Boughton Monchelsea Place, previously Boughton Court, is a 16th-century
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
in
Boughton Monchelsea
Boughton Monchelsea is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The civil parish lies on a ragstone ridge situated between the North Downs and the Weald of Kent and has commonly been called Quarry Hills. The vi ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England. The first part of the house was built by Robert Rudston circa 1567–75 on the site of an earlier manor house. It has been modified a number of times during its history achieving its present form in 1819. It has been a home to a number of members of parliament for
Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...
or for Kent, including
Sir Francis Barnham (owner 1613–46),
Sir Robert Barnham (1646–85)
Sir Barnham Rider (1698–1728) and
Thomas Rider (1805–47).
The house sits on a south facing slope giving views across the extensive
deer park and the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
beyond. Kitchen gardens to the north of the house remain as remnants of 16th-century formal garden planting. The house is a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and its barn is listed Grade II. The parks and gardens are listed Grade II.
History
Prior to the sixteenth century, the
manor of Boughton Monchelsea passed by marriage or sale through the ownership of several families of minor gentry. From 1214, the manor was in the possession of the Hougham family. On the death of Robert de Hougham in 1317, it passed to his daughter Benedicta, wife of John de Shelving. On her death in 1349 without a male heir, the manor was divided between her daughters Helen and Joan.
The portion of the manor of which the Boughton Monchelsea Place estate was part passed to Joan de Shelving's husband John Brampton. The estate then passed to his daughter Benedicta, wife of Thomas Towne, and to her daughter Benedicta, wife of William Watton. Around 1460, Watton sold the estate to Reginald Peckham who recombined the two parts of the manor. On the death of Peckham's grandson Thomas Peckham in 1521, the manor was left to his daughter. Her husband quickly sold the estate to
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Sir Thomas Wyatt (150311 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was ...
.
[
His son, Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger, sold the estate to Robert Rudston in 1551.] Following Rudston's involvement in Wyatt's rebellion against Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...
, he was fortunate to be reprieved from a death sentence, though his estate was confiscated by the Crown.[ It was restored to him when ]Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
came to the throne in 1558.[ Rudston had the first parts of the current house built circa 1567–75 as an extension to an earlier house to the west.]
Rudston's son Isaac next owned the house. On his death without a son, he left the house to his brother Belknap Rudston, who, on his death in 1613, left it to Sir Francis Barnham, several times member of parliament for Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...
.[ Sir Francis's son Sir Robert Barnham next occupied the house, taking the manor's name as his ]territorial designation
In the United Kingdom, a territorial designation follows modern peerage titles, linking them to a specific place or places. It is also an integral part of all baronetcies. Within Scotland, a territorial designation proclaims a relationship with ...
when created a baronet in 1663. Sir Robert served as MP for Maidstone in the Convention Parliament of 1660 and in the Cavalier Parliament
The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...
from 1661 to 1679.[ His son Francis predeceased him and, on his death around 1685, the estate was inherited by his daughter Philadelphia Barnham, wife of Thomas Rider.][
Thomas Rider was MP for Maidstone in 1690 and from 1696 to 1698. He carried out a number of alterations to the house and its grounds between 1685 and 1690.][ Following his death in 1698, the estate was inherited by his son Sir Barnham Rider, MP for Maidstone from 1722 to 1727, and then his son, Thomas Rider. The second Thomas Rider left the house to his cousin Ingram Rider in 1786.][ In 1805, Ingram Rider left it to his son Thomas Rider, MP for ]Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
and West Kent
Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation.
Prehistoric Kent
Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Fordwich and Swanscombe attest. The Swanscombe sku ...
from 1831 to 1835. The third Thomas Rider rebuilt parts of the house and extended and re-landscaped the park.[ On his death in 1847, he left the house to his nephew, also Thomas Rider, who let the house to a series of tenants. From 1903 to 1998, the house was occupied by the Winch family, firstly as leaseholders then, from 1960, as freeholders. The Winches sold the house in 1998; it remains in private ownership and belongs to the Kendrick family.][
]
Buildings
The two-storey L-shaped main house forms the east and south sides of a courtyard with single-storey stables forming the north and west sides. To the south-west of the house, is a second, larger courtyard flanked on its west side by a large barn and on its north and south by single storey return wings.
The house is the remainder of a former courtyard house built for Robert Rudston circa 1567–75 as an extension to an earlier, pre-16th-century house. It is built of Kentish ragstone
Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones that are quarried in thin pieces, such as Horsham Stone, sandstone, Yorkshire stone, and the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. Near London ...
