Cherie's Place » Ightham Mote

Architecture 100 :: 30 – Ightham Mote

CherryPie — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:44:50 +0000

My previous posts on Ightham Mote can be found here.

Ightham Mote – Gardens and Grounds

CherryPie — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:22:39 +0000

I think with all the snow and chilliness that we have been having recently I need to remind everyone of warmer days. We do have more snow forecast overnight, but we have been told we couldn’t use that as an excuse for missing the last session of our Business Excellence Course at work (not that I wanted to miss it).

So without further ado some garden views from Ightham Mote.

Ightham Mote – Inner Courtyard

CherryPie — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:15:46 +0000

The inner courtyard of Ightham Mote is a good place to explore the history of the building because you can see features from all its different periods. In the centre of the courtyard is a well head which now serves as a fountain. There is also an appropriately half-timbered Grade I listed dog kennel which was built in 1891 for the Colyer-Fergussons St Benard dog.

I was asked to crouch down and pose for a photo in front of the kennel, I declined. Can you blame me?

Ightham Mote Outer Courtyard

CherryPie — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:48:07 +0000

This is a view of the cottages at Ightham Mote, they face the West Front of the house where the Tower is situated. They are half timbered and were originally thought to be Elizabethan, but now the timbers have dated them to around 1475.

At first constructed entirely of wood and plaster, the ground floor was rebuilt in stone and brick more than a century later, when the dovecote was added as an important source of food for the house, like the fish in the lakes and moat. The buildings once formed a complete outer courtyard, primarily for stabling, and were converted into staff quarters in Victorian time.

A serious fire destroyed part of the quadrangle and this is all that remains. The whole range of five cottages has been conserved and is used as staff cottages, private lets and a holiday cottage.

Ightham Mote

CherryPie — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:56:51 +0000

This is one of the properties I visited on my weekend away in October. I know I promised gardens but I thought I would share pictures of the property itself first.

Ightham Mote is a wonderfully quaint manor house and has been standing for over 650 years. A visit there is like stepping back in time. The house has been altered many times over the years which isn’t really obvious from the outside but once you step inside it is a lesson in social history.

Over the years it has had around thirty different owners the last being Charles Henry Robinson (from Portland Maine, USA) who was a bachelor, so to preserve the house he donated it to the National Trust in 1985.

These pictures show the outside of the main building which is built round a courtyard.

Oh all right then, I couldn’t resist just a few flowers to whet your appetite, although I still haven’t decided whether to show you the inner courtyard or the grounds and gardens next.

Cherie’s Place – Thought for the Week

CherryPie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:45:41 +0000

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson