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Doddington Buildings Information Held by English Heritage
Contributed by Peter Stuart

DODDINGTON Church Lane (east side)
Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist
Grade I listed Parish church.
12th Century, extended south c.1200 and 15th Century, restored 1873 and in 1907.
Flint with timber framed and weatherboarded tower and plain tiled roofs. Nave and south aisle, chancel and south chapel, west tower and south porch. West tower on flint base, with 2 early 20th Century weatherboarded upper stages, battlemented, with gothick traceried lights. Buttressed south porch with plain chamfered doorway. 15th Century Perpendicular and 14th Century 'Y' tracery windows in nave and aisle, with 3 lancets in south chapel south wall and 2 large eastern lancets.
Chancel east wall with 3 small lancets with one over. Nave North wall with blocked north door repaired brick buttressing. Exposed tufa quoins and blocked arches in chancel north wall possibly to a lost chapel and tower.

Interior: at the west end of the nave, blocked chamfered west doorway, west window and part blocked re-arch of 12th Century window. Three bay arcade on chamfered arches on square piers. Crown post roofs in nave and aisle. Chancel arch with drip mould arch over on moulded square imposts with attached clustered shafts, with rings and acanthus crockets, the right hand pier with squints to chancel and south chapel. Arch from south aisle to south chapel simple chamfered arch on square imposts. Chancel with 2 bay arcade to chapel, slightly chamfered on round piers with square, moulded abaci. Round headed re-arches to chancel east windows. 15th Century re-arch to north-west window of chancel taken to floor level, blocking earlier lancet, to enclose stone reading desk and aumbry, perhaps a confessional. South chapel, the lancet reveals with drips and double moulded surrounds with attached shafts, carried on string course. South east respond brought to floor level to enclose doorway. Fittings: Chancel with round headed pisina, cusped aumbry 15th Century bench with half-poppy heads used as sedilia, with 15th Century screen to chapel or 22 lights, the end coved to form a canopy over the sedilia; 15th Century wooden reading desk with poppy heads. Octagonal jacobean pulpit, 15th Century octagonal font with 17th Century wood cone cover. Boxpews survive in nave and south chapel, with raised and fielded panelling.

Wall paintings, in chancel on lancet responds large 13th Century figures. Some fragmentary 13th Century glass.

Monuments: South chapel with medieval slabs on floor incised with Latin crosses, 1 with brass inscription to Francis Bourne, d.1615. Wall monument to George Swift, d.1732, of white marble, with grooved Doric pilasters, cornice, with enriched frieze and broken pediment clasping vase. Small black plaque on wall behind pulpit to John Adye, d.1612, with scrolled base and cornice with achievement over. chest tomb . Dated 1756. Stone with marble top, the chest with raised rectangular panels with chamfered corners, and rectangular vases at corners, on double plinth. Inscribed to Edward Bentham, d.1756.

 

DODDINGTON Church Lane (north side)
Slip's Cottage
Grade II listed House. 17th Century.
Timber framed, with main beams exposed, and painted brick infill, with plain tiled roof. Lobby entry plan. Two storeys and hipped roof with central stack. Two wood casements on first floor, three 20th Century oriels on brackets on ground floor, 1 in catslide outshot to left, and central boarded door in gabled porch. Former south Lodge of Sharsted Court.

DODDINGTON Church Lane (east side)
The Old Vicarage
Grade II listed Vicarage, early 19th Century, with 17th Century interior details.
Painted brick and slate roof. Three storeys with verandah with iron posts and traceried arcade and glass roof, and hipped roof with stacks to left and projecting at end right. Five windows on first and second floor, 2 blocked on 2nd floor, the rest metal casements. Two wood casements on ground floor, and half-traceried door with sidelights to left.19th Century and 20th Century extensions to left. 17th Century interior details, including originally a chained library now with the Faversham Society.

DODDINGTON Down Court 
Down Court Farmhouse
Grade II listed Farmhouse. Circa 1800.
Red brick and plain tiled roof. Two storeys on plinth with brick dentil cornice to hipped roof. Three glazing bar sashes on first floor, 1 glazing bar sash and 1 metal casement on ground floor, with central panelled door with rectangular fanlight and flat hood on brackets at top of flight of 5 steps.