, roughly coursed on the north half of the east range and more regularly coursed on the south half of the east range and on the south range. The centre of the east range features a two-storey porch
A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...
with galleted stonework on the upper level. The roof is of plain clay tiles, stone gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
d at the north end of the east range but otherwise hipped, with four stone gabled dormers on the east façade and five smaller ones on the south façade.[ A ]frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
band with cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
and moulded stone base runs above the first floor windows on the east façade but is not repeated on the south, where only a moulded string course appears. Battlements
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
were added to the eaves on both façades in 1819 as part of the third Thomas Rider's works.[
Windows on the east façade are rectangular with eight windows at ground floor and five at first floor, all with ]gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
frames. On the south façade, the ground floor windows are taller with a number being two- and three-lighted and stone framed. A chamfered two-storey bay is located slightly to the right of centre. Windows on the first floor are simpler and less tall.[ The 1819 works also included the demolition and replacement of the north and west ranges and substantial rebuilding of the south range. The north range is built up in red and grey brick from the stone walls of the demolished range. The west range is surmounted by a 17th-century clock turret relocated from the south range when that was rebuilt. The bell is dated 1647.][
]
Internally, the south range includes three 16th- or early-17th-century stone fireplaces that have probably been reused from the earlier house. The north room of the attic floor and principal room on the first floor include 16th- or early-17th-century timber panelling. The room over the entrance hall features late-17th-century panelling. Two period staircases feature; one from each of the 16th and 17th centuries. The windows in the entrance hall and north room of the east range include armorial
A roll of arms (or armorial) is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms.
The oldest extant armorials date to the mid-13th centur ...
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
windows dated 1567, 1567 and 1575. The stairwell includes windows with 17th-century German stained glass taken from the adjacent church of St Peter and other, undated stained glass.[
The timber-framed western barn was constructed in the 15th or early 16th century with an extension or alternations made at the north end in the late 18th or early 19th century. The walls are constructed in a combination of methods – stone walling, weatherboarding or brick infill between timber studs. The steeply pitched plain tiled roof contains six dormers on the west side and one on the east side and is hipped with a gablet to the south end and half-hipped to the north end. A carriage entry passes through the centre of the barn. A single-storey extension runs at a right angle to the south end of the east side, probably built in the 16th century. The two-storey extension to the east side of the north end is lower than the main barn with a half-hipped roof.]
The house and courtyard buildings are Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s.[ The barn is listed Grade II.][ Within the grounds are a ]sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
, a mounting block A mounting block, horse block, carriage stone, or in Scots a loupin'-on stane is an assistance for mounting and dismounting a horse or cart.
Usage and locations
Mounting blocks were especially useful for women riding sidesaddle or pillion, that ...
and a stone arch, each Grade II listed.
Park
The house sits in grounds of approximately on a south-facing escarpment giving views south and east across the Weald. The formal entrance is north-west of the house, which is approached through woodland along a drive of approximately . Immediately to the east and south of the house are open lawns. To the north of the house are three enclosed gardens, two of which are arranged as kitchen garden
The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...
s. These are remnants of a 16th-century formal garden scheme which was removed and replaced by informal landscaping during the third Thomas Rider's tenure. The steeply sloping ground to the south and south-east of the house is maintained as a deer park with a lake about south-east of the house.[
The estate is private property and is not usually open to the public, but the ]Greensand Way
The Greensand Way is a long-distance path of in southeast England, from Haslemere in Surrey to Hamstreet in Kent. It follows the Greensand Ridge along the Surrey Hills and Chart Hills. The route is mostly rural, passing through woods, and a ...
long-distance walk crosses the parkland east–west to the north of the house.
See also
*St Peter's Church, Boughton Monchelsea
St Peter's Church is a parish church in Boughton Monchelsea, Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, an ...
; neighbouring church
*Boughton Place
Boughton Place, formerly Bocton Place or Bocton Hall, is a country house in Boughton Malherbe, Kent, England. It is the historic home of the Wotton family and birthplace of Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639), ambassador to Venice under James I.
H ...
in nearby Boughton Malherbe
*Grade I listed buildings in Maidstone
There are 42 Grade I listed buildings in Maidstone. The Borough of Maidstone is a local government district in the English county of Kent. The district covers a largely rural area of between the North Downs and the Weald with the town ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
{{reflist
External links
Boughton Monchelsea Place
Boughton Place
Borough of Maidstone
Grade I listed buildings in Kent
Grade II listed buildings in Kent
Country houses in Kent
Grade I listed houses