At The Archbishops’ Palace In Charing

 

In the heart of the Kentish Weald, at the centre of the village of Charing, lies a collection of ancient flint buildings that comprise the remains of a majestic archbishops’ palace dating back to the eighth century. Within the precincts sit a gatehouse, an enormous barn with a soaring timber roof that was once the great hall (where Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon dined in 1520 on their way to meet Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold), a manor house and a stable block.

The romance of these weathered structures of glittering flint from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, riven with medieval stone work, and repaired and extended with Tudor bricks, is spellbinding. This is the particular humane medieval vernacular that inspired Philip Webb and Edwin Lutyens. At Charing, venerable walls enclose a sheltered yard granting the potential to create a garden with deep herbaceous borders and lavender-lined flag-stoned paths. Anyone who loves the gardens at Sissinghurst cannot resist harbouring the desire to create such a horticultural enclave of their own, enfolded by an array of charismatic old stone dwellings – and the opportunity is here and waiting.

For more than five centuries, this was the stopping-off point for archbishops travelling between Canterbury and Lambeth Palace in London, until the Reformation when it was seized by the crown and transferred to private ownership with the great hall reconfigured as a barn and the chapel converted to a manor house. Nestling in a fold of the North Downs, beside the parish church, in the midst of a village abounding in beautiful old houses, this is a place where history passed through and then left it behind, where the residual atmosphere is of peace and tranquillity, enhanced by the benign climate of Kent.

Standing in the loftily proportioned barn, empty today save for the fluttering of doves, and gazing up to the magnificently timbered roof, it is impossible not to succumb to the magic of this hallowed spot. In our troubled times, it grants a sense of proportion to reflect upon how life persists here despite despite the ceaseless turmoil of political history.

The Spitalfields Trust rescued these Grade I-listed buildings from decline, just as they have done with so many over the past half century. They repaired and sold the gatehouse and a cottage as dwellings, to serve as exemplars of what can be done, and now they seek a purchaser or partner to take on the rest.

The fine manor house is habitable, granting a comfortable home to a potential owner and custodian willing to embrace the soul of this favoured corner of Kent while undertaking gentle restoration to the rest of the site. This collection of buildings could provide accommodation for an extended family, just as at Sissinghurst Castle. Equally they offer the possibility for creative reinvention as a location for running a business, an artist’s studio, a micro-brewery, a stables or a smallholding (significant land is attached) – and all just an hour from London.

 

Click here to buy the Archishops’ Palace at Charing in Kent

 

The manor house seen from over the churchyard wall

The manor house

Visualisation of the manor house and yard restored, by Chris Williams

Plaque on the manor indicating conversion to a dwelling after the Reformation

The manor house front door

Inside the manor house

View towards the church from one of the manor house bedrooms

Looking back from the manor house towards the yard

View across the yard towards the manor house and the barn, formerly the great hall

‘Part of an antient Royal Palace at Charing in Kent now used as a barn,’ nineteenth century watercolour (courtesy of British Museum)

The barn

This was the great hall where Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon dined

Visualisation of the barn repaired, looking to the manor house, by Chris Williams

Doves roosting on the barn roof

Medieval windows and door in the barn

Old brick floor inside the outbuilding

Architectural details of the barn

Medieval windows at the barn

Stable block

Inside the stable block

Blocked medieval lancet window in the stable block

Looking downhill to the yard with parish church beyond

The parish church overlooks the yard

The parish church at Charing

Click here to buy the Archishops’ Palace at Charing in Kent