DODDINGTON Stuppington Lane (south side)  
Homestall Farmhouse
Grade II listed Hallhouse, now ceiled. 16th Century.
Timber framed and close-studded with plaster infill, with plain tiled roof. L-shaped plan. Two storeys with continuous jetty on dragon post, moulded bressummer and hipped roof stepped down to right end bay, with stacks to right and rear left. Two 4 light wood mullion windows with side-lights on first floor, and one 20th Century oriel with side-lights, one 4 light and one 3 light wood mullioned window on ground floor. End right bay a later addition with one 20th Century wood mullion window each floor. Solid oak door in front centred arched opening to left. Interior: crown post roof; the hall with inserted stack and ceiling (at different level to exterior bresummer). Corner room with 17th Century fielded panelling, moulded ceiling beams, dragon beam, and restored moulded brick fireplace.

DODDINGTON Stuppington Lane (south side)
Stables 30 yards north of Homestall Farmhouse
Grade II listed Stables. 17th Century.
Red brick in Flemish bond and plain tiled roof. One storey and loft on plinth with discontinuous plat band, dentiled cornice and kneelered gables. Two metal casements on first floor, 3 wood casements on ground floor with segmental heads, and half-doors to left and right. Interior: 3 bays, clasped purlin roof on diminished principals with wind bracing. Stabling partitions and brick and tile drained floors remain.

DODDINGTON The Street (north side)
Court Lodge Farmhouse
Grade II listed Farmhouse. 16th Century and early 19th Century.
16th Century (rear) wing: timber framed and exposed, underbuilt with flint and painted brick with plain tiled roof. Lobby entry plan. Two storeys, continuous first floor jetty and roof hipped to left, with stack to centre right. Two blocked wood mullion windows exposed, boarded door to centre right. Front: early 19th Century, painted brick corbelled cornice to hipped roof and stacks to end right and centre rear. Cast iron verandah with corrugated roof. Three wood casements on first floor, 2 on ground floor and central door of 6 panels part glazed with pilaster surround.

DODDINGTON The Street (north side)
Park Cottage
Grade II listed House. Early 19th Century.
Red brick and plain tiled roof. Two storeys on plinth with hipped roof and stacks to left and to right. Three glazing bar sashes to each floor, the central ground floor window a corbelled and hipped oriel. Entry in right return front, a panelled door with Ionic pilasters and cornice hood surrounds. Included for group value with Old Gardens.


DODDINGTON The Street (north side)
The Chequers Inn  
Grade II listed Inn. 17th Century.
Timber framed, part exposed with painted brick infill, part clad with painted brick, with plain tiled roof. Two storeys on plinth with jettied and half-hipped gable. Coved segmental oriel on first floor, and wood casement in brick projection on ground floor with half-glazed door to right under pentice, in angle with 19th Century painted brick and hipped- tiled extension. Left return front: one storey and attic with half-hipped projection to left of 2 storeys on plinth with plat band. One hipped dormer, stacks to centre and to left. Two wood casements in projecting wing on first floor, 4 wood casements on ground floor, that to left in 20th Century extension. Boarded door to centre. Formerly a coach posting station on the old main road from Maidstone to Faversham and Whitstable.

DODDINGTON The Street (north side)
The Old Corner House
Grade II listed House. 18th Century.
Rendered with plain tiled roof. Two storeys with moulded eaves cornice to hipped roof with central stack. Three glazing bar sashes on first floor, 2 on ground floor, and a boarded door to right with flat hood on brackets. Large projecting hipped oriel window on ground floor of right return front.

DODDINGTON The Street (north side)
The Old House  
Grade II listed House. 17th Century and 18th Century.
 Painted brick and plain tiled roof. Lobby entry plan. Two storeys, the first floor recessed to right, the ground floor here of English bold brickwork. Half-hipped roof with stacks at centre and projecting end right. Two wood casements on first floor, 3 on ground floor with leaded lights (1 in a blocked doorway), and plank and stud door in 20th Century 1 window flat roofed extension to left.

DODDINGTON The Street (south side)
Walnut Tree House and Walnut Tree Cottage
Grade II listed House, now 2 houses. 16th Century and clad 18th Century.
Timber framed and clad with rough cast with plain tiled roof. Two storeys and hipped roof with gablets and 2 hipped dormers with stacks to right and projecting end left. Two horizontal sliding sashes on first floor, 2 glazing bar sashes on ground floor and central panelled and glazed door with moulded surrounds and frieze hood. Return front with exposed small panel framing with red brick nogging.

