Folly Farm including attached garden wall and former stables, St Stephen's, Kent

Description

856/0/10017

HEADCORN DRIVE
Folly Farm including attached garden wall and former stables

28-FEB-08

II
House, formerly farmhouse. Main range early C17, refronted to the south-east and south-west sides in the early to mid C18 when an outshot to the north-west was added and the building re-roofed. In the early C19 a lean-to extension and stable were added to the north-east. Most windows were replaced in the C19 and C20. The C20 greenhouse attached to the south-west side is not of special interest.

MATERIALS: Timberframed, clad in brick, mainly in English bond with hipped peg tiled roof with off central moulded brick chimneystack.

PLAN: Lobby entrance house of three unequal bays, the chimneystack within a narrow central bay, with two heated rooms to ground and first floors. This plan was modified in the C18 by the addition of an outshot to the north-west and in the early C19 by a lean-to extension and single-storey stable addition to the north-east.

EXTERIOR: The south-east or entrance front is of English bond brickwork. There are two hipped dormers with C19 casement windows. The first floor has three irregularly-spaced windows with a blocked fourth opening visible above the porch. Two of these are large C19 tripartite casements with a smaller end casement to the right with C20 top opening light. The ground floor has a similar window below and two large C19 canted bay windows. The large porch is C20 of brick with tiled gabled roof. Behind is a wide wooden architrave and an unusually wide C19 door of nine panels. The east side of the south-eastern elevation is an early C19 lean-to addition in stretcher bond brickwork with cambered doorcase and casement window. The south-west side elevation, in English bond brickwork, has one C20 casement.
The rear, or north-west, elevation has a catslide roof down to ground floor level with three windows, one an early C19 nine-pane sash, the others C20 casements, and a plain doorcase with flat hood.

A single-storey former STABLE in Flemish bond brickwork is attached to the north-east end of the house. This has a tiled roof, hipped to the north-west, and a sliding casement, also to the north-west.

Attached to the front wall of the house, in line with the eastern hip, is a section of GARDEN WALL, also in English bond, running in a south-easterly direction. This is about seven or eight feet high adjoining the house where there is a round-headed pedestrian entrance and is then ramped down to about four feet in height.

INTERIOR: Entrance is into a lobby in front of a winder staircase and chimneystack. The south-western ground floor room, originally the parlour, has a spine beam with one and a half inch chamfer and lambs tongue stops. There is a pine corner cupboard attached to the wall with moulded cornice and round-headed arch with serpentine shelves. The fireplace opening has a C20 bressumer but an earlier one may survive beneath. The adjoining larger room, the original kitchen, has an early C17 spine beam with a two-inch flat chamfer stopped by a quirk and tongue. There is a wide cambered brick arch to the fireplace which also has a brick gabled spice hole. Adjoining the fireplace to the south east is a four-panelled door with H-hinges leading directly onto the winder staircase. The opposite wall has a two-panelled door with H-hinges leading to the lean-to addition which has the exposed midrail and some upright posts of the original C17 north-east wall and a C19 wooden fireplace with duck's nest firegrate. The remainder of the north-east timberframed wall with blocked window opening is visible in the adjoining kitchen. There is also an early C19 ledged door. The outshot contains the exposed midrail and some upright posts of the timberframed north-eastern wall with some Flemish bond brick infill. The winder staircase leads to both first floor and attic. The first floor north-east bedroom contains the timberframed north-east wall exposed with upright posts and two ogee braces. The wallplate to the north-west wall is also visible and the south-west wall has jowled upright post, wallplate and wide fireplace bressumer visible. The central spine beam has been boxed-in. The south-west bedroom has a spine beam with runout stop and a C19 wooden fireplace. In the adjoining cupboard behind the chimneystack more upright timbers of the original north-west wall can be seen. At the top of the stairs to the attic a C17 timberframed internal partition is visible, together with a plank door and the top of the massive C17 brick chimneystack. The principal rafters, collars and purlins to the roof structure are visible although the common rafters have been covered over. The north-east room has a secondary support to a collar beam.

The attached former stable has a roof of thin scantling with ridgepiece, collars, purlins and diagonal tension braces.

HISTORY: Before 1880 Folly Farm was a tenant farm of Hales Place. The original mansion was built for Sir Roger Manwood (1524/5-1592) a prominent Elizabethan judge. In 1675 the estate was bought by Sir Edward Hales, a Catholic convert and friend of James II. His grandson, Sir Edward Hales, began to build a new house, still unfinished when he died in 1802 and the earlier house was demolished. In 1880 the main house was sold to become a Jesuit college and was demolished in 1928. A former dovecote, converted circa 1884 to a Jesuit cemetery chapel, is all that remains of Hales Place. Circa 1880 the estate buildings were sold off and before 1905 Folly Farm was in the ownership of a Mr Drury. Folly Farm has been in the ownership of one family since 1905.

SOURCES:
Dictionary of National Biography entries for Sir Roger Manwood and Sir Edward Hales.
'The Hales Newsletter. June 1981 Vol.7. No. 4.' for history of the Hales estate from an article by David Stanley Cousins.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Folly Farm is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Its early-C17 plan form of a three bay lobby entrance house is still readable;
* The two heated rooms on ground and first floors demonstrate this was a house of high status;
* A significant amount of early-C17 fabric survives in the timberframed north west and north east walls, an internal partition wall and the massive brick internal chimneystack;
* A substantial amount of early-C18 fabric survives in the English bond external walls together with the roof structure and winder staircase;
* Decorative detail includes C17 spine beams with various stops, open fireplaces, a series of C18 and C19 doors of different types and a pine corner cupboard;
* Despite some window alterations this is substantially a pre-1840 farmhouse of early-C17 and early-C18 date;
* As a former estate building to Hales Place it has links with at least two other listed buildings in the locality and a demolished mansion which belonged to two historically important families, the Manwoods and Hales.

Reasons for Listing

Folly Farm is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Its early-C17 plan form of a three bay lobby entrance house is still readable;
* The two heated rooms on ground and first floor demonstrate this was a house of high status;
* A significant amount of early-C17 fabric survives in the timberframed north-west and north-east walls, an internal partition wall and the massive brick internal chimneystack;
* Also a substantial amount of early-C18 fabric survives in the English bond external walls together with the roof structure and winder staircase;
* Decorative detail includes C17 spine beams with various stops, open fireplaces, a series of C18 and C19 doors of different types and a pine corner cupboard;
* Despite some window alterations this is substantially a pre-1840 farmhouse of C17 and C18 date;
* As a former estate building to the demolished Hales Place it has a link to at least two other listed buildings in the locality and a demolished mansion which belonged to two historically important families, the Manwoods and Hales.

External Links

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