paired 8-pane
sashes with horns. Central front doorway contains a contemporary top-glazed
door with diagonal planks in the lower panels behind gabled porch on timber
posts. Like the front most of the windows were replaced in the early C20 but
mostly the same size. The left end has a 3-window garden front including
French windows put in circa 1988. Rear has less regular fenestration, service
doorway to rear and right (north) end has another small one with a tall side
light which is probably late C18/early C19 and protected by twisted iron bars.
Plain eaves and roof is hipped on all sides with central axial valley.

Interior: Is largely the result of successive C19 and C20 modernisations
although the late C18/early C19 layout remains. C17 features in the front
parlour, the C17 kitchen. Large brick fireplace with plain oak lintel and
blocked openings to oven and ash-pit. The parlour and bedroom above have
chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beams. The C17 roof was incorporated and
adapted into the late C18/early C19 roof. Collared tie purlin truss built for
clasped side purlins. The later roof is a good solid piece of carpentry;
collared tie-beam trusses with raking struts and staggered butt purlins and
particularly impressive reinforced diagonal trusses on the hipped corners.

Ploggs Hall is part of a group with its former farmbuildings (q.v.).

Listing NGR: TQ6568945935

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26552815

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

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]