DODDINGTON The Street (north side)  
Yew Tree House (Formerly Yew Tree House and Yew Tree Cottages)
Grade II listed House, now 3 cottages. 16th Century.
Timber framed and exposed with plaster infill, part underbuilt with painted brick, with plain tiled roof. Lobby entry of 4 framed bays. Two storeys on flint plinth with continuous first floor jetty on brackets. Hipped roof with gablets and stacks projecting at end left and end right with ridge stack centre-right, and central barge- boarded gable with pendant. Five wood casements to first floor, 2 on ground floor, with bay window below central gable and at end left. One boarded door and 1 panelled door side by side at centre right. The house was anciently the Court Lodge and of some local importance

DODDINGTON
Bistock Farmhouse
Grade II listed Farmhouse. 16th Century and clad 18th Century.
Timber framed and clad with painted brick to ground floor and plaster to first floor; plain tiled roof. Lobby entry plan. Two storeys with tiled stringcourse, and hipped roof with stack to centre right. Three round-headed Gothick-traceried wood casements on each floor with additional stair-light to centre right over 20th Century plank and stud door with flat hood. Timber frame is exposed on left return and rear fronts.

 

DODDINGTON
Doddington Place with 4/6 outbuildings and garden terraces
Grade II listed House. 1870 for Sir John Croft by Trollope.
Red brick and plain tiled roof. Irregular plan with projecting gables and asymmetrical service wing. Two storeys and attic on plinth, with rusticated quoins, moulded string course and cornice to 2 shaped gables on each front. One stone mullioned window to each floor in each gable with projecting balustraded segmental bays on ground floor. Gothic traceried door with mullioned side-lights in projecting 1 storey battlemented porch on north front. Outbuildings: around courtyard to north east, red brick and plain tile, 1 storey with heavy moulded details and dogtooth cornice to steeply pitched hipped roofs with kneelered and projecting gables. To south and south east of the House an Ha ha 13 feet in height, of brick with flint panels, 100 yards in length, running into terraced garden to south east, with red brick walls, 7 feet in length with arcaded upper section, raised corner sections, and flight of brick steps leading out into gardens.

DODDINGTON
Little Sharsted Farmhouse 
Grade II listed Hallhouse, now farmhouse. 15th Century and clad 17th Century - 19th Century.
Timber framed and clad with 19th Century chequered brick to left with plaster and applied timbers on first floor, and 17th Century brickwork in English bond to right; plain tiled roof. Two storeys with plinth to right and hipped roof with stacks at end left and to centre right. Three wood casements with diamond-leaded lights on first floor, and 2 19th Century oriels on brackets on ground floor, that to right with projecting 17th Century brick base. Central boarded door in gabled porch with side- lights. Rear front has 9-light brick and plaster mullioned window.

DODDINGTON BISTOCK
Old Thatch
Grade II listed Hall house now house. 15th Century.
Timber framed and exposed with plaster infill on flint plinth with thatched roof. One storey and attic with end-jetty to right, and hipped roof with 2 tiled and gabled oriel dormers, that to left with coved base, that to right with segmental base. Projecting stack at end left, and ridge stack to right centre. Two wood casement windows on ground floor, and central oriel. Boarded door with rectangular fanlight and flat hood to centre right.

DODDINGTON
Sharsted Court  
Grade I listed House. 14th Century to 17th Century, remodelled 1711 (dated on rainwater heads) and extended 1880's and c.1911.
Red brick and plain tiled roofs, with timber framed wings to rear clad with red brick and flint and flint rubble plastered gable also to rear. The work of 1711 encased and maintained the plan of a 14th Century hall house with 2 cross-wings, the rear gable of the service wing survives, extended to enclose staircase. Chalk and flint walls survive to interior of hall.

To the rear of this were added 2 timber framed ranges late 14th Century, extended and remodelled 16th Century - early 20th Century to form a double courtyard, now opened by demolition of enclosing (south-east) 20th Century range. Entrance front (north-west):two storeys and attic on plinth with plat band, raised in centre, projecting wings to left and right with wide modillion eaves cornices to hipped roofs, and dormer in each wing with heavy segmental pediment. The left wing with comtemporary 1 bay extension and separately hipped, with stack at end left, and 2 projecting stacks at end right. Recessed centre rising to battlements with central wooden belfry with ogee cupola. Regular fenestration of 7 glazing bar sashes on first floor, 3 to left, 2 to right and 2 centre with central blocked window space, and 3 glazing bar sashes to left on ground floor, 2 cross-windows to right, and 2 double height glazing bar sashes to centre.

