Milgate House, previously Milgate Park, is an

English 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 Thurnham near

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 ...

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 ...

. The oldest parts of the house were constructed in the mid to late 16th century and alterations and additions were made in the 17th and 18th centuries. 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 ...

History

During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Milgate estate was owned by the Coloigne or Coluney family. It was sold to the Stonehouse family in the later 15th century who passed it around 1560 to Sir Thomas Fludd (''d''. 1607), a courtier to

Queen 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 ...

. It was probably Sir Thomas who had Milgate House built. Physician

Robert Fludd Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus (17 January 1574 – 8 September 1637), was a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is remembered as an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologis ...

, his seventh child, was born there in 1574. A second Thomas Fludd, son of the first, sold the house to William Cage in 1624. The house remained in the Cage family during the remainder of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century. At the end of the 17th century, it was owned by William Cage, three times member of parliament for

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, who carried out extensive alterations. His son, Lewis Cage, also altered the house in the 1760s. In the mid 19th century, the house became the property of Sir Brook Bridges on his marriage to Fanny Cage. By 1900, the house was owned by Walter Fremlin of the local Fremlins' brewing family. Following his death in 1925, most of the estate was sold off in lots. The house and the residual estate then passed through various hands. By the late 1960s, only remained with the house. In the 1970s, the house was the home of

Lady Caroline Blackwood Lady Caroline Blackwood (16 July 1931 – 14 February 1996) was an English writer, and the eldest child of the 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness. Active in the literary world through her journalism an ...

and

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...

Building

The house is approached from the north. The main entrance is in the centre of the north wing which was constructed with the left return wing in the early 18th century as an L-shaped addition to the earlier house. Further additions were made in the mid and late 18th century. The red brick north wing is two storeys high with an

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

and is seven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

wide with the three centre bays projecting slightly. The left return (east end) of the north wing is four bays wide. Large sash windows on both floors of each are framed with decorative gauged brickwork. The central projection of the north wing is topped by a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

containing an oval

Oeil-de-boeuf An ''oeil-de-boeuf'' (; en, "bull's eye"), also ''œil de bœuf'' and sometimes anglicized as ''ox-eye window'', is a relatively small elliptical or circular window, typically for an upper storey, and sometimes set in a roof slope as a do ...

window and the main door in its centre is flanked by

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and

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 ...

with the initials "WC". The pitched roof is tiled and contains a

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

window each side of the central pediment. A two-storey mid 18th-century bay extends the right return (west end) of the north wing. Behind the north wing are three earlier two-storey wings dating from the mid or late 16th century surrounding a central courtyard. The structures are believed to be timber framed although the brick façades were refaced in the late 17th century or early 18th century. The pitched roofs contain dormers on each of the three sides – two to the west side and three each to the east and the south sides. The east and west wings are six bays long and the south seven bays. A large chimney stack with four chimneys forms the right end of the west wing.

References

{{reflist Borough of Maidstone Grade I listed houses in Kent Country houses in Kent

History

Building

See also

References