The house is a grade 2 listed building, built 1380 - 1410 and extensively rebuilt 50 years later.
It was originally an open hall house but a rear wing was added at the north end. The North bay was a single room with stairs giving access to the room above.
At the South end was a
two bay two storey cross wing, probably with a buttery and pantry, the upper
storey approached by ladder. Both hall and cross wing have crown post roofs.
The medieval frontage was replaced in the 18th century with the present brick
façade.
This room, imposing in scale with its crown post, open to the roof, with the smell of burning logs on the hearth and smoke rising to the rafters would without doubt have been the centre of life within the house. There were two quite separate functions to the room. The lower end with the two main doors linked by a cross passage. Shielding the hall from draughts would have been projecting wings known as speres. This lower end would have been where the junior members and servants of the household sat for their meals and where some domestic chores were carried out.
Before the north west kitchen extension was built in the latter part of the 16th century cooking would have been done over this central fire. The upper end of the room with the dining table, proudly displaying its “fyne linen clothe” behind which would have been a wall hanging either of woven colours or a painted one, depending upon the wealth of the occupier. This decoration would have hung from the dias beam above.
The dias beam is not an elaborate moulded one as occurs in some houses of this type but does benefit from the cross or saltire bracing to the truss rafters and tie beams over head. This form of bracing signals an early date of construction and supports the tree ring dating of 1380 of certain timbers.
There would have been a fixed bench behind the “dining” table, protected from droughts from the doorway by a spere, this door gave access to the parlour and ladder to the parlour chamber.
The cross passage would have had a covering of what might have been straw or rushes. These would have been laid on a compacted mix of earth, lime and in later years marl may have been added. There are many remains of marl pits around the valley area though now containing water and are established ponds. It is probable that all the rooms on the ground level were covered thus but one hesitates to think of the risk of fire caused by flying sparks from the central hearth.
In addition to the table and seating at the lower end there would have been a ventilated cupboard. This would have been used for the storage of food and possibly small readily available items of treen. The pierced patterns for ventilation would have been covered with haircloth inside to keep out insects. We know from inventories of these hall houses, that apart from tables cupboards and chests were also graced with a cloth upon which were displayed items of pewter, pottery or glassware if any. TOP
This room would have been used for several purposes. It may have contained additional beds for older members of the owner’s family or for visitors, leisure activities for children or perhaps for spinning and sewing. . The parlour would also have provided further storage space. A ladder provided access to the parlour chamber above. TOP
THE BUTTERY, MILKHOUSE or BREWHOUSE
This room was used for such activities as cheese and butter making, salting and preparing meat for the winter, making bread and also, in Kent, for brewing ale from local grown barley and hops.
THE PANTRY
Next to the buttery or milkhouse this room was mainly used for storage of treen, that is wooden items - plates or platters and bowls of various sizes. Pots and pewter and a barrel of ale and of water (barrels would have been bound with hazel or cord rather than the iron cooperage we know today). Flour would be kept here and other foodstuffs.
THE SERVICE CHAMBER
This was a fine looking room with a crown post truss in the centre. As well as providing additional storage space it would have been the sleeping quarters for servants and perhaps younger members of the family; in later years the main room of master and family.
THE PARLOUR CHAMBER
Known in the 14th century as the “Solar” this was the main private family room and was where the master and his wife would sleep with the younger children. The main or “best” bed would have been a “four poster” and would have been curtained and roofed to provide a degree of cosiness and protection of a sort from atmosphere and small insects.
No evidence remains of a “privy” known then as a “garderobe”. However, a transitional means of relief must surely have existed and so it has been suggested that possibly an iron bucket within some other container might have served the purpose, or would the master or his family have walked through the hall to some form of cess pit outside in all weathers? The garderobes of the 16th century were sometimes built as a projection from the parlour chamber and supported on brackets with the pit directly below.
No windows were glazed, but were openings protected by wooden staves morticed into the frames above and below. Shutters may have been hinged and hung on the inside and constructed of planks and ledged and braced, they would also be made to slide either horizontally or vertically. Shutters would have kept the worst of weather out, but there would certainly have been some penetration of water onto the inside face of walls.
Light would have been provided by candles standing on brass or iron holders, the candle would have been impaled on a spike (a pricket) or set in a socket.