All windows with exposed frames, gauged heads and aprons. Central double three-quarter glazed doors in projecting and battlemented porch, with Corinthian pilasters, pulvinated and enriched frieze, and segmental pediment containing crest of winged demi-bull rampant. To right, early 20th Century ballroom, 1 storey, 2 glazing bar sashes, double span hipped roof. Left return front: 18th Century wing extends for 4 window bays (glazing bar sashes) and ends in banqueting room added c.1911 with 2 hipped dormers. Rear: 3 projecting ranges, to left 16th Century remodelled in 19th Century, timber clad brick and flint; to centre 17th Century timber framed range with red brick infill, 2 storeys, plinth,with plat band and 3 wood casements on each floor;to right, the rear of the 20th Century banqueting hall. To left on rear wall of main range is flint and rubble plastered gable, 2 storeys and garret, with kneelered parapet and irregular fenestration of 19th Century mullioned windows. Interior: a complex house. Crown post roofs survive in the two 14th Century rear wings, the crown posts braced to arched tie beams.

The house was divided in 1374 to allow for a widow's dower house, including a range at "the west end of the south side of the Great Chamber" and "a new Chamber at the East side with cellars built under the same". This corresponds exactly to the 2 timber framed ranges (the easterly with cellar) either side of the surviving gable of the "Great Chamber". The western range is extended by a range countinuously jettied towards the courtyard, but visible only inside the building. Two storey hall at present undecorated, leading from it the Grand Staircase of 1711, spiral balusters around an open well, with renewed moulded handrail and acorn newel heads, and original bolection moulded panelling. Back stairs with turned balusters, dog leg with half landing plan, headed by doorway with keyed arch on imposts. Newel staircase reversing direction of twist at half flight leads to attic. Heavy screen of c.1600 to cellar stairs with turned baluster ornament. 17th Century panelling survives in some upstairs rooms and re-used in 20th Century ballroom. Panelling of c.1711, designed in some cases for specific paintings and tapestries (now sold) survives in most state rooms and main bedrooms, as do 18th Century and early 19th Century fireplaces. The hall and library retain 1711 beamed and plastered ceilings; the drawing room and banquet room with 20th Century plastered ceiling, the ballroom with wooden ceiling of geometric panels. The work of 1711 was carried out for Colonel William Delaune, M.P.

DODDINGTON Sharsted Court
Garden gates, piers and walls at Sharsted Court.
Grade II listed Garden gates and walls. 18th Century and late 19th Century.
Wrought iron gates and brick and flint walls. The main gates south west of Sharsted Court are 18th Century, re-erected here in 1882. Double carriage gates to the drive, with brick piers crested by winged bulls. Either side are pedestrian gates with elaborate overthrows, with brick piers crested by winged lions. The garden wall is here recessed towards the gates. A second 18th Century pedestrian gate with overthrow to north west of house, opposite main door, as an entrance to walled yew garden. The gardens comprise of a series of walled enclosures and terraces with an enclosing boundary wall, some 18th Century walling survives, but most is 19th Century, brick and flint, arcaded around terraces and walled gardens. There are several brick gates dated from 1877 to 1900, and a small conical summerhouse to the north of flint (built into the wall).

DODDINGTON Sharsted Court
Gardener's Cottage 100 yards north of Sharsted Court
Grade II listed Cottage. Late 19th Century.
Red brick and timber framed with plaster infill with plain tiled roof. Two storeys with end jetty to right, bargeboarded gable to left and double central stacks to front and rear. Mullioned window with balcony on first floor to left, with gable, supported on attached shafts rising through both storeys, with mullioned oriel on brackets on ground floor below. Boarded door to right with pendant and bargeboard gabled porch. Oriel window on right return front.

DODDINGTON Sharsted Court
Gazebo 50 yards south west of Sharsted Court  
Grade II listed Gazebo.
1711 for Colonel William Delaune. Red brick and plain tile roof. Square plan. One storey and hipped roof with I glazing bar sash with shutters in each side except the north-east, which has double doors of 4 panels.each, at head of flight of 5 steps. The gazebo stands on a terrace with a round-arched entrance to tunnel below it, and low arcaded brick walls around it in part late 19th Century, with ball finials on piers.