Otham Manor, previously known as Wardes, is a late 14th-century manor house in

Otham Otham is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 523, with 204 dwellings. Buildings The village itself has been in existence since before the time of the ...

, Kent. The house was built in the late 14th century, probably around 1370, and was altered and extended in the 16th century. It is a L-shaped two-storey

timber-frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples w ...

; the north wing being the older part and the south wing being from the 16th century. The north wing has jettied bays at each end; the western bay having been rebuilt. The clay tiled

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus ...

is steeply pitched with a

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 aest ...

to the south end of the south wing. Internally the roof structure is exposed with tie beams and

king post A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above f ...

. The house was restored in 1912 by Sir

Louis du Pan Mallet Sir Louis du Pan Mallet (10 July 1864 – 8 August 1936) was a British diplomat who was Ambassador to Turkey at the outbreak of World War I. Career Louis du Pan Mallet was the third son of Sir Louis Mallet, a British civil servant. He was educ ...

who added an extension to the west side of the southern wing. The whole 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 I ...

. The Listing described the mansion as a "GV I House, formerly cottages, now house. Late C14 with C16 alterations and additions". The estate was in a state of "semi-dereliction by the early 1990s" according to

Country Life (magazine) ''Country Life'' is a British weekly perfect-bound glossy magazine that is published by Future plc. It was based in London at 110 Southwark Street until March 2016, when it became based in Farnborough, Hampshire. History ''Country Life'' ...

. It was subsequently restored by new owners and listed for sale in 2019.The beautiful Grade I-listed 650-year-old manor house and gardens which survived dereliction twice, now lovingly restored
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References

{{reflist

External links

Images of Wardes from 1917
National Monument Record:ViewFinder,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Otham: Otham Manor
Image of the stained glass window Borough of Maidstone Grade I listed houses in Kent

See also

References

External links