Surrey Homes | SH30 | April 2017 |Gardens supplement inside

Above: The front reception room’s sunken fireplace was
apparently the only warm place to sit. “My theory is, that the
man who did all the work in the 1930s raised the floor – making
the fireplace appear sunken,” says Jane. Left: The hall curtains
were made from fabric bought from Bell House Fabrics &
Interiors in Cranbrook and sewn by LilyMatthews
face north. The building was then divided in the 19th century to
create two cottages but turned back into a single dwelling in the
1930s. Today it is much larger than the hall house it replaced.
When Jane and Peter bought the house in 1984, much of the
work that had been carried out in the 1930s remained, as some
of it does today: “It had been radically altered; they built a lot of
walls and dug out ponds and did all sorts of things. But overall,
they gave it a lot of love.” It featured in Country Life during
the 1930s, which would suggest that the restoration and work
on the garden was of some note, though not all of the work
was to Jane and Peter’s taste, however: “He built on an awful
kitchen wing, which we have since knocked down,” says Jane.
In its place, they built an extension which is now home
to a living-room-cum-snug on the ground floor with a huge
spare bedroom overhead. As with the kitchen extension,
the living room and upstairs bedroom join seamlessly
with the older structure: “We got nice old bricks from
Symonds Salvage at Bethersden – and the floor over there
is made from the ceiling of a railway station,” says Jane,
pointing to their old dining area, next to the kitchen.
Despite being such an old house, and in some ways a typical
Wealden timber-framed building, it is surprisingly light
inside with large rooms and relatively high ceilings. “It’s quite
surprising, isn’t is?” says Jane. “Friends say it has a slightly
Tuscan feel about it.” I am eager to see more, and Jane has
promised to show us the oldest room in the house – the only
part of the house that survived the fire in the 17th century.
The room – next to the open-plan kitchen, dining room
and living room area – acts as a formal dining room and
wealdentimes.co.uk
98