Information about Ightham Mote
Ightham Mote (pronounced "item moat") is a medieval moated manor house close to the village of Ightham, near Sevenoaks in Kent (Grid reference: TQ58395346).
The name "mote" derives from "moot", "meeting [place]", rather than referring to the body of water.
Originally dating to around 1320, the building is of note as, after the completion of the quadrangle with a new chapel in the sixteenth century, its successive owners effected relatively few changes to the main structure. It was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1985 by an American businessman, Charles Henry Robinson, who had bought it in 1956. The house is now a Grade I listed building, and parts of it are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
There are over seventy rooms in the house, all arranged around a central courtyard. The house is surrounded on all sides by a square moat, crossed by three bridges. The earliest structures on the site include the Great Hall, the Chapel, Crypt and two Solars. The courtyard was completely enclosed and the battlemented tower constructed in the 15th century. The structures include unusual and distinctive elements, such as the porter's squint, a narrow slit in the wall designed to enable a gatekeeper to examine a visitor's credentials before opening the gate, and a large kennel which was built in the late 19th century for a St. Bernard named Dido. The kennel is the only Grade I listed dog house.
It therefore remains a snapshot of how such houses would have looked in the Middle Ages. Nikolaus Pevsner called it "the most complete small medieval manor house in the country". During the 19th century a female skeleton was found walled up behind a blocked service door.
In 1989 the National Trust began an ambitious restoration project which involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before rebuilding it. The project ended in 2004 after uncovering numerous examples of structural and ornamental features which had been covered up by later additions. It is estimated to have cost in excess of £10million.
Ightham Mote and its gardens are open to the public. |240px|Ightham (
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The name "mote" derives from "moot", "meeting [place]", rather than referring to the body of water.
Description
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Ightham Mote: the gatehouse rebuilt in the 1480s
There are over seventy rooms in the house, all arranged around a central courtyard. The house is surrounded on all sides by a square moat, crossed by three bridges. The earliest structures on the site include the Great Hall, the Chapel, Crypt and two Solars. The courtyard was completely enclosed and the battlemented tower constructed in the 15th century. The structures include unusual and distinctive elements, such as the porter's squint, a narrow slit in the wall designed to enable a gatekeeper to examine a visitor's credentials before opening the gate, and a large kennel which was built in the late 19th century for a St. Bernard named Dido. The kennel is the only Grade I listed dog house.
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The moat of Ightham Mote
In 1989 the National Trust began an ambitious restoration project which involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before rebuilding it. The project ended in 2004 after uncovering numerous examples of structural and ornamental features which had been covered up by later additions. It is estimated to have cost in excess of £10million.
Ightham Mote and its gardens are open to the public.
References
- Christopher Simon Sykes, Ancient English Houses 1240-1612 (London: Chatto & Windus) 1988
External links
- Ightham Mote information at the National Trust
- Time Team, a television programme on the restoration of Ightham Mote
manor house or fortified manor-house is a country house, which has historically formed the centre of a manor (see Manorialism). The term is sometimes applied to relatively small country houses which belonged to gentry families, as well as to grand stately homes,
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Ightham
Ightham ()
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Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks ()
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Kent
Geography
Status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region South East England
Area
- Total
- Admin. council
- Admin.
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Geography
Status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region South East England
Area
- Total
- Admin. council
- Admin.
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The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude.
The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data,
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The Ordnance Survey (OS) devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data,
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National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as The National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust does not operate in Scotland, where there is an independent National Trust for Scotland.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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'listed building' refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance. It is a widely used status, applied to around half a million buildings.
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In the United Kingdom, a Scheduled Monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The protection given to scheduled monuments is separate from the Town and Country Planning system.
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great hall was the main room of a royal palace, a nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries.
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chapel is a holy place or area of worship, sometimes small and attached to a larger institution such as a large church, a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery, sometimes large and unattached to another building.
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crypt (from the Latin crypta and the Greek kryptē) is a stone chamber or vault, usually beneath the floor of a church or castle, usually used as a chapel or burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics of important persons such as saints or
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The solar was a room in many English and French medieval manor houses, great houses and castles. In such houses, the main room was known as the Great Hall, in which all parts of the household would eat and live, with those of highest status being at the end, often on a raised dais,
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St. Bernard Dog is a very large breed of dog originally bred for rescue and as a working dog. A full-grown male can weigh between 100 and 220+ lb and the approximate height is 27.5 inches to 35.5 inches (70 to 90 cm).
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Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.
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Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, (January 30, 1902 – August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture. He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England
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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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