A Winter's tale: I thought I needed a day out, and I came across Ightham Mote near Tonbridge, it is a medieval moated manor house. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county." Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust and are open to the public.
The house is a Grade I listed building, and parts of it are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The first picture was taken by a guide, she was most happy to help and encouraged me to take more pictures, shame the weather was not better. Originally dating to around 1320, the building is important because it has most of its original features; successive owners affected relatively few changes to the main structure, after the completion of the quadrangle with a new chapel in the 16th century.
Pevsner described it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county", and it remains an example that shows how such houses would have looked in the Middle Ages. Unlike most courtyard houses of its type, which have had a range demolished, so that the house looks outward.
Nicholas Cooper observes that Ightham wholly surrounds its courtyard and looks inward, into it, offering little information externally. The construction is of "Kentish ragstone and dull red brick," the buildings of the courtyard having originally been built of timber and subsequently rebuilt in stone.
The house has more than 70 rooms, all arranged around a central courtyard, "the confines circumscribed by the moat." The house is surrounded on all sides by a square moat, crossed by three bridges. The earliest surviving evidence is for a house of the early 14th century, with the Great Hall, to which were attached, at the high, or dais end, the Chapel, Crypt and two Solars. The courtyard was completely enclosed by increments on its restricted moated site, and the battlemented tower was constructed in the 15th century.
Very little of the 14th century survives on the exterior behind rebuilding and re-facing of the 15th and 16th centuries. The House was closed, but the garden was open, it was only £4.50 up to March 2nd with gift aid and the car park was £2 for non-members of the National trust, You can apply for the Scottish National Trust which is cheaper and will allow access to all N.T. Properties in the UK.
A usual Adult ticket is: £13.60 with Gift aid or £12.00 and NT members don't pay for the car park. I didn't eat there as N.T. cafés are expensive. On the way home I saw this Inn and had to take a picture, it's not every day you come across "The Cock Inn", it brings a whole new meaning at "I'm drinking at the cock", it looks like a good old-fashioned Inn, next time I will have stop and enter for a local drink!
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