History of The Old Stables, Great Oaks House in the village of Shipbourne, Kent

Great Oaks House has humble origins. Many large Estates owned a great number of small farms that were leased out to gentlemen farmers (yeomen). The property known as Clay Gate Farm was one of them. It comprised a fifteenth century oak-beamed farmhouse with farm buildings, an oast, stables, yards and gardens with arable fields, meadows, pasture and orchards beyond. Great Oaks House was originally these farm buildings.

The earliest part of Great Oaks is a two storey, one-up, one-down building which has a small fireplace, low ceilings and small windows on the ground floor - in line with early Georgian buildings of the time – and a room with a sloping attic ceiling on the first floor. A brick found in roof of this Georgian portion of Great Oaks House is dated 1723. (George I reigned 1727-1760) A group of three timber weather-boarded sheds – one of them a cow byre – may also date from this period or even earlier.

At the other end of the house was a square oast for drying hops – a design typical of Kent – on two floors. Attached was a cow shed with a hayloft above all reached by a narrow curving staircase. The construction of the cow shed is timber frame with lathe and plaster infill. This remains today. The tall square oast roof was not replaced when it fell into disrepair and a pitched apex roof replaced it. The oast became a dining room and the cow shed became a kitchen, all with bedrooms above.

It is believed that after 1844 the farm buildings belonging to Clay Gate Farm were extended and upgraded to provide more comfortable accommodation for the tenants. The entrance hall and the main drawing room have tall ceilings commensurate with the mid-Victorian period (Queen Victoria reigned 1837-1901) and windows and chimney-pieces of that period. In the bedrooms above there are also cast-iron Victorian fire grates. It is possible that it was in the 1860’s – when the famous architect Norman Shaw initiated a Queen Anne revivalist style of architecture – that the tall chimney stacks and ‘Dutch’ gables on the Garden front were added to modernize and gentrify the house then known as Oak Lodge. A plan from the early 20th century shows a conservatory on the Garden Front and this has now been re-created.

It was also during the 19th century that the timber weather-board stables were built – now known as The Old Stables. Attached to the house was a covered way leading to the Garden Front of the house with a doorway into the oldest part of the house. (At a later stage this was enclosed and used for storage, then sleeping accommodation and it is now the double bedroom). Adjoining it was a loose-box - with a stable door and small window (now the washroom and kitchen) - and a taller area for storing the horse trap (now the living area) and above, a hay-loft (now the attic bedroom).

In the mid 20th century, ‘Oak Lodge with stables, now Oak Cottage’, was described for the purpose of ‘listing’ (it was listed Grade III at the time but this category was later dispensed with) as:

‘19th century. Painted rendered elevations. 2 storeys. 3-window façade with 2-storey addition to the right. Casements. Centre half-glazed and panelled double doors. Ground floor with projecting tiled hood forming covered veranda with trellis supports. Ridge tile roof. Projecting 2-storey gabled stable wing to left and various additions to rear incorporating old farm building. Long 2-storey stable wing to right with pantile roof.’

There is clear evidence that there was a covered veranda to the façade, but it was removed at some stage and now there is only a covered porch above the double doors. These are no longer glazed but obviously a pair of Victorian panelled doors from a church or school house. The lock is much older.

In the 1960’s the property was sold by the Fairlawn Estate. It has been owned by three families since. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the old stables were used by the children of the house as accommodation. There was a playroom complete with kitchenette, a shower-room and sleeping areas. Subsequently, with the children grown, the old stables were upgraded to provide self-catering holiday accommodation
 

Fairlawn and Shipbourne Village.

Fairlawn (Fairlawne Estate) is best known as the family home of the Vane family. Sir Henry Vane became Governor of Massachusetts in 1636 but was imprisoned in The Tower of London and executed in 1662 for conspiracy during the Civil War years. He is buried in Shipbourne Village Church. Fairlawn farms most of the land in Shipbourne and, at one time, employed most of those that lived in the village.

The village church of St. Giles was built in the Victorian period - on the site of a far more beautiful one - when the Cazalet family owned Fairlawn and sought to ‘modernize’ the village architecture. Edward Cazalet was for many years the trainer of the Queen mother’s horses.

Apart from the church the village has two pubs, a primary school and a village hall but none of the original shops are still trading. There is a population of approximately 400. The Village Green is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest as many wild flowers grow there and it is cut as a hay crop. It is unusual in that it is domed at the centre and one cannot see across it from one side to the other. The Green and the centre of the village, is a conservation area.

The Old Stables - Great Oaks House, Shipbourne, Nr Tonbridge, Kent. TN11 9RX