Cooking vessels would have been made of iron or brass. Sadly very little domestic ironwork has survived, but inventories from Kent archives describe iron fire rakes, trivets, tongs and fire shovels together with brass pots, kettles, pans and skillets.
It is very rare to find any remains of a medieval timber stair, but it is likely that the ladders were replaced in the mid 1400’s or when some rebuilding took place later in the 16th century.
Doors were hung on iron pegs, or a strap hinge of iron fixed to the posts, there were no jambs or door stops. The door would have closed against the supporting posts and the two centred arch at its head.
Furniture, chests, cabinets and cupboards were very simply constructed of planks.
Tables and stools were in general on a form of trestle, either of an “A” form or comb.
A third type, made of planks or boards, exists in the Victoria & Albert Museum and is simply constructed of four members, with pierced and carved decoration. An easy solution for a DIY man as a garden seat for a barbecue perhaps.
The house was erected alongside the old Roman road when Richard II was King of England. The Romans had left our shores some 1000 years earlier. Their road was prpbably now a sad dirt track, rutted and muddy in wet weather. The population of the Parish would have been no more than three to four hundred souls.
We do not know who lived in this house originally, or who built it. It was constructed of oak and not elm of which many are. TOP
The timber framing stands upon a sill that rests upon a stone base, the stone may have been quarried locally from Hever, Chippings Bank or Chiddingstone Hoath possibly, and brought to the site by an oxen drawn cart. Oxen in the 14th and 15th centuries far outnumbered horses as draught animals because of the sticky Wealden clay.
With only one exception all joints in this hall house are without nails, all are pegged, morticed and tenoned, half lapped or scarfed. The one exception is the crown post at the south end of the hall supporting a brace to the purlin. Half lap joints are used in roof collars and purlins.
Since it is impossible to insert a morticed and tenoned horizontal member between two posts that are fixed, there must have been a pre-planned order of construction for the main elements. Most of the work in assembly can be done by rope and pulley or perhaps shear legs used as a type of crane. Many of the beams and joists could be carried by two or three men.
It is estimated that as many as three hundred oak trees would have been felled to provide the timber of a cross wing, three bay hall house such as this. For example a small tree of perhaps 10ins diameter (250mm) would provide two rafters measuring 5ins c 3ins (125mm x75mm). A tree of say 24ins diameter (600mm) could have been sawn to form four posts, these would be inverted to enable the thicker length to provide a shoulder to support wall plates and tie beams.
Walls are infilled with panels between frame members of wattle and daub. These are constructed on site or prefabricated. They consist of oak staves about 1in (25mm) thick and slotted into the framework. The staves are held within grooves or a drilled hole. Wattles of hazel, ash, cleft oak or chestnut are then woven in a basket like fashion around them. The panel is then daubed on both sides with a mixture of clay, dung and chopped straw.
Wattle hurdles were also used for fencing, they provided side walls for carts, and when supported on poles lashed together formed scaffolding.
The black and white external finish we are used to seeing today is an 18th century decoration. In earlier days earth colours of red and yellow ochre would have been used, the red ochre being applied to the timber.
The roof we know was covered with Horsham stone slabs. These would have rested on battens of cleft oak or chestnut fixed to the rafters. The slabs were pierced to take pegs or dowels that were then hooked over the batten to stop them sliding away.
There are still many of these stone covered roofs in the town and nearby counties to be seen. The church of St Peter and St Paul, Tanyard House and Stanfords End for example.
It is of interest to think of this house and Edenbridge in the greater context of history and to what extent these events had upon the Hall and its occupants in those early years:
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1381 Wat Tyler led the Peasants’ Revolt in Kent against the collection of poll tax.
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1399 Richard II was deposed and succeeded by Henry VI of the House of Lancaster. (A rose affixed to the jettied cross wing tie beam may have marked this event. Also an unexplained peghole exists in this position.)
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Henry V ascended the throne in 1413 and in 1415 invaded France, defeating them at the battle of Agincourt.
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England lost all French possessions except Calais under Henry VI in 1453.
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The War of the Roses ended in 1471. There is a breakdown of law and order due to civil wars throughout Europe.
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In 1461 Edward VI was crowned king.
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Richard III was killed at Bosworth in 1485 and Henry VIII was crowned King in 1509